One of my applications disappeared for no obvious reason from launchpad. I can still go to applications in finder and launch it, but I'd like to get it back in launchpad. How do I do it?
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9), It disappeared from launchpad
Are you sure it wasn't moved to a second page in Launchpad?
Try moving it from Applications to your Desktop then move it back.
It's not on the second page or in a folder in launchpad.
Moving it from applications to the desktop created an alias.
Moving the alias from the desktop back to applications left the alias in applications.
This had no effect on launchpad - it did not recreate the icon in launchpad.
You didn't move it, you created an alias.
My apologies, hold down COMMAND while dragging it to the Desktop
Holding down command and dragging it creates a copy on the desktop. Moving it back to applications, I selected replace. This has no effect on the missing icon in launchpad. Note that I moved the actual application file which is in a corresponding application folder. It's photoshop CS6.
Option should copy, Command should move.
Try resetting Launchpad:
Triple-click the line below to select it
~/Library/Application Support/Dock
then right-click (CTRL-click) > Services > Open
This will open a folder. Inside the folder are one or more files with long names consisting of a string of letters & numbers and ending in .db. Move those files to the Desktop.
Leave the folder open and log out.
Then log back in, and check to see if it is fixed.
If it isn’t, put the files you moved back where they were and overwrite the ones that may have been created in their place.
If it is fixed, delete the files on from the Desktop.
1. You're correct about moving files. I used command and pushed and held down the trackpad to drag the file before, but it simply copied it. This time I held down command and dragged the files with a 3-finger gesture, and it moved them.
2. When I logged back in, as you might expect, my 3 desktop backgrounds were reset to the "green wave", but still photoshop was incorrect.
3. I have "Adobe Photoshop CS6", PS CS6 (Creative Suite 6), and "Adobe Photoshop CC", PS CC (Creative Cloud). Both versions come with a companion program Bridge, so I also have "Adobe Bridge CS6" and "Adobe Bridge CC". Both versions of Bridge have icons in launchpad. Only one version of Photoshop appears in launchpad (both did until a few days ago). Right now it's the CC version which is the better choice. When I moved the Dock files and signed off/on, launchpad had all the icons juggled, but only the CS6 version was there. I moved the originals back (overwriting the new ones) so now I get the CC version plus my original desktop backgrounds. Maybe it has something to do with the length of the application name? I'm beginning to think this may never be resolved. Thanks for all the help - your thoughts?
Is the app that is missing in a subfolder in Applications?
If so, try dragging it into the main Applications folder.
Photoshop apps are
~/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6(folder)/Adobe Photoshop CS6(application)
and
~/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC(folder)/Adobe Photoshop CC(application)
Also, when I tried the 3-finger move on either folder, I simply got a copy, not a move. Thinking back, I suspect I lost one of the Photoshop icons in launchpad following a reboot, but am not sure. I clicked that you helped me because I now have a better understanding of what's happening.
I didn't try dragging the apps out of their folders; the Bridge apps are in their own corresponding folders and launchpad works OK with them. I would need to drag them back to their proper folders before running or updating them in the future, so the problem would probably come back, assuming it got fixed in the first place.
Try creating a new user, sign in and see if it exists.
Also, you can try booting in Safe Mode see if it exists there also.
Starting up in Safe Mode
To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.
I'm not really comfortable with creating another user and then having to delete that account and clean up all the files. The boot in safe mode didn't seem to make any difference. Thanks again for your help.
I am just trying to see if it is specific to your account or global.
If the new user account works you may want to migrate you data to the new account and delete your current one.
I understand you aren't comfortable with it but you should know that deleting a user account is quite simple and you can opt to delete the Home folder with the account. Nothing really to clean up but that decision is entirely up to you.
I created another account, standard user, and saw no difference. I deleted it including the home directory.
When I first got this macbook, I got everything working then read about creating another account as admin, and demoting myself to standard, and that's how things stand now. So I can log into the admin account or else put in the admin login to change certain things. The only issue I've had since changing from admin to standard is that now parallels shows red in the Activity Monitor and indicates "not responding" when, in fact, it is working OK except for being red and saying "not responding".
In any case, the admin account, and the test account I created for your test, do not indicate that they have library files in their home folders. Perhaps they are hidden, I don't know enough to check. Consequently I couldn't find another "Dock" directory with associated files. They must have existed, because the desktop backgrounds reverted to default.
So, I can't report any further progress, except to say it doesn't seem to be unique to my account.
Have you tried dragging the app icon from the subfolder inside applications to the Launchpad icon on the dock.
I tried dragging the app icon from the ~\Applications\appfolder to the Launchpad icon on the dock, but it didn't seem to land in the Launchpad icon or do anything. Launchpad stayed the same. Too bad, that would have been a really elegant solution!
Thanks again Axeman1020 for all the ideas.
Try doing a Dock restart using the following Terminal command:
killall Dock
Log out/in and test. If that doesn’t work, you need to look in your user Library/Applications Support/Dock for the .db. Use the Finder “Go To Folder” command. Enter ~/ Library/Applications Support/Dock. Move the .db to your desktop.
Then try a dock reset.
Applications/Utilities/Terminal enter the command
killall Dock
Log out/in test. If it works okay, delete the .db from the desktop.
If the Dock is the same, return the .db to where you got them from, overwriting the newer ones.
how to make an application appear in launchpad
