Why is my finder icon slipping out of the dock?

Why does my Finder icon look like it's fallen off the dock? Is this meaningful, or just a quirk?

Yes, it goes back to normal on reboot (or if I force quit the Finder). It's no big deal but I do wonder what it means, if anything.

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Tiger relaunches Finder whenever Finder icon is clicked in the Dock

My wife's MacBook, a 13" late '06 running Tiger, began having a problem with Finder this evening. Whenever the Finder icon in the Dock is clicked, all Finder windows close, the desktop flashes black, and Finder relaunches.
If a folder alias is clicked from the Desktop, it opens without a problem-- it's only the Finder Dock icon. All other programs open normally.

When using the Finder's own Preference setting dialog box, what does it
show the "New Finder window opens" as being set to open? If it was
set at some point, and "Other" was used to choose something beyond
the default expectations, the Finder icon in Dock could launch or re-
launch something else with results unexpectedly quite different.
The usual default is something like "Home" (a user folder) or maybe the
"Computer" which may contain a window with the Hard Disk drive and
a Network orb; or the "Macintosh HD" (so - IF - the HDD icon is made to
be invisible to the Desktop, the Finder can be used to access it instead.)
So, for some reason or through some accident, glitch, or evidence of
some corruption elsewhere in the system, you have Finder in Dock
re-launching the Dock...(?)
If there is a different purpose chosen in the Finder's menu bar where
the preferences can be changed in a "General" control box, you can
see if you can re-assign the defaults as mentioned above, again.
If other user accounts don't act up, (and they should not, since it
is not a universal change if these are set different in one account)
when they are booted into, and the Finder icon in the Dock is clicked
and you can't get that to revert to the default option(s) that should be
in the Finder Preference selection; then the issue may be in Dock
preference files themselves. Those would be (probably) in the user
Library file and among .plist named items.
Since I am not sure of the location of those specific items without an
extensive folder-opening search in my OSX system to find which of
the few relevant locations this applicable .plist is actually to be found,
the two probable items to find and move to desktop, then restart, may
be the Dock preference .plist and the Finder preference .plist items.
A restart should bring those two items back as default-set replacement
.plists, so, if you were unable to simply re-set the Finder preference
panel to choose Home, Macintosh HD, or maybe Computer in there,
you may have to find these two .plist files, and move them from the
correct location, where the system should replace them on restart.
Routine and usual system maintenance and light repairs to disk and
disk permissions can be done by running Disk Utility from the booted
Installer disc's menu bar options; short of running the actual Install
mode, where the menu bar has a drop down menu (such as Finder
but says Installer) when the computer is running from the OSX install
disc's version of startup software, where this access is possible. To
do that, you put the disc#1 of the current OS X version installer in to
the optical drive and hold the C key down on startup. The first window
that will appear should be the choose language window, the second
one should be where you have a menu bar in Installer to find & launch
Disk Utility from. After running D.U.'s first aid on the Macintosh HD to
'repair disk', you can run the' repair disk utilities' and maybe click on
the name of the brand of hard disk drive (same location where name
Macintosh HD, different item) and then run Verify on the hard drive.
When done, quit Disk Utility, and choose Startup Manager item from
the Installer's drop down menu bar option list; and choose the Mac's
hard drive system and restart the computer. A lighter way to repair the
disk permissions you probably should've been using regularly, is in
the Utilities folder in the computer's system on hard disk drive. Simply
choose GO in the Finder's menu bar, select Utilities Folder, and then
when that folder opens on the desktop, find & double-click Disk Utility.
(In my system, I highlighted Disk Utility's name by clicking it once
so I could change it; in mine, the only change made was to add one
space in front of the name Disk Utility, and now it is the first item in
the Utilities folder, so it is easier to find & launch regularly. This re-
orders the alphabetical order of named items in that folder and puts
the one with a single space in front of the natural order. If you want
to bring another item up to appear out of order, you can add one or
more spaces, to re-order items in a folder to be first ahead of A,B,C.)
You probably didn't need to know any or all of this; but resetting the
Finder preference to see if you can get the Dock's Finder icon to
launch the original few defaults instead of itself; or remove the plists
for Dock and Finder, and restart to see if the proper settings occur.
Not sure, but if you remove the Dock .plist, if that would remove the
chosen symbiotic links (drag-to-dock app icons you moved there)
or if those would be in another location. Removing the Finder .plist
from the appropriate file in the system should be safe enough and
restart. And find out if someone had changed that Finder preference.
Performing routine and preventative maintenance can be easy; but it
may not correct some odd changed preference in an obscure location.
And won't fix some corruption caused by data being overwritten due to
a hard disk drive being too full for the system to function normally.
The problem will be resolved when you fix it...!
Good luck & happy computing!
{ started writing early + wrote too much = finished late. }

Why is the camera icon grayed out in the text message screen so that I cannot text a picture on my iPhone 5?

