Lost dock

Somehow lost dock & cannot minimize any pages, help!

Boot from the System Installer disc that came with your computer or is the one for the version you currently have on there, select language if applicable, choose utilities, run Disk Utility and verify (and repair if necessary) the drive. You can verify a drive from DU on your main drive while booted but I have found this can result in incorrect reporting of errors. To repair your drive you have to run it from a drive other than the boot drive anyway.
Next, boot from your drive in [Safe Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393] and repair permissions. You can repair permissions while booted from the installer disc but this uses the permissions configuration on the installer disc which may be out of date if you have run any updates on your computer. Booting your computer to Safe Mode restricts the number of things running on your computer while permissions are being run and does a bit of spring cleaning at the same time.
Reading
[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
[Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions 10.0-10.6|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751]
"Try Disk Utility" (modified from [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417])
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer (Edit: Do not use this disc if it is not the same general version as what you have currently on your computer, e.g. use a Tiger disc for a Tiger drive, not a Panther disc), then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
Then boot in Safe Mode, (holding Shift key down at bootup; takes longer to boot this way so be patient), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

Similar Messages

Lost Dock/Can't Shut Down/much more!

I gather that others are having major problems since installing 10.4.11, but haven't seen anyone with these odd symptoms:
1. lost my dock and can't get it back through my preferences. Every time I click a Location, the bubble refuses to be selected (it doesn't light up).
2. Similarly, when I try to shut down or restart, it looks as though the computer recognizes that I've selected "Shut Down" or "Restart", but then nothing happens. I've shut down twice by holding down the power button, but when I reboot, nothing has changed.
3. Same thing goes for my Hot Corners. When I try to enable them, they refuse to be turned on.
4. Finally, none of the usual Toolbar options will show up. Clock, volume, wireless connectivity, none will respond to my requests to put them back in the Toolbar.
Any advice out there? This is very, very disconcerting, as I have 4 laptop based final exams coming up soon. How worried should I be that something more serious is on its way?
Thanks!

I have 4 laptop based final exams coming up soon
Not the best time to undertake a major update!
There are no guarantees, but following this procedure when installing updates and upgrades on your Mac will go a long way towards avoiding unpleasant after effects and ‘post-update stress disorder’.
It is also worth noting that it is an extreme rarity for updates to cause upsets to your system, but they may well reveal pre-existing ones, particularly those of which you may have been unaware. If you are actually aware of any glitches, make sure they are fixed before proceeding further.
So before you do anything else:
If you can, make a full backup first.
Turn off sleep mode for both screen and hard disk.
1. Repair Permissions (in Disk Utility)
2. Verify the state of your hard disk using Disk Utility. If any faults are reported, restart from your install disk (holding down the C key), go to Disk Utility, and repair your startup disk. Restart again to get back to your startup disk.
At least you can now be reasonably certain that your system does not contain any obvious faults that might cause an update/upgrade to fail.
3. Download the correct version of the COMBO update from the Apple download site. If your car runs on gasoline you would not want to fill the tank with diesel, so don’t try to install the PPC updater on an Intel Mac!
If you prefer to download updates via Software Update in the Apple menu (which would ensure that the correct version for your Mac was being downloaded), it is not recommended to allow SU to install major (or even minor) updates automatically. Set Software Update to just download the updater without immediately installing it. There is always the possibility that the combined download and install (which can be a lengthy process) might be interrupted by a power outage or your cat walking across the keyboard, and an interrupted install will almost certainly cause havoc. Once it is downloaded, you can install at a time that suits you. You should make a backup copy of the updater on a CD in case you ever need a reinstall.
Using the Combo updater ensures that all system files changed since the original 10.4.0 are included, and any that may have been missed out or subsequently damaged will be repaired. The Delta updater, although a temptingly smaller download, only takes you from the previous version to the new one, i.e. for example from 10.4.9 to 10.4.10. Software Update will generally download the Delta updater only. The preferable Combo updater needs to be downloaded from Apple's download site.
Now proceed as follows:
4. Close all applications.
5. Unplug all peripherals except your keyboard and mouse.
6. Install the update/upgrade. Do not under any circumstances interrupt this procedure. Do not do anything else on your computer while it is installing. Be patient.
7. When it ask for a restart to complete the installation, click restart. This can take longer than normal, there are probably thousands of files to overwrite and place in the correct location. Do nothing while this is going on.
8. Once your Mac is awake, repair permissions again, and you should be good to go!
If your Mac seems slightly sluggish or ‘different’, perform a second restart. It can’t hurt and is sometimes efficacious!
9. Open a few of your most used applications and check that all is OK. In this connection please remember that not all manufacturers of third party applications and plug-ins, add-ons, haxies etc, will have had time to do any necessary rewrites to their software to make them 10.4.10. compliant. Give them a weeks or two while you regularly check their websites for updates. This applies particularly to plug-ins for Safari 3.
N.B. Do not attempt to install two different updates at the same time as each may have different routines and requirements. Follow the above recommendations for each update in turn.
Lastly, Apple's own article on the subject of Software Update may also be useful reading:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106695
If you are updating Safari (or just have):
Input Managers from third parties can do as much harm as good. They use a security loophole to reach right into your applications' code and change that code as the application starts up. If you have installed 10.4.11 and Safari is crashing, the very first thing to do is clear out your InputManagers folders (both in your own Library and in the top-level /Library), log out and log back in, and try again.
So, disable all third party add-ons before updating Safari, as they may not have been updated yet for the new version. Add them back one by one. If something goes awry, remove it again and check on the software manufacturer's website for news of an update to match your version of Safari. Remember: Tiger up to 10.4.10 used Safari 2.0.4 or, if you downloaded it, Safari 3.0.3 beta. Safari 10.4.11 uses Safari 3.0.4 which is not a beta. If Safari 3.0.4 on 10.4.11 is not the fastest browser you have ever used, then something is wrong!
Moreover, trying to revert to Safari 2 when running 10.4.11 can have repercussions, as Safari 3.0.4 uses a completely different webcore on which other applications like iTunes, Mail etc also rely.
Most errors reported here after an update are due to an unrepaired or undetected inherent fault in the system, and/or a third party ad-on. Two such add-on that have been frequently mentioned here for causing such problems are Piclens and Pithhelmet. If you have them, trash them.

