Dock disappeared on OS X 10.5.8

My dock suddenly disappeared, I went to System Preferences, opened the Dock window and set it as I normally do and it still won't come out...how do I make it come back???

Hello fje9,
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
Have you tried a simple reboot of your Mac yet?
If still no luck, you may want to check to see how many items are in your downloads folder. If you have large files such as larger photo images and such, try removing them from this folder to another location on your Mac. Several users who have reported a missing dock were able to bring things back to normal by emptying out their Downloads folder.
Or you may need to trash your Mac's Dock preference files. Locate and trash the com.apple.dock.plist and com.apple.dock.db files that can be found at /username/Library/Preferences* and then reboot your Mac.
B-rock

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My dock disappears when I am using Word. How can I get it back on the screen?

My dock disappears when I am using Word. How can I get it back on the screen? Thanks very much.
Bill

You may have blundered into "Full Screen" mode, an abomination ported from iOS, the iPhone Operating System, land of tiny screens and one-at-a-time Applications.
Try clicking the double-arrows in the extreme upper right of the MenuBar or Window.

4 questions: at login black rectangular box, appears and speaks- 2 annoying black box over text- 3 bluetooth doesnt always pick up keyboard/mouse at login- 4 dock disappears and reappears at will

Here we go,
1) at login a black rectangular box with white text appears and voice over seems to be on (even though its switched off)
2) after login an annoying black square surrounds the cursor
3) upon waking computer from sleep the bluetooth doesn't pair with the keyboard or mouse (I usually just power them both off and then back on and this seems to work)
4) the dock disappears and reappears on its own even though "hide the dock" is not checked
iMac running Lion
Thanks for any help!
Dennis

In the login screen, press the key combination command-F5 to deactivate VoiceOver.

Dock disappears when downloading

Whenever I upload or download a file, my dock disappears until I'm finished. For example, if I go to upload a picture to facebook, finder pops up and asks me to select the file, right? Well as long as that finder window is open, my dock completely disappears.
Does anybody know why this is and how I can stop it?

The Dock is typically associated with the screen the menubar is on.
Move the menubar in Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Displays representation of the displays to the screen you want the Dock on.

How to make dock disappear for certain apps?

Is there a way to make my dock disappear, but only when a certain app is open? I work with Photoshop, on my 13" Macbook Pro, and to be honest, I need every tiny bit of screen space I can muster. I'd like it if Photoshop ran full screen, like iTunes for example, but it doesn't run fullscreen AND show the side palletes etc, I don't know why but I wish it did.
Anyway, I was wondering, can I program my dock somehow, so that it will disappear whenever I click inside or open Photoshop, but when I quit or click out of Photoshop, it comes back?
Is there a line of code I need to put into Terminal, or a 3rd party app or something? Anything will do
Thanks

Hello ThatSmartKidJack,
You can set you dock to automatically go down and come back. and if you still see the sides of your desktop just resize your window by dragging the bottom right corner of your window. I also use Photoshop and I can see it almost full screen by hiding my dock. Hope that helps!

Finder Flashing & Dock disappeared. HELP!!!

I've had my macbook 10.4 11 for a few years now since i started college in 2006. And all of a sudden these past few days, the finder window starts flashing..not flashing completely on & off, but like blinking & so does all the icons on my desktop. They all flash at the same time as soon as my laptop is rebooted. And now all of a sudden last night, the dock disappears. I was backtracking and kind of figured out that these problems started occuring as soon as I download the "recommended updates". Never has my mac acted up like this. But as soon as i download the updates...now the finder is flashing & the dock has disappeared. Please anybody i need help to fix this. I'm in the entertainment industry & I have alot of important projects, files on here. Will those be damaged?? And how can I fix this problem A.S.A.P?? I cant even access safari now to go to the net, because my safari icon is located on the dock. And my icons flash on the screen, so i couldnt click on even if i tried. How can i get the dock back? And for the finder window to stop flashing?
Message was edited by: musiqfiend

I'm not sure if that'll help. I was reading through & it says to stop it you have to go to "system preferences". I can't access that right now, because my dock disappeared last night. And thats where the icon is for my system preferences. I cant click on the apple thing at the top either because my screen blinks. It blinks so fast that you dont have time to click on an icon cause it switches. Say if i opened a window..for example like Itunes or something. My screen goes crazy. The windows will flash back and forth "Itunes, finder, itunes, finder, etc.." their doing this so fast that i cant access anything. And now the dock is disappeared. Which makes matters even worse lol all my icons are in dock. I can almost work my way around with the flashing. But *i cant work around a missing dock. Without a dock, i cant access ANYTHING. _ALL MY ICON ARE IN THE DOCK._* :/ If anybody knows how to restore the dock to come back. Please let me know. Once i get that back, then we can work on fixing the flashing finder.
Message was edited by: musiqfiend

When changing wallpaper dock disappeared and background turned gray

dock disappeared and background gray

Delete com.apple.dock.plist
Click on an empty spot on the Desktop to activate Finder.
Hold the option key down and click”Go” menu in the menu bar.
Choose “Library” from the drop-down.
Library > Preferences
Look for com.apple.dock.plist
Right click on it and select “Move to Trash”.
Restart the computer.

