Dock doesn't disappear after being prompted a restart or shut down

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Dock doesn't disappear after being prompted a restart or shut down

Hello,

When I prompt my MBP (13 inch, last model before Retina)to shut down or reboot, everything closes but the dock. The finder bar disappears and so do my desktop icons. I don't have any programs running but the dock will sit there, I've let it sit for over an hour and it does nothing. This forces me to reboot using the power button which I know isn't good for my laptop. Has anyone else experienced this before? Thank you for reading my post, I am normally very well equipped with technology but this I cannot seem to figure out!

Thanks a bunch!

-Ryan

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 31, 2015 8:26 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 31, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Ladasha

Here are a few things you can try - Go to your Utilities folder and launch 'Terminal'. In this window, type:

killall -KILL Finder

This will quit and restart the Finder. Then do a restart as normal and see if it restarts properly. If it does, for some reason your Finder is crashing.

killall -KILL Dock

The above command will quit and restart the Dock. Many Yosemite users have complained on various forums that their Dock hangs on restarts. You can perform a shutdown or restart from the menu as normal and see if it performs as expected. If it does, well, your Dock is crashing.

launchctl stop com.apple.Dock.agent

This is the same as the killall - KILL Dock command, but may be a work-around if the first command doesn't do the trick.

Do note that everything is case-sensitive.

If you are finding that you need to perform the killall command for every restart, it may be time to Time Machine backup your drive and perform a format-re-install-restore on your Mac.

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Answer 2

Ladasha Author

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Jul 31, 2015 9:19 PM in response to Neil Yates

Thank you, I will try those things ASAP. Could you point me in the right direction on how to fix a "preparing backup" TM backup, if possible?

Best,

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Answer 3

Jul 31, 2015 9:22 PM in response to Ladasha

Here's some great tips if you are getting the 'Preparing backup...' for a long time:

http://osxdaily.com/2014/03/31/time-machine-stuck-preparing-backup-mac-fix/

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