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Cannot Type in Launchpad

If I activate Launchpad on my MacBook Pro, I can type in the first few letters of an application's name to find its icon. On my iMac, it doesn't take the keyboard input at all.


It is too hard to find the application by inspection, because Launchpad produces a visual jungle of icons spread over many pages, all applications have the same importance (uninstall is just as important to Launchpad as my word processor is), organizing them is manual and tedious, and "folders" of icons can only go one level deep. So I want to use Launchpad's command-line feature to find applications.


How can I fix Launchpad to enable the typing feature?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Mid-2007

Posted on Nov 17, 2012 11:40 AM

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Nov 18, 2012 8:29 AM in response to the0pticnerve

Yes, I've used that and it's great; personally, I don't like it if I have to use more than one click for often used apps or files. I'm still grumbling about the fact that I need to hit Command while opening a folder in the dock in order to get column view (which is the only thing I use) - one simple click used to open such a folder before they came up with stacks, etc. Here is a screenshot of my dock:


User uploaded file

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Jan 3, 2014 4:53 PM in response to Kenneth Collins1

Oddly enough, I fixed this by pressing tab a few times, in Launchpad, and I got cursor key control back as well as typing to filter. Perhaps focus somehow became shifted away from the view (though that should be impossible). I imagine this workaround is of a similar nature to the Cmd+Space solution.

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Jul 28, 2013 5:30 AM in response to dfigallo

Here is a solution:


  • Go to Titanium Software
    They have three free, very high-quality untilities called Deeper, Maintenance, and Onyx.
  • Click on Downloads on the bar at the top
  • Download the version of Maintenance for your operating system. It is free.
  • Run Maintenance.
  • Check everything under the Maintenance and Cleaning headings
  • Uncheck everything under the Rebuild heading (not needed for this purpose)
  • Click Execute

When it is finished, restart the computer as it suggests. The problem should be gone for a few months. When it comes back, run Maintenance again.

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Nov 17, 2012 12:08 PM in response to Munas

Spotlight produces too many results. LaunchPad is really a redundant feature for viewing the icons in the Applications folder. It's apparently designed for OS X rookies who are familiar with iOS.


There are three mainly superficial differences:


Launchpad: Press F4 in any context to display the icons in a graphical overlay

Application Folder: Press Shift+Cmd+A in Finder to display the icons in a Finder folder


Launchpad: Type letters to reduce the number of icons, then double-click to launch

Application Folder: Type letters to find the icon, then use double-click to launch


Launchpad: All icons appear on the top level and are in random order scattered over several screens.

Application Folder: Only top-level icons show, lower-level icons can be revealed


The main difference is that it is easier to activate Launchpad, but easier to find things in the Applications folder.


I know the workarounds, I don't see the wisdom of putting Launchpad in OS X, but since the feature exists, I'd like it to work properly. My question again: how do I enable Launchpad's typing feature?

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Nov 17, 2012 9:12 PM in response to markwmsn

Both computers are running Mountain Lion 10.8.2. I tried the tab key; it does nothing. On the iMac, Launchpad ignores keystrokes. On the MacBook Pro, it works as advertised.


Is there something that needs to be trashed or restarted? Repairing permissions didn't do anything, I tried it again to verify it. I've also emptied caches, rebuild the dyld and launch databases, all to no avail.

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Nov 17, 2012 9:31 PM in response to Kenneth Collins1

Which OS version are you running on the Mac where the search feature is not working? It was introduced with Mountain Lion.


Personally, I see no reason to use Launchpad; I do not need a 27" iPhone or iPad screen. I have 68 neatly organized icons in my dock which give me one click access to most things I need.

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Nov 18, 2012 8:03 AM in response to Kenneth Collins1

Thought I'd share how I launch Applications:


From Finder type Command + Space Bar (keyboard shortcut to spotlight).

Start to type the name of the Application.

One you see the Application highlighted in the top of the spotlight search results, type the return key.


Note that in Spotlight, the hierarchy of the results place Applications first.


Just throwing it out there as an alternative to Launchpad or the dock.

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Nov 18, 2012 10:13 AM in response to Kenneth Collins1

Thanks - I have it set to show as list - column view is not available unless I then choose open in Finder to get what (and the only thing) I want: a Finder window in column view; so I still have to Command + ciick. Either way, it's two clicks rather than the old one click feature.


FWIW, when Launchpad first appeared, I sent in a bug report/feature request to a) be able to adjust the icon sizes and b) be easily user controllable.......Apple's answer: it is working as designed. Okay then! As I later realized, it appeared to be the first of the Mac OS > iOS fusion features.

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Mar 22, 2013 8:30 AM in response to Kenneth Collins1

For some people (not for me though) the following seems to have helped:

open a terminal, and type

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist


Note that this will delete any personalized keyboard shortcuts. It didn't work for me. My Launchpad typing still doesn't work, and none of the suggestions have solved the issue so far.


To all the comments here like "why would you use it?" or, "try this, I haven't had the problem myself but I thought I tell you something anyway" - not helpful. If something doesn't work on my Mac, I have a hard enough time with our IT people telling me "why would you want to use a Mac anyway?"

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Jul 27, 2013 8:41 PM in response to 2Borno2B

I, too...

I can not type in the Launchpad, I can not filter apps and can not rename a new folder.

I deleted the application database (sqlite3 file *.db) in folder /Users/myuser/Library/Application Support/Dock

and then execute "sudo killall Dock" and rebuild Launchpad but... the problem persists, I find no solution Any ideas?

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Nov 17, 2013 10:07 AM in response to Coty Condry

i have 13' retinal late October model


after creating additional profile for my girlfriend i noticed that i can type in launchpad restart helps but not long



Try pressing Command + Space Bar while Launchpad is running. fixed the problem , lets see how long its going to last


thanks Coty Condry for the tip

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Feb 4, 2014 10:02 AM in response to Devvyn

I had the same issue of not being able to get a cursor into the Launchpad search box or, after using the 'pressing tab a few times' workaround suggested by Devvyn, being able to type anything into that box once the cursor was there. I found the problem to be the TotalSpaces2 spaces manager program that I use. I quit that program and Launchpad worked as expected.

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May 21, 2014 1:15 PM in response to Kenneth Collins1

I just wanted to add that I found a lot of the suggestions weren't working for me, but I've managed to get around the issue by simply entering "killall Dock" then restarting the machine. I had to use the [cmd+shift+Q] shortcut to log out after using killall, and loading up was a little slower than usual after restarting, but it seems to have done the trick.


I'm on Mavericks 10.9.2 by the way.

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Cannot Type in Launchpad

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