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Icons and dock missing from desktop

I restarted my macbook and nothing loads. Everything on the desktop is missing. The dock is missing. Even the time and stuff in the upper right corner are gone. The bar at the top with the apple logo and tabs that say File, Edit, View, etc, are the only things that appear. I'm able to clock on them and search for things I have saved, but nothing appears on the desktop. It's just a big blank blue screen. I did some research online and someone said to hold the Shift key, but that didn't work. Messing with the dock setting in system preferences doesn't work either. If anyone has some tips, it would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 24, 2015 1:03 PM

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3 replies

Apr 25, 2015 6:55 AM in response to ginatherese90

Hello Ginatherese,


You could download and apply the 10.6.8 combo updater, assuming you are still using Snow Leopard and your profile is up to date. Here it is ...


https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?locale=en_GB


If you have previously done this it does not matter, nor will it affect your files. It does bring your OS up to date and in the process rejig some of the parts that may have gone wrong.

Apr 26, 2015 7:35 AM in response to ginatherese90

Do a backup.


Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.desktop.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.


Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.


If the same, return the .plists to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Icons and dock missing from desktop

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