I am running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 on an iMac. Three of my dock apps have disappeared - Preview, Fontbook and Mail. The app name still appears above where the Icon should be but the icon itself is invisible. I can still open the app from the dock by clicking under the name in the space where the icon should be. Any suggestions on how to get them back?
iMac 27″, OS X 10.10
Have you tried it in a new user account (admin).
Try restarting in Safe Mode, How to use safe mode on your Mac – Apple Support
Safe Mode takes along time to boot up so be patient, it is running disk repairs and emptying caches.
In Safe Mode try removing the icons from the Dock and then reentering them from the Applications folder.
If that still does not work then try downloading and installing the OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 Combo update.
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1832?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Screenshots could be helpful.
Am I correct in saying that I should only remove the troublesome icons?
I did also read where I should delete com.apple.dock.plist from Preferences in Library, then reboot. I tried that to no avail.
First of all remove the apps from the Dock.
Either click hold and drag upwards to half way up the screen then let go,
you should get a confirmation puff of smoke as the app disappears.
Or Control-click on the app in the Dock go to Options and then click
Remove from Dock.
Open your Applications folder and drag the icon of the app into the Dock
on the left side of the Dock.
Thanks for replying. I have tried that numerous times and still just the name without the icon. I even deleted the three apps from the Dock and rebooted and tried reloading them into the dock to no avail.
Fantastic!! Well done!! When I rebooted in safe mode the icons were displayed correctly. I still deleted them and reinstalled them from Applications anyway. When I rebooted out of safe mode they were still there. So thanks very much for your help. Cheers!
Yes only remove the troublesome apps from the Dock.
Yeah I might have asked you to remove the Dock plist file too.
Thanks so much. I'll give that a try a little later as I'm in the middle of a large job.
I inadvertently selected my own reply as helpful instead of yours. I can't seem to change it. But anyway thanks again for your help. It is most appreciated.
Icons disappearing in dock