From when i installed 10.8.3 combo, the frequency of my video (samsung 2233sn) changes so that the dock disappears at the bottom and the letters are not focus-free feature stays in focus at mostviewing. Luigi

From when i installed 10.8.3 combo, the frequency of my video (samsung 2233sn) changes so that the dock disappears at the bottom and the letters are not focus-free feature stays in focus at mostviewing. Luigi

From when i installed 10.8.3 combo, the frequency of my video (samsung 2233sn) changes so that the dock disappears at the bottom and the letters are not focus-free feature stays in focus at mostviewing. Luigi

Upgraded to Mavericks ... Dock disappeared and background is flashing

I upgraded my OS to Mavericks last week. Since the install, the dock disappeared and the desktop background flashes repeatedly. I have rebooted several times and reinstalled Mavericks 3 times.

Had the same problem. Realised after web searching that the dock processes were probably at fault - dock controls a lot more than just the dock itself. I did the following and i've now got a good install of mavericks.
Deleted an add-on app i put on called LaunchPad Control from Preferences pane.
Removed all widgets from Dashboard.
Removed any other desktops from Spaces (so only left with an empty dashboard and one desktop).
Removed an Automator script i had to automatically check mail on start up.
Finally i created a new administrator user and was logged into this when i did the install.
Hope this helps.

Dock disappeared on iMac

After booting my iMac the Dock disappears from the screen. I can open some programs but the computer then runs very slowly until it freezes.
Everythings runs smoothly when I boot up with a different account and it quite often works when I move back to the problem admin account.
I have tried various remedies gleaned from the forums killall dock, alt>cmd>D and alt>cmd>p>r. Any other sugestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks!. This has been driving me crazy for a couple of days. Running techtool, repairing permissions, running in safe mode.
The dock was eating up 99% of the CPU before locking the system up. I have installed the update and so far everything is running normal. I would have never thought that to be the issue because parallels was not running.

Icons in the dock disappear on wakeup

since upgrading to Mavericks, application icons in the Dock disappear on wakeup or even after full restart.
sometimes it helps if I click on the placeholder in the Dock - it starts the application and the icon re-appears. at other times they all appear ok if I restart the computer.

Back up all data.
In the Finder, hold down the option key and select
Go ▹ Library
from the menu bar. From the Library folder, move the following items to the Trash, if they exist:
Application Support/Dock
Caches/com.apple.dock
and move the following items to the Desktop:
Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.dock.*.plist
Preferences/com.apple.dock.db
Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
Here “*” stands for a long string of letters and numbers.
Next, triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
open $TMPDIR../C
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. A folder should open. Inside it there may be a file named "com.apple.dock.iconcache". If there is, drag it to the Trash.
Log out, log back in, and test. If you still have the issue, put the items on the Desktop back where they came from and post again. Otherwise, delete the items.

Dock disappears (everytime I startup)

My dock disappeared. Before this happened, my dock was set up to show up on the left side of the screen only when I placed my cursor there. It's been set up this way for a year! Last night I turned on my MacBook and my dock was gone. I went to the Apple Menu/Dock/and changed setting to Turn Hiding Off. That didn't work so I rebooted and dock is still gone (and Turn Hiding Off is still set).
I went into Time Machine and restored my desktop from Jun 21st (last time I backed up - I know, I know.....now I will do daily). That fixed the problem but next time I booted up, the problem reappeared. I read another conversation about this but found nothing I understood enough to use. Please help!

Well, it appears that there are numerous fixes to this problem. The link Chris provided was very informative. However, in the meantime, I called Apple Care. They had me delete the plist file (called com.apple.dock.plist) and that resolved the problem. I read this elsewhere on this forum but it was not explained how to get there. So for those like me who know just enough to be dangerous, here is exactly what I did:
1.Even though I had no dock, Finder was still in my top bar menu. I clicked the Edit drop down and clicked Open new finder window. NOTE: If Finder is not visible, click on the magnifying glass on top right of screen and enter "Finder". Click on the Finder Application when it come up.
2. Once in Finder, click on your hard drive (usually called Macintosh HD but could be something else).
3. From Hard Drive click on Users and find the account the problem is happening with. If it is your main account, it has a little house next to it.
4. Then click Home/Library/Preferences. Find the file that says com.apple.dock.plist. There may be others with this name but an additional extension. Ignore those. Click the one that ENDS in plist.
5. Drag to your desktop.
6. A new plist file will automatically be created under Preferences. This should make your dock reappear.
7. If your dock is back, drag the plist file that you placed on your desktop to the trash.