Lost docking station keys

Hi,
I've lost the docking station keys for my T420 during a move. I checked ITXchange as suggested on the Lenovo site, they don't even have them in their price list and their site doesn't actually work most of the time - not sure if this company is still in business at all.
Is there any solution? I am stuck with my dock locked to my laptop now...

The web site works from here. Try this direct link to the page:
http://www.itxchange.com/products/docking-station-keys
Tell us how it goes!
I don't work for Lenovo. I'm a crazy volunteer!

Lost dock after latest software upgrade - HELP

I just updated a whole bunch of stuff include Security, iDVD, Quicktime, iTunes and Mac OS and after the restart, the dock is no longer there. I tried to reset it through the system preferences but still no dock.
And worse when I open a Finder window, all my left menu items such as Application, docs & Music are no longer there (although I can see them in the HD). Even worse, major applications like iTunes, iDVD, iChat & Safari no longer work. I get an error message that they are damaged or incomplete.
Please help.
Thanks.

Now that repairs are done, we could try reappliying the Combo update...
The combo update for PowerPC-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html
The combo update for Intel-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateintel.html
Repair Permissions afterwards, reboot.
If that doesn't work then time for an Archive & Install... unless making a New Admin User works for all these problems, which would give us more clues.

Lost Dock Eye Candy

I logged in after rebooting and my dock worked (i.e., it launched apps when I clicked them), but it didn't magnify. I tried turning that setting off and then back on, but to no avail. Then, as an experiment, I tried turning on the hide mode. That worked...but now it won't unhide! My dock is gone!
Any ideas?

Alyplus
two options
Drop your mouse down to the edge where the dock was... does it pop up?
or
System Preferences -> Dock and uncheck 'Automatically hide and show the dock.
Regards
TD

I have lost my dock icon from dock bar. i did two finger moment. now i want to get dock back to dock bar.

