OS X Catalina - Dock has disappeared

I had the very same problem with my Dock preferences resetting on the spot. My changes wouldn't stick. My Dock had disappeared, and the only way I could see it was by holding down the Control key while pressing the down arrow. Finally had success after resetting the P-RAM (Parameter RAM). Been a very long time since I did that, and, frankly, I'm surprised I remembered it to give it a try. Zapping P-RAM will reset your system prefs.

To zap your P-PRAM, restart your machine, and when the screen first disappears, press Command, Control, P, and R. Hold down those four keys until you hear the Mac startup chime, then you can release. If you hear the Mac startup chime again, you'll know you've successfully performed the procedure.

After your Mac has started back up, go to your Dock prefs. Now the changes you make there should stick. At least, they did for me. Good luck, and I hope this works for you.

I keep having the same problem. But my dock will come back after if I spam the change size of the dock arrow or scroller thing. if move it the size after it appears though it will disappear again and I will have to click it a bunch again till it appears again. hope this helps you

I have same issues described. I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012). I re-installed Catalina last night -- this fixed issue temporarily, but now my Dock has again disappeared. I can get the dock to appear briefly when I open System Preferences, click on DOCK, and adjust the "size" with the slider,,, but it disappears the moment I remove my curser from the slider "size" control.

I'm having the same problem but on my 2012 Macbook Pro. I followed a guide earlier today to fix the issue and it did fix it until I had to shut my computer down again. My dock shows up in launchpad but it doesn't show up on my desktop.

I'm having the same dual monitor issue with the dock on my Mac Mini 2018, bought just a few weeks ago.

Not only the dock won't launch, but the primary monitor also switches from the one to the other randomly (both connecter via Usb-C to Display port) and even sometimes, the apps shortcuts on the top right of the menu bar don't start.

The trick I found was to reset the PRAM in order to revive the dock, and then change again the setting that makes the dock hide automatically.

It's not the first time I'm having issue with MacOS updates and multiple monitors, I guess Apple don't check this kind of configuration enough. Usually, the next versions correct these kind of glitches.

I solved it by turning off "Displays have separate Spaces" in System Preferences > Mission Control. Now the dock opens and hides without issue on a 2019 MBAr running Catalina. Curious if that works for others.

I was having the same issue this morning after it was working fine last night. I went into the preferences folder in library, found the apple dock file (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist) and deleted it and then restarted the computer. All has been good again. Of course you need to rearrange your dock as it was before since it won't save the order it was in. Hope that helps someone.

Ok...so after tying (unsuccessfully) all the solution approaches within this string and being very close to going to genius bar... I accessed System Preferences/Dock via the Apple in the top menu. I unchecked 'Automatically hide and show the Dock' and it STAYED unchecked which wasn't the case when I was 'temporarily' accessing System Preferences/Dock via the 4-finger up-swipe. Hope this helps others as it did me.

I discovered a more permanent fix: I have an external monitor. If I detach the monitor when cold starting my Macbook, the dock shows up normally. After the startup sequence is complete, then I attach the external monitor; the Dock remains and functions normally.

I'm using a MacBook with Catalina 10.15: I just restarted and now the dock will not show up when I drop my cursor to the bottom pane. Under System Preferences, I have:

Magnification: checked

All the box stacked up under that: checked

When using Airplay, that solution of unplugging the external monitor does not apply. I fixed via: System Preferences > Dock. Slide the top slider left and right (it's labeled "Size"). Then I toggled the checkbox for "Automatically hide and show the dock" (even though that was unchecked when I had issues originally). Rebooting twice and unchecking "Automatically hide and show the dock" fixed the issue. Undocumented feature?

Yes, I lost my dock this morning, yesterday it was all the items and data on my desktop, day before it was all my usernames and passwords. Right now it will only run (if you want to call it that) in Safe Mode to be able to use the dock. Apple has not been much help.

Yes, under Mission Control, I see the Dock. But with my Dock supposed at the bottom of my screen with "Automatically hide & show the Dock" clicked, the Dock will 100% not appear at the bottom of my screen. Before I upgraded to Catalina it worked find.

This is precisely what happened to me. Dock was there yesterday after I first updated. But today, after restarting my MacBook it will not appear at the bottom of my screen. I have to go to Mission Control to access it.

I tried all the mentioned solutions above but nothing helped.

What worked for me:

I navigated to System Preferences -> General and switched on the "Automatically hide and show the menu bar". That's all (I think). Even when I switch it back off again, the dock is still working fine.