Dock disappears when safari launches

My 86 year old father who has a new Mini running Lion and who lives far away claims that when he launches Safari, the Dock disappears. I thought he might have meant the Safari tool bar but further emailed questions have confirmed that he does indeed mean the Dock. He says it's there and then he opens Safari and it disappears. I've confirmed that Dock Hiding is off. I can't imagine how it happens or what he's seeing. Any ideas?

I got caught out with this one too, and am grateful for your assistance.
I later found out in Lion help pages how to do the same thing in a single click...
To enlarge a webpage so it uses the screen, click the arrows in the top-right corner of an application window:
To return to standard view, click the arrows in the window’s upper-right corner:
I'm guessing that this is the more likely method of invoking full screen mode unintentionally (I had no idea how I'd done it).

Dock disappears for a few seconds and minimized apps open up

Hello
My dock at the bottom of the display will disappear for a few seconds and at the same time, my minimized open applications will open up. This usually happens when I'm running a few light applications at once. It almost seems to "gulp" or catch it's breath.
I'm not sure if this is related but for the second time since purchasing the machine the dock is showing a sort of double reflection at the very bottom. An open application has what looks like two lit triangles underneath the icon instead of the usual one triangle. The same area at the bottom of the dock shows a very tiny "bottom" of the page I have open, in this case Safari. It also moves left and right as I move the open page left and right. If I move the page down, the sliver at the bottom of the dock moves up.
This is only the second time this has happened. The first time it went away on it's own and today it's back. It's not troublesome at all but I'm just wondering what may be causing these symptoms.
Thanks!

Hello,
'''Try Firefox Safe Mode''' to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.
''(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)''
* On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the '''Shift''' key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
* On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the '''option''' key while starting Firefox.
* On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
* Or open the Help menu and click on the '''Restart with Add-ons Disabled...''' menu item while Firefox is running.
[[Image:FirefoxSafeMode|width=520]]
''Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"''
[[Image:Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win]]
'''''If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode''''', your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]] article for that.
''To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.''
''When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help other users who have the same problem.''
Thank you.

Menu bar and Dock disappear after exiting Time Machine

Time Machine has worked absolutely fine for almost a week. A few hours ago I clicked the icon on my dock to see how many incremental backups it had made today, and everything seemed fine. However, when I click cancel now and the desktop comes back, the dock completely disappears. The menu bar is about halfway to being functional: The shadow appears, but it does not lighten my desktop picture behind it anymore. All the menus are gone, except for those for Bluetooth, AirPort, the clock, etc. I can still open Finder windows by double-clicking the folders on my desktop, but most -- if not all -- keyboard shortcuts are rendered inoperable. They mostly just produce the default error sound, and control-F2 simply highlights a very small invisible box in the top-left corner of the screen. I can also no longer open any applications, and any applications I already had open I can't select.
The only way out was to force a shutdown, but if I try to use Time Machine in the Finder this problem keeps recurring. (It works perfectly in iPhoto.) Also, now if I try to back up Time Machine hangs while "Preparing". I have spent the last hour trying whatever I could think of and also wailing like a child. Please help!

Just a thought....this is not a problem with my MacBook on which I installed a new version of 10.5.
The problem only manifests itself on my iMac at work which I updated using a Drop-in Leopard DVD.
Do you think this could be the problem? Anyone out there having problems that did a retail 10.5 install?
I just re-installed Leopard from the drop-in DVD and first time I opened Mail and went to Time Machine it seemed to be working....it gave me the starry background and asked me to select items to restore to the Inbox. But then it failed to restore the selected messages and I'm back to where I started with a non-working Time Machine in Mail.

New Mac Mini - Dock Disappearing

I just got a new mac mini and I am using it as a media server. I am controlling through screen sharing and sometimes with air mouse. Other than that, nothing strange as far as applications running or downloaded.
Several times now, the dock has disappeared. I cannot click on the desktop or the Apple icon in the top left corner - but the application windows that are open continue to work - iTunes and Safari.
I have tried several combinations of disconnecting air mouse and screen sharing, but nothing seemed to effect what is wrong.
Any suggestions as to what is wrong?

I suspect the applications at hand could be crashing... It could be a RAM problem.
Slide your Leopard/Snow Leopard disc into the drive and hold D when booting to start the Apple Hardware Test.
Good luck!
~Yoma

Dock disappeared on OS X 10.5.8

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