com.apple.dock.extra.peer.0x7fca8b4193a0.xpcq crashing

It's a bug in the iTunesDockTile.docktileplugin from a recent update of iTunes.

I disabled the plugin and the crashes stopped.

In terminal:

sudo cp -rp "/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/PlugIns" "/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/PlugIns.bak"

sudo rm -rf "/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/PlugIns/iTunesDockTile.docktileplugin"

Hope this helps.

Hi PenelopeTM,

The two lines I mentioned are to be copied and pasted into a terminal window. The first line (cp -rp) creates a copy of the PlugIn directory in case you want to move the buggy plug-in back later, and the second one (rm- rf) removes the plugin package from the disk. The terminal application is in the "Utilities" folder inside of the "Applications" folder on your hard disk. It presents you with a text-based interface for working with the system.

Sudo is a Unix command (MacOS is Unix), that runs the command as the highest-privilege user (root), which is the user that owns the files you are changing. This is part of the Mac/Unix security model that most files on the system are not owned by the user running on the Desktop.

Sudo will ask for your personal password when run to ensure that you are who you say you are and have the rights to elevate privileges to run the command. This means that the user running the command must be a user able to administer the computer (which is set in the Users and Groups control panel).

This whole operation can be done from the Finder as well: Open the "Macintosh HD" from a finder window. Go into the "Applications" folder and find the iTunes application. Right-click on iTunes and select "Show package contents". Go into the "Contents" folder inside the finder window, highlight the PlugIns folder and right-click and select duplicate. You will need to enter your password on the dialog to make the copy. Once the copy is finished, go into the original "PlugIns" directory and move the "iTunesDockTile.docktileplugin" to the trash and empty the trash. You may need to provide your password to the security dialog again.

As you can see, running the commands in the terminal application is much easier to do and fewer steps.

Hope this helps.

"Waiting to see if the Dock crashes and log spamming stop completely (seems to have, for now, at least) but what are the consequences of not having this plugin available to iTunes 12.3.3 in 10.8.5?"

Absolutely nothing critical. The Dock plug-in is responsible for registering the badge number and icon updates on the iTunes Dock icon. It's completely cosmetic and if iTunes is logging an error, it's due to the program explicitly looking for the plug-in to load and not finding it. This is squarely in the realm of developers and the message is meant to tell Apple that something is wrong with the deployment should the logs be submitted to them.

It's very likely that Apple already knows about the Dock crash due to the widespread reporting of this issue and will fix it in a subsequent iTunes update. At install-time, the new iTunes should deploy the new plug-in code and all will be well again.

Hope this helps.

atomicat, had these Dock crashes, and incessant related error messages: Found your post, made a backup copy preserving permissions, and moved the plugin to the trash. Now seeing

4/30/16 1:37:11.690 PM com.apple.dock.extra[311]: Could not load bundle for Dock Extra key iTunesDockTile.docktileplugin

4/30/16 1:37:11.691 PM Dock[183]: Failed to set up extra plugin. file://localhost/Applications/iTunes.app/ Failed to get plugin class.

Waiting to see if the Dock crashes and log spamming stop completely (seems to have, for now, at least) but what are the consequences of not having this plugin available to iTunes 12.3.3 in 10.8.5?

Please post the rest of the crash report.

The Dock plug-in is responsible for registering the badge number and icon updates on the iTunes Dock icon.

Thanks for the solution and for getting back with an explanation of what this iTunes Dock plugin is for. Except for Mail, I have Notifications disabled, so won't miss any that junk.

But, besides the Dock crashes (they were never noticeable, except in the logs) puzzled that the logs were also being relentlessly spammed by these other messages, which have nothing to do with iTunes.

4/30/16 9:35:29.027 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/iTunes.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

4/30/16 9:35:29.029 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/System%20Preferences.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

4/30/16 9:35:29.029 AM Dock[4300]: connection to extra for file://localhost/Applications/System%20Preferences.app/ interrupted

4/30/16 9:35:29.029 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/Reminders.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

4/30/16 9:35:29.030 AM Dock[4300]: connection to extra for file://localhost/Applications/Reminders.app/ interrupted

4/30/16 9:35:29.031 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/Messages.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

4/30/16 9:35:29.031 AM Dock[4300]: connection to extra for file://localhost/Applications/Messages.app/ interrupted

4/30/16 9:35:29.032 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/Calendar.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

4/30/16 9:35:29.032 AM Dock[4300]: connection to extra for file://localhost/Applications/Calendar.app/ interrupted

4/30/16 9:35:29.033 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/FaceTime.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

4/30/16 9:35:29.033 AM Dock[4300]: connection to extra for file://localhost/Applications/FaceTime.app/ interrupted

4/30/16 9:35:29.033 AM Dock[4300]: DockTilePlugin for application file://localhost/Applications/App%20Store.app/ has failed. Trying again in 8 seconds

Thank you atomicat. This is exactly what my problem is. The crash reports started right after I tried to update iTunes.

Except I have no idea what those 2 lines of data are and how you disabled the plugin. Can you break it down for me?

Interesting: with iTunes 12.3.3, on my 10.9, seeing none of these logs or Dock crashes. Not sure why it would matter, but perhaps because I have cDock installed there. Or maybe this bug is only affecting certain OSs.

This absolutely worked - Thanks

So will the bug with the iTunesDockTile.docktileplugin be corrected by Apple in a future update?