How to add missing apps to Launchpad? Most of the apps in my Finder do not appear in Launchpad.

Thanks for your solution! I used a variation of it which worked under Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion.

I put an alias of the application in the main Application folder, which wasn't showing up in Launchpad, into my Users’ Application folder. An icon for the formerly missing application then appeared in Launchpad. The icon persisted in Launchpad even after I trashed the alias from my User’s Application folder. I only have one account on my computer, not multiple users.

Making an alias worked for me as well. I created a folder for games and put all my games in there. I saw an icon in Launchpad which was blank - just the dotted outline. I just dragged it into my games folder - Poof! Games folder and games gone from Launchpad though I could see them in the App folder and find them with Spotlight. Creating an alias fixed the problem. And thanks for the tip that even if the alias is deleted, it will persist in Launchpad.

I have a similar problem. I am trying to download mods for farming simulator (an app) and to apply them you have to drag a folder of mods into farming simulator which can be found in application support via finder via library. When I enter application support in library in finder however, my farming simulator app is not there. How can I get farming simulator into my application support?

In Lion and Mountain Lion, you can drag an Application onto the Launchpad icon in your Dock (only in your Dock, so add it momentarily if it isn't there already) and it will show up. To remove an application from Launchpad, click on it with the ctrl+opt+cmd keys all pressed.

Strangely however, adding apps doesn't work that way with OS X Mavericks [as of Dev Preview 2]. I really hope they add that back for the final release.

make sure that the application is in the Applications folder.
if the application in the application folder just move it to trash then go to trash and two finger click on it and choose put back or just copy it then go to Application folder and two finger click and choose move to

Hi,

I have read every post on this thread and tried every single onw without success.

I installed X-Plane 10 32 bit from dVD which shows up in launchpad.

Since then 64 bit X-plane 10 has been released over a series of update via download. While I have the 64 bit icon within the X-plane 10 folder inside the applicaiotns folder, there is no 64 bit icon displayed in launchpad.

I have treid moving onto th elaunchpad icon, deleting it making aliases etc all to no avail.

Does anyone else have any suggestions why I have a 32 bir icon in launchpad but the 64 bit stedfastly refuses to move into launchpad.

Incidentally I am running Mavericks on a 27" 2012 imac.

Thanks

Hi baw079,

Here you go a fix : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daTqnbGvJM4

@Jackrowe that worked for me - thank you!

OMG! Thank you so much, Jackrowe!

Thank you soooo much!!

Thanks TimsTech! That did the trick for me. Do you know if there is a way to remove apps that you don't want in LaunchPad?

Since adding apps in launchpad with the dragging method does not always work, I'm wondering if there is a terminal command that does this. I have tried to type

sqlite3 /Users/_/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/_.db "INSERT into apps (title,bundleid) VALUES ('_','_');"

which adds an entry to the launchpad database but does not really makes the app appear.

I found a solution. In case an app is not being added to the launchpad by simply dragging the app icon into the launchpad icon in the dock, first we delete the entry of the app in the launchpad database by typing into Terminal

sqlite3 file.db "DELETE from apps WHERE title='Application Name';"

file.db is the name of the database in Username/Library/Application Support/Dock

then

killall Dock

then drag the app icon into the launchpad icon.

dragging outlook to the launchpad doesn't work for me. Does Apple not allow windows apps there or is this just another apple kinda-works-kinda-not thing?

Windows apps and Mac apps are written very differently, and you can't run Mac apps on Windows nor Windows apps on Mac OS. It would be like trying to play a DVD in a music CD player--a technology difference, not a rule of what's allowed.

But you can add software to your Mac (like Parallels or VMWare) to run Windows and Mac OS simultaneously, and that allows you to run Windows apps without booting fully into Windows. I assume you're using one of those two software packages.

If you want Windows apps to pretend to be Mac apps, that's a function of VMWare or Parallels, so I'd look to them for troubleshooting if there's an issue with that.