Why is the camera icon grayed out in the text message screen so that I cannot text a picture on my iPhone 5? I have an unlocked TMobile phone. My husband has the same phone, plan, and set up; his picture messages work fine.

Check this it maybe the problem
Settings > Messages > MMS Messaging > is it on?
Hope that helps

HT2341 why does my sound icon grey out and doesn't allow me to make changes on the system settings

why does my sound icon grey out and doesn't allow me to make changes on the system settings

When you go to System Preferences > Sound what does it say for Output? Have you had headphones plugged in? Sometimes the headphone jack gets stuck thinking it has something plugged in when there isn't anaything there. SMC also has something to do with Sound:
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.

Grab stopped working on mac 10.6.8 - cant find library/preferences, it is no longer in utilities - only the icon remains unuseable in the dock.

Grab stopped working on mac 10.6.8 - cant find library/preferences, it is no longer in utilities - only the icon remains unuseable in the dock. Can anyone help?

Folks- I got After Effects to launch by installing OS X 10.8. I did not figure out the problem and am not certain it won't pop up again.

IPhoto won't open, gives me an error message and the icon is greyed out on the dock

My iPhoto icon is greyed out on the dock and wont open. When I click on it it says it may be damaged or incomplete. Went to All Images and the photos are still in there. Went to aplications and the iphoto icon looks normal. Clicked on it and got the following error message. "You can't open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto. You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Do you want to quit and use the latest version of iPhoto, or do you want to create a new photo library?" There is a quit button with the message, but nothing to allow me to create a new photo library. So neither my wife nor myself have tried to upgrade iphoto. Not sure how it got a newer version. It was working fine a few weeks ago. Anybody have any ideas how to fix or restore the icon and iPhoto without losing pictures?

Hmm.
Rather than assume the account is "kinda" damaged, I would instead work on the basis that something in the account is damaged, and - as iPhoto is working correctly in the other account - that something is specific to this account.
So: Check on things that are specific to the account:
The Libraru
The plist files
The Cache files
are obvious approaches.
In the case you describe an awful lot of the time the issue is with the Library. This simple test will tell you if it is:
As a Test:
Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?
If you can make a new Library and get it to work, then the issue has to be with the old library.
In that case:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

How do I find the iCloud icon to add to the dock

How do I find the iCloud icon to add to the dock. I believe this was on the dock when I first had the computer.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
iCloud is not an application, so it does not appear on the Dock or Applications folder. Instead, you can manage iCloud settings in System Preferences > iCloud.
iCloud only appears as an application in Windows because of iCloud Control Panel

My Foxtab page websites slip out from the boxes and are all muddled up. I have uninstalled and reset but still does it. My system is Windows 7

For about 4 weeks my Foxtab will not work properly. I fill the boxes with websites but they slip out from the boxes and when I click on one of them I get a different website. I have uninstalled Firefox and set up[ again but this makes no difference.

If the FoxTab extension isn't working properly then you need to contact FoxTab for support.
*https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/foxtab/
*http://www.foxtab.com/support/

Why cant i find Mountain Lion download in the APP store?

why cant i find Mountain Lion download in the APP store?

They usually remove the previous version. If you need to purchase it, contact the App Store.

Why is my iPhoto library greyed out in the Screensaver folder selection dialog on one iMac but not my other?

Why is my iPhoto library greyed out in the Screensaver folder selection dialog on one iMac but not my other?

I have an update to my issue above, with a Semi-solution found. I brought my Macbook Air back to the Genus bar today and they were able to identify (using “Activity Monitor”) that when the particular iPhoto library was being launched through iPhoto both Photostream and iPhoto's CPU% usage was excessively high (between 100% - 200% each). She discovered that if we turn off Photostream in iCloud settings iPhoto then behaved fast and snappy and CPU% came back down to a healthier level. When we turned Photostream back on the problem continued. After an hour of trying to trouble shoot why Photostream was causing the issue they recommended I keep Photostream turned off until a future software update/fix comes out. The particular Genus I worked with was not familiar with this issue. I’m very happy to at least be able to use iPhoto again, but if anyone has ideas or theories on how the Photostream conflict can be fixed please share. Thanks.

HT201077 Why is my photo stream greyed out in the iCloud Control Panel.

Why is my photo stream greyed out in the iCloud Control Panel?

