Cannot re-arrange dock icons

Question

Level 1

14 points

Cannot re-arrange dock icons

I just updated to OS 10.6.6 and wanted to change the order in which icons appear on the dock. Normally, this is a simple matter of point, select, drag the icon, release; it's not happening. The dock and icons are functioning normally in all other respects, as far as I can see. I just can't "grab" those icons anymore. Suggestions? Is this a new feature of the update (i.e. that Apple has removed the ability customize the dock)?

MacBook Pro, iBook Dual USB, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 16GB iPod Touch 2G,30GB iPod Photo,

Posted on Jan 11, 2011 5:57 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,917 points

Jan 11, 2011 5:59 PM in response to Henrik

Open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and run:

defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool false;killall Dock

(56103)

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Answer 2

Henrik Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 11, 2011 8:58 PM in response to Niel

Thanks, can you tell me what that is?

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Answer 3

Henrik Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 11, 2011 9:05 PM in response to Niel

Niel, is (56103) part of the command?

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Answer 4

bernuli

Level 1

69 points

Jan 11, 2011 9:18 PM in response to Henrik

No it is not part of the command.

Here is a quick breakdown of what that command(s) does (do)

"defaults" starts up the an application that writes configuration files
"write" tells the defaults application to write
"com.apple.dock" the file we are writing too
"contents-immutable -bool false" the value you are writing
";" ends the last command, ready for a new one
"killall" Dock restarts the dock

I had to lookup immutable, then it all made sense. ; )

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Answer 5

Henrik Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 11, 2011 9:32 PM in response to bernuli

Thanks, the prompt on terminal is:

isprime:~ Henrik$

is that correct?

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Answer 6

Niel

Level 10

726,917 points

Jan 11, 2011 9:35 PM in response to Henrik

Yes, that's correct.

(56110)

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Answer 7

Henrik Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 11, 2011 9:44 PM in response to Niel

Thanks, I ran the command (by cut and paste method), but it had no effect. Dock works normally, except for the fact that I cannot "grab" select an icon in order to drag it to another position i.e new neighbors on the the dock.

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Answer 8

Jan 12, 2011 12:51 AM in response to Henrik

Did you try running Disk Utility to verify the disk and repair permissions?

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Answer 9

Jan 12, 2011 1:09 AM in response to bernuli

Forgive my intrusion, but the semi-colon at the end of the command should be a colon, surely?

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Answer 10

CT

Level 7

23,987 points

Jan 12, 2011 5:12 AM in response to Henrik

You could try trashing the dock preferences - there are two files starting with home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock .

You may have to restart the dock, which you can do by quitting it in Activity Monitor, or just logging out and in.

charlie

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