The Network Drive Desktop Icons
macOS has a long history of treating the Desktop as a literal representation of your mounted workspace. By default, whenever you successfully connect to a remote server—whether that is a corporate SMB file share, a local NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive, or another Mac sharing files via AFP—macOS automatically generates a shortcut icon for that specific server and places it directly on your desktop wallpaper. This is intended to give you quick, visual confirmation that the connection was successful and provides an easy target to double-click to browse the remote files.
However, if you work in an enterprise environment where you routinely mount five or six different department servers simultaneously, or if you use an automated script to mount multiple NAS volumes upon login, your desktop will quickly become overwhelmed with network drive icons. Because these connected servers are already neatly listed under the “Locations” section in the sidebar of every Finder window, having them permanently plastered across your wallpaper is completely redundant. If you want a clean desktop, you should disable this automatic icon placement.
How to Hide Connected Servers on the Desktop
You can prevent macOS from creating desktop shortcuts for network drives via the Finder Settings.
- Click on any empty space on your Desktop to ensure Finder is the active application (you should see “Finder” in the top-left menu bar).
- Click on Finder in that top menu bar, then select Settings… (or Preferences).
- In the Settings window, ensure you are on the General tab.
- Look for the section titled “Show these items on the desktop:”.
- Locate the checkbox labelled Connected servers.
- Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
- Close the Settings window.
Any network drives currently mounted will immediately vanish from your desktop. Moving forward, you will need to open a standard Finder window to browse your server connections.