Can't drag, drop, or move icons from dock

Question

Can't drag, drop, or move icons from dock

The issue exactly is that I can no longer move icons to the dock, remove them from the dock, reorder them, or delete them. The context menu still works fine, I just can't drag and drop. Furthermore, if I attempt to drag and drop from a stack, it reads the action as if I am trying to open the file.

I'm running Yosemite 10.10.1

Things I've tried so far:

Repair disk permissions
Repair ACL permissions
Rebuild directories
Relaunch dock
Reset dock to defaults
Rebooting/logging out (both fix the problem temporarily, however it returns within an hour of regular use)
Trying to hunt down any extensions that might be causing issues...can't find anything (problem persists in guest account as well)
Rebuild and repair kexts
Cleaned out all caches
Reinstalled OS X
Wiped disk and performed clean install.

I don't have anything installed that does any low level modifications (no third party antivirus or tweaking/tune up tools). For the life of me I can't figure this one out and it's really getting annoying to not be able to use my dock.

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Dec 21, 2014 12:42 PM

Reply

Answer 1

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Dec 21, 2014 12:44 PM in response to BleachedSleet

Try removing the Dock settings file. To do it, open a Finder window, select the Go menu (in the menu bar) -> Go to Folder, and type:

~/Library/Preferences

Then, delete the file named "com.apple.dock.plist", and restart your Mac.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 21, 2014 12:46 PM in response to mende1

I've done that. Didn't fix anything and the preferences were never rebuilt. That was before the clean install.

Reply

Answer 3

elenasto

Level 1

0 points

Dec 24, 2014 1:20 AM in response to BleachedSleet

Same here. I have the 2014 rMBP. I can drag and drop to the dock only for a little while after restart. Tried all the things above

Reply

Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Dec 24, 2014 1:51 PM in response to BleachedSleet

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.

If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Learned from leonie.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 24, 2014 2:44 PM in response to Eric Root

As noted above, logging out will temporarily solve the problem but it returns within an hour of use. Restarting the dock does nothing either way.

Reply

Answer 6

Dec 24, 2014 2:46 PM in response to elenasto

My login items are

Yoink
Dropzone
Google Drive
CloudApp
Boom 2
Shazam

Do you have anything on this list that I could compare to?

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 3, 2015 3:38 AM in response to BleachedSleet

I have the exact same problem faced!

Boom 2 and Google Drive are the only common apps with you. I'm on 10.10.2 though.

Reply

Answer 8

CT

Level 7

23,987 points

Jan 3, 2015 4:57 AM in response to BleachedSleet

What about when starting up in Safe Mode ?

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 5, 2015 11:29 PM in response to CT

Safe mode doesn't help unfortunately.

I've escalated this issue through Apple support and they did an advanced analysis of my computer. I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I will update this thread when I do.

Reply

Answer 10

Jan 6, 2015 1:56 AM in response to BleachedSleet

That's great!

Looking forward...

Reply

Answer 11

Jan 12, 2015 8:01 AM in response to BleachedSleet

Any update on this? I've been having the same issue. None of my icons overlap anyone else's mentioned ones here. I have Chrome, Airmail, Slack, Evernote, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Messages, Sequel Pro, Sublime Text, PhpStorm, and Terminal.

It's really frustrating.

Reply

Answer 12

Jan 12, 2015 6:24 PM in response to ChenAsraf

No updates yet. Still waiting to hear back from tech support.

Reply

Answer 13

iShonari

Level 1

0 points

Jan 16, 2015 9:27 AM in response to BleachedSleet

I am having the same issue. It is sooo frustrating. I have tried everything above to no avail.

Any help I can get is much appreciated

Reply

Answer 14

Feb 10, 2015 10:30 AM in response to BleachedSleet

Just thought I would add to the list. I am having the same issue as well. Has been happening for the last week or so, not sure if it was before updating to 10.10.2 or started after updating though

Reply

Answer 15

Rimher

Level 1

0 points

Feb 14, 2015 8:38 AM in response to PaperThin88

I'm having the exact same problem. No dragging or dropping worked whatsoever; I've been able to reset my Dock through this Terminal Command:

rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db ; killall Dock

But achieved absolutely nothing since I still cant' move icons around, I just had my dock reset to its original state

Reply