I have lost dock from dock bar and even few more application like note and system perference. I did try to restore them as it is but could not relocate those. Please help me to get my dock back as i think its trashed now.
Thank you
I hope i am clear. I have lock the icon of dock and notepad from belowed dock bar. as i was learning the launchpad and put my two fingers on them and draged and those got transhed.
i need those icon back as it was in past

HI, it isn't really clear here what the problem is... is something missing from the Dock, or is the Dock missing?

Lost 30-40 gigs of files and settings

Today I suddenly lost a lot of files on my MacBook Pro 5,1. Examples of what I have lost:
Files:
All files on desktop exept one. No folders lost
All files in the default images folder. No folders lost
Settings lost:
Dock is back to default
No image as desktop background. Just skyblue solid colour.
Mailsettings are gone and the settings configurator starts asking on mail server and so on.
Safari is reset. Apple startpage, no bookmarks. Log of visited pages are ok.
Flash cant be installed. Installer hangs just before finish.
Itunes doesnt show any of my music. Starts up as new.
Time Machine asks which disk should be used as backup ( I have backup by the way )
Other:
Photoshops starts up, not Illustrator or Dreamweaver. Word crashes during upstart. iOs Simulator starts up.
What i did mostly before this happed was installing Pear to use some php framwork. I also run some php to update a web CMS.
Is there anything I can do exept restore from Time Machine?
(this might be crossposted if i cant find a way to delete the copy post in the macbook pro forum. It belongs here I guess)

Disconnect all peripherals from your computer. Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.
Click Repair Disk.
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751 and restart your computer.
If you still cannot locate your files, uninstall Pear and all related files, use Spotlight to locate files.

Dock stops magnifying and highlighting, it's same wth other links and icons

I have noticed a couple of times that my dock starts acting weird. It stops magnifying and highlighting icons. When I click the desired icon, it magnifies it. It stays magnified when I move mouse away and until I click something else. Its darn annoying. Kill Dock in terminal doesn't solve the issue, only rebooting does and I don't want to do that every time. I occurs on random, don't see a pattern in it.
Also, highlighting or "on roll over" functions are not working for other types of links and buttons including websites. Cursor doesn't change in to the finger etc.
What to do, what to do (beside rebooting every time).

I had a similar problem. I lost dock magnification and and mouse rollover effects. It turns out when I unplugged my external mouse, everything returned to normal.

Mail preferences hosed

Anyone else having occasional glitches/hangs on shutdown? Time to wipe & reinstall?
Had a hang at shutdown earlier today & apparently lost a number of my preferences because of it.
Logged back into my Powerbook this evening, & Mail didn't know there were 7 accounts already setup. After the initial scare, I got the accounts imported (thanks to other forum posts!) & all seems well.
Lost Dock prefs, my Address Book and all my bookmarks in Firefox too - hundreds, that represent literally months of research. Looking through backups for those.
This is highly frustrating, and I'm very surprised it even happened.
Gary.
Powerbook 1.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 17GB free space, 1.5GB ram

The apparent loss of application preference files is usually caused by a lack of adequate free hard drive space.
What does had a hang at shutdown mean exactly and I'm assuming this required a hard shut down?
If so and as you probably know, a hard shut down is not good for a hard drive under any platform and one of the reasons for maintaining a regular backup.
Regarding the hang at shutdown, I suggest Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption for system troubleshooting procedures and when doing so, follow all steps/instructions in the order provided.

Downgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.4.x?

Hi there,
Have MacBook Pro about 5 years old with current 10.5.8 OS. Today I completely lost dock. Besides that OS became very slow, spinning color wheel for anything I do. I posted problem on MacBook forum and tried everything posters suggested. One person suggested that HD is dying.
I would not mind going back to Tiger (10.4.x) and reformatting HD so I tried to "C" boot with original disk. OS didn't let me to downgrade. How to do it? I am pretty desperate about this so I want to do it in order to be able to use that laptop.
How to re-install old (original) OS?
Thank you,
Zack

One person suggesting hard drive is dying doesn't mean it is. A computer slowing down and dock disappearing is likely signs of corruption in the system, but that is just files out of order and not a hardware issue.
First, decide if you really want to downgrade. It may not really be the ideal solution in this situation. Focussing on why you were seeing a slowdown might be better, especially if you really think the computer was running faster at some stage with the same operating system.
Installing and running Applejack may on its own cure a lot of woes.
Applejack - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=79562
Very informative Macworld Applejack article - http://www.macworld.com/article/135377/applejack15.html
If you do decide to downgrade this will essentially mean backing up your files, wiping your hard drive, reinstalling the system and applications, copy back your data files and hoping they were not irreversibly upgraded to only work with newer versions you can no longer run.

