I've already looked a round on this forum for a solution, but the only thread I found doesn't have one.
Basically my desktop icons rearrange themeselves every time I login.
I've already tried to backup the icons on shutdown/logout by replacing the launcher on the panel with the script:

#!/bin/sh
mkdir -p ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak
cp - f ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/* ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak
xfce4-session-logout

and this is working, but I haven't managed to automatically restore them when the session starts.
I tried adding this script to the list of programs executed on login:

#!/bin/sh
sleep 20
cp - f ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak/* ~/.config/xfce4/desktop
xfdesktop --reload

I know the script is being executed because I can see the desktop reloading after 20 seconds, and I know that if I launch the script manually it does its job.
Still, it doen't properly restore the icons positions if it's automatically executed (I really can't understand why!).

Am I the only one whose icons keep moving?
Is there a way to fix this issue (either by preventing them to move, by fixing my scripts or by some other means)?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can share some ideas

I had the same problem, I found this works for me, a slight change to your script.

I added this to my logout/shutdown script

mkdir -p ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak
xfdesktop --reload; sleep .5; cp -f ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/* ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak/

This script to my Startup directory, I know it looks weird, but if I don't call on xfdesktop --reload to begin with, I need to run the script twice to refresh the desktop
and the sleep statements are needed also for it to function correctly.

#!/bin/sh
xfdesktop --reload; sleep .5; cp -f ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak/* ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/; sleep .5; xfdesktop --reload

Hope it's of some help.

Btw, is the desktop drawing speed (or slowness) an issue for anybody else?

Yes.  But since I no longer have many desktop icons, it's not much of a problem.

Ahhhh, I see. I just tried out your scripts in a 4.10 VM and they worked fine - in that the icon locations restored after the 20 second delay. I did notice an error in your script (space between "-" and "f" in the copy command), but it still worked regardless.

What version of Xfce are you using?

I'm using 4.10 from the archlinux repo.

The space between "-" and "f" is just a typo I made while rewriting the script in my first post, it's not there in the real script.
It kind of works for me too, but it only restores about 80% of the icons (lots of icons on the desktop).
I'll try to further increase the delay to something like 30 seconds (it's an old laptop, it takes it a lot of time to draw all the icons on the desktop, maybe after 20 seconds it's not really finished yet)
Btw, is the desktop drawing speed (or slowness) an issue for anybody else? Not only does it take a lot of time to load the icons in the first place, but the re-drawing, when moving windows over it, it's slow as well...

The problem is that making the files immutable won't allow me to add or move files on the desktop in the future.
Since I'm not the one who will be using this computer, I need it to behave properly without needing the user to take any particular action.

Ahhhh, I see. I just tried out your scripts in a 4.10 VM and they worked fine - in that the icon locations restored after the 20 second delay. I did notice an error in your script (space between "-" and "f" in the copy command), but it still worked regardless.

What version of Xfce are you using?

sudo chattr +i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

This way, none of the changes will be saved/reverted and on every login, the icons should revert to their saved locations. If they are shuffled during operations, a simple "xfdesktop --reload" should reset them.

Note that if you want to permanently move icon locations, you will have to run:

sudo chattr -i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

...to make the files writeable again.

#!/bin/sh
mkdir -p ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak
cp - f ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/* ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak
xfce4-session-logout

and this is working, but I haven't managed to automatically restore them when the session starts.
I tried adding this script to the list of programs executed on login:

#!/bin/sh
sleep 20
cp - f ~/.config/xfce4/desktop.bak/* ~/.config/xfce4/desktop
xfdesktop --reload

I know the script is being executed because I can see the desktop reloading after 20 seconds, and I know that if I launch the script manually it does its job.
Still, it doen't properly restore the icons positions if it's automatically executed (I really can't understand why!).

Am I the only one whose icons keep moving?
Is there a way to fix this issue (either by preventing them to move, by fixing my scripts or by some other means)?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can share some ideas