I had the same problem. I think it must be caused by the fact that i bought a charger in Apple Store Tokyo, and then entered my email address on the warranty form. Ever since emails in Japanese started appearing. When I now enabled Shared Photo Streams, my friends got invitations from me in Japanese too.
I was looking everywhere for language settings, but they all seemed in order. On iCloud that is.
It turns out it was the language settings on my apple-ID, not my iCloud-ID that was wrong, after a purchase at Apple Store Tokyo. Who would have thought that these two IDs were related? Or maybe they should be, but then why are they not even more integrated? Duplicate language settings?
This solved the problem:
1. Log into appleid.apple.com
2. Set the language.
The real problem however, is that Apple changed my language after a visit to an Apple Store. Come on! I already had a Norwegian apple-ID, a Norwegian credit card, and a Norwegian address. What could possibly make you think that I suddenly spoke Japanese? Ever happened that a tourist visited an Apple Store? Companies needs to learn that customers can make their own decisions, and often do, or want to do it, if they are allowed to do so. Examples of features that was designed not considering this fact: The play button on a Mac always launching iTunes, even though I'm already playing music in Spotify (and never use iTunes for music). Or Spotifys obsession with reporting everything you listen to, turning off the Private Session after 6 hours, so you have to make that setting every time you start playing music.

Mail icon bounces out of the blue

Hi there.
I've noiticed the Mail icon bounces out of the blue in the dock.
I'm working with other programs or browsign the internet and Mail is calling for attention.
I open the progam, it opens properly, I close it after, and it starts to bounce again, driving me crazy.
Any ideas how to make it stop?
Thanks!

Reported fixes:
"I ended up repairing Permissions and resetting PRAM and that stopped the problem somehow"
"I would remove the icon from the Dock and drag the application back to the Dock to create a new one. That normally corrects it."
Other options:
Do a Safe boot then restart normally.
* shutdown
* start the Mac and *wait* for the startup chime to sound
* after the sound, press and hold down the shift key
* keep holding and *wait* until the grey  Apple logo appears
* now release the shift key and just wait (it could take a few minutes)
* eventually the login screen appears with the words SAFE BOOT

Why does it sometimes take 30 seconds for the dock to come up after bringing the curser to the bottom of the page?

Why does it sometimes take 30 seconds for the dock to come up after bringing the curser to the bottom of the page?

Try doing a Dock restart using the following Terminal command:
killall Dock
Log out/in and test. If that doesn't work.
You need to look in your user Library/Applications Support/Dock for the .db. Use the Finder “Go To Folder” command. Enter ~/ Library/Applications Support/Dock. Move the .db to your desktop.
Then try a dock reset.
Applications/Utilities/Terminal enter the command
killall Dock
Log out/in test. If it works okay, delete the .db from the desktop.
If the Dock is the same, return the .db to where you got them from, overwriting the newer ones.
If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, use the Terminal command found below.
Show User Library
You might want to bookmark the command. I had to use it again after I installed 10.8.4. I have also been informed that if you drag the user library to Finder it will remain visible.

I have three Safari icons. Two in the dock and one on the desktop. How do I eliminate them?

I have three Safari icons. Two in the dock and one on the desktop. How do I eliminate them?
One from the dock and the one on the desktop.

nezzer wrote:
the desktop item will not delete or "move to trash"
In Finder, select the item. Choose File > Get Info (or do ⌘I). Look under General > Kind. Does it read "Alias" or does it read "Application (Intel)"?
If the latter, then it is likely that you're not allowed to delete because it's actually open. Quit Safari. Check if there is an item called Safari in your </Applications> folder. (In Finder, you can get directly to the Applications folder using ⇧⌘A -- that's Shift-Command-A.) Check if it's an application. If it is, then you have an unneeded copy of Safari. You can delete the one on your Desktop. If there isn't, them move the one on the Desktop to the Applications folder -- that's where it belongs.
If you're new to the Mac, consult
Mac 101
<http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/>
If you're coming in from the Dark Side, consult
Switch 101: On Windows, I used to...
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2514>

After connecting my iPhone to my Macbook Pro to download photos to my phone, my pages application is now gone from my computer. The icon is still in the dock. What happened and how do I get it back?

After connecting my iphone to my Macbook Pro to download photos to my phone yesterday, my Pages application is gone from my computer. The icon is still in the dock. What happened and how do I get it back? Its not in my trash or anywhere else.

The other 2 applications open like normal. All three give me info.
Pages     ver.4.1          265.8MB
Numbers ver. 2.1          89.5MB
Keynote ver. 5.1.1        238.1MB
They all list Apr 3 as the last time opened. That was when I upgraded to Mavericks. I certainly used pages and numbers since then as I have alot of my work files on this computer?
Just very odd. I did find my original iWorks disc from when I bought the computer. I'm assuming i can reinstall it. Will try that. Thank you for all your help. Would still like to know what did happen?
Kat

Why is my finder icon slipping out of the dock?

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