After the Ios 6 update, I have lost my Sound for Music, Tweets. i have restored the phone, tried adjusting the settings, and even have Docked and undocked the Iphone 4S, thinking it might be in Dock mode. Headphones work, Dock plays Sounds. Ideas?

Lost Sound after Ios Upgrade to 6.0.1. All worked before upgrade. Has to be a problem with Software upgrade.
Tried adjusting Settings. Same Problem
Tried restoring Phone. Same Problem
Read some Forums. Tried suggestions such as buying an Song from ITUNES, Docking and undocking Device. Same Problem
Ideas?
Sound will be heard when Docked or through Headphones. Even Volume Bar doesn't appear either when playing music without Headphones or being docked.
Similar to others, this phone worked 100% prior to the Upgrade to Ios 6.0.1

Do you have the mute switch engaged? It's the little slider over the volume buttons on the side. If you can see orange, it's engaged. Slide it the other way.

Issues with Filevault, Tiger, Dock & Safari lost pref. settings & iPhoto...

Hope you experts out there can shed some light. Here's a recap-
Nov 05 - we turned on Filevault. Since then, for a month or 2, restarting takes just a few minutes longer and a flashing earth icon appears before the apple spinning wheel. This no longer happens. All seems fine until now.
Since Mon, I started backing up iPhoto library onto CD-R. No problem, though after burning a few CDs, "the drive failed to respond, unable to recover.." a few times, but after shut down & restart, finally ok.
I also noticed Safari settings suddenly went back to default by itself, so rechecked all pref settings; next time mac was restarted, same thing happened except more bad things happened:
A)- All bookmarks disappeared in bookmark menu & bookmark bar.
B)- iPhoto won't run & load pictures.
C)- Dock appeared as "default", all the application icons I previously added are gone!
D)- iMovie icon became a "?" on the dock.
E)- i Sync failed to sync due to "unable to login to .mac"; have a .mac a/c.
So far what I've done with Apple Support:
1- Under a test user, opened "Disk Utility", click "Repair Disk", i.e. the HD, but message appeared "No repairs were necessary". Test user then deleted, log off.
2- Logged back in under my username, dragged the existing dock .plist file to trash. But after rebooting computer using the "control", "apple", "p" & "r" keys simultaneously, nothing is fixed.
3- I've backed up all personal files, documents, and most of iPhoto Library on CD-R.
4- I then performed an "Archive & Reinstall" of the OSX Tiger (http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n107120) , with the box checked for Preserve Users and Network Settings". After installation, I also installed Software Update, but still nothing is fixed, i.e iPhoto won't run, dock is default, bookmarks on Safari are all gone, Backup to iDisk goes on & on for over 5 hrs & so I force quit, some files on iDisk can't be located right now.
5- Today, I followed the article in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25695, created a test user again, pull the .sparseimage file, and "repair disk". It came back "no repairs were necessary". Closed Disk Utility, launched iPhoto, and it worked. I dragged a few pics, did some edits, and it was fine. So this is all good under test user. Does this process tell me the .sparseimage does not need repair and that it's not corrupted..?
6- Logged back under my user, dragged "com.apple.iPhoto.plist" on desktop, deleted cache file, restarted the computer, and launched iPhoto. It's been 6 hrs, and iPhoto is still "loading photos" with spinning wheel.
That said, this whole process really ruled out that it's not an iPhoto problem since it runs under the test user. It just won't work under my user name. Any idea or suggestion of what to do next... ???
Regarding the dock settings, I have removed the old dock plist file, and rebuilt a new dock. So far, logging in & out, restarting the computer did not affect it. Safari Bookmark collections suddenly have all these folders appearing with default bookmarks, weird, not sure why? iSync, half hr ago, started working, since I've set it to sync bookmarks, iCal, Address book, I just saw all my original bookmarks under "Imported IE favorites" in the Collections column, though they are organized quite different. So I assume iSync did it.
Here are some key questions:
1- Cause: Are problems caused by Filevault, or something is wrong with my OS before I did "Archive & Install" ? After archive & install, testing iPhoto under test user, and doint step 5 & 6 above, iPhoto still not load pics after a window appeared to upgrade thumbnails. Could filenames of some photos being long have anything to do with it or could it be other reasons?
2- Filevault failed to turn off after a few trials, with warning msg saying "filevault unable to turn off, unable to recover disk space". I found this article - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25635. But don't know how to solve this problem.
3- iDisk - some files are lost, why?
4- Backup program - won't even backup to iDisk, pending for over 6 hrs, why? When I backup things to iDisk, do files get stored in the "Backup" folder or "Documents" under the iDisk icon in the Finder window ?
5- iMovie icon on dock is now "?", why? But then, I have iMovie HD. FYI - I upgraded to Tiger Apr 05, and iLife'o5 last July.
I hope I make myself clear, so if anyone has any experience or insight with my problems, I'd appreciate so much.
Thanks, Lucien
Message was edited by: Lucien Tenn

FB:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. It seems that you're problem may be system related rather than iPhoto. I suggest you do the following:
1 - run Disk Utility and Repair disk permissions.
2 - reboot into Safe Mode (hold down the Shift key during the boot process). This will perform the File System Check (fsck). At this time check iPhoto and Safari.
3 - boot back into normal mode. If all is not well the download and reinstall the 10.4.6 COMBO updater followed by a permissions repair.
4 - If iPhoto is still messed up, use iPhoto Library Manager to rebuild the library. It will create a new library and leave your current one untouched. It succeeds where the normal rebuild fails.
My preference is to manually upload my photos to a folder on the HD either thru Image Capture or the Finder with a card reader - with iPhoto closed. Then if there's a crash iPhoto will not damage the AlbumData.xml file that is uses to record all the info on the imported files.

I have lost my blue applications folder from dock the one with the A on how do i get it back exactly the same as it was

I have an Imac with snow leopard 10.6.8 and have lost the blue applications folder with an A from my dock please how do i get this bck in exactly the same format?

To make the icon look like this:
Right click and select this option.

Help I have 'lost' my downloads icon from the dock. Can I retrieve it? If so please describe how, using simple terms

Help I have 'lost' my downloads icon from the dock on my desktop Mac. Can I retrieve it? If so please describe how, using simple terms. I have tried searching folders, finder and trash

Your Downloads folder should be in your Home folder. Just drag it to the Dock.
If you've managed to delete it, try creating a new folder called 'Downloads'. You will probably need to nominate it in Safari or any other browser preferences as your download destination. (Safari Preferences>General, 'Save downloaded items to:' menu)

Custom icon lost from dock when clicked.

Hello.
I'm currently running OS 10.6.1 on 15" MBP w/ 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM. I experienced this same issue in Leopard, but was hoping Snow Leopard would fix it. I thought it did, but it just happened again.
I keep several documents in the dock that I use very frequently (three MS Excel workbooks, 1 FM Pro database). For some reason, when I click on any of the Excel docs, the custom icon I have assigned to it is lost. Even when I reveal in Finder, the icon has just been removed, and the standard Excel icon shows.
The funny thing is that the custom icons, when replaced, seem to last for several clicks, then for some reason, they just go away when the doc is clicked.
Has anyone experienced this issue? Any help would be awesome.

Hi eye sean,
The program icons on your Dock (App Store, System Preferences) are alias links (shortcuts) and not the programs themselves. You can't delete them by removing them from the Dock. Now, if somehow they were accidentally removed from the /Applications folder then that's a bigger issue. I take it neither of the programs or in that folder?
If that's the case there's two things I'm aware of worth trying:
Run a repair Disk Permissions from the installation disc that came with your computer
Reinstall the Operating System via the installation disc
If System Preferences (the application) is completely gone, then it's option #2. If it's corrupted the disk permissions may resolved it. I'd say you could make a new user to see if a preference pane that's specific to your current user is causing problems, but without System Preferences access that's not really a valid option.

Lost dock

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