(High Sierra) Dock Icons get missing at all the time

Another quick fix might be the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock

I built a Terminal command workflow with the Automator. Since this Icon hiccup happens every now and then, i have it ready on my desktop. Click + Go.

Cheers

P.S. Apple pls solve this annoying problem already!

In my case, remove the preference files do even worst.

Now some icons that were displaying properly are missing.

Reminders, Messages, FaceTime, Pages, Terminal icons are missing into the Dock and even into Launchpad.

I am using Macos High Sierra updated from Macos Sierra.

This wasn't a success for me. Then trouble is that the icons on the dock now have the little arrow on the bottom left to show that they are aliases. It also doesn't fix the missing icons in the applications folder.

You are correct: it is not a fix, I described creating aliases as a temporary work-around to be able to visually distinguish which icon is which in less than five minutes. For me, being able to tell which is which was enough to get on with my work and put more time into a full solution at a later time (as many others have been provided above). This is only a band-aid for people like me who didn't have time to do the necessary backups etc, before trying other solutions.

Many thanks to the others in the community for the more detailed solutions!

Cheers,

:)T

I had this issue on High Sierra after updating with the latest security patches. To resolve it, I restarted the Mac, holding the Shift key when I heard the chime and booting into safe mode. Once in safe mode you will see the icons are there, you can then restart and allow the Mac to start normally and all the icons are restored.

For those wondering how to access the library folder, you can open your terminal application (command + space, then type in "terminal" and open it). In the terminal, type "open /Library/Preferences" to open the preferences folder, then you can delete the 2 files mentioned in the other answer.

I got this issue after upgrading to 10.13.2. I called Apple Support and they talked me through booting to the disk repair utility, we ran disk first aid, rebooted, and the icons were restored to their former glory.

Don't be so sure about that atlonxp,

Today is January 5th. I have just installed High Sierra because there was a very persistent message (even inconvenient) on the top right of my screen. After a daily fight to get rid of it in a gracious way and overcome by fatigue, in order to pay attention to my own work, I just gave up after a few months and upgraded today. Now I have the same problem: lack of several icons on the dock! No Apple didn't address this bug yet!

The thing is that Apple gets more and more expensive, and more and more problematic. I'm really almost done with them, after purchase 1 iPod, 2 iPhones, 3 iPads, 2 iMac, a Macbook Pro and lots of other things including software that now doesn't work because they "upgraded". Apple is not answering. Apple is leaving their men behind. I'm very sorry.

I tried deleting the dock plist file and restarting my computer but it didn't help me; the app icons were still missing in the dock.

To fix each missing app icon, I removed the icon from the dock and then added it back. To do that, I

* Right-clicked the icon in the dock, then clicked Options, then I made sure Keep in Dock was unchecked.

* Then I closed the app if it was open. At this point, the app with the missing icon was no longer in the dock.

* Next, I opened the app (using Spotlight, the magnifying glass in the top right of the screen). Now that the app was open, its (correct) icon was on the right side of the dock. I then dragged the app icon to the left to where I wanted it in the dock so that it would stay in the dock.

I did that for the 5 or so apps that had been missing their icons. So far, all the app icons are still correct.

by the way, I had this issue when running macOS 10.13.2 High Sierra.

good luck!

Howie

actually, i tried on another mac with macOS 10.13.2 my suggestion of removing an app from the dock and then adding it back and it didn't work. when i removed and tried to re-add an app with a missing icon from the dock, it came back with the missing icon. i noticed that a lot of the app icons in Finder in the Applications folder also had the same missing app icon. i then deleted the dock plist file and also installed the macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Update and then restarted; after the reset, all the dock icons were ok again. i'm not sure if deleting the dock plist file or installing the Supplemental Update and restarting is what fixed it (i should have tried one at a time). simplest and cleanest thing to try is to install the Supplemental Update and restart. hopefully that's all that was necessary.

Remove the applications from the Dock (click and drag them into your desktop area and they will be removed), then re-open the offending applications via Finder or Launchpad and reselect them to "Keep in Dock".

If this does not immediately fix it, go to Macintosh HD -> Library -> Preferences and remove "com.apple.dock.plist" and "com.apple.dock.extra.plist" (you may not have the "extra" file). Then restart your machine and repeat the process above (ie remove and reselect to keep them in the dock), if it has not already self-resolved.

Its in Finder and the solution worked for me... i only had the file "com.apple.dock.plist" but removing this, shutting down and restarting worked for the dock... launchpad has a similar problem, but i rarely use it and will sort that later

I cannot believe how often people think that removing the icons then re-adding them will solve anything.
Yes, the icons reappear for some time.

BUT THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM THAT APPLE HAS INTRODUCED IN HIGH SIERRA IS STILL THERE.

High Sierra tends to scramble the caches in some weird ways. It's mainly the finder/dock cache, but also the launch services.

Neither resetting NVRAM nor starting into SAFE MODE nor messing around with the ICON CACHES will permanently and definitely solve the problem. It always will pop up again at some point.

Installing the COMBO UPDATE made the problem go away, but after the latest "security patch", it's back again.

I also suspect it has to do with hibernation and how caches behave before sleep and after wakeup , but that's another topic.

APPLE has seriously messed around with cache behaviour, permissions and maybe the relativity theory to address some serious security issues, but it turned out to spoil the party in some weird ways.

The only reliable workaround we have to this date is to start into SAFE MODE by pressing the SHIFT KEY during startup, then restart into normal mode and hope, it takes some time for "High"Sierra to get stoned again.

There's no such thing als "Apple's support for this". At least not in these threads here. It's a user-based discussion&help group.
If you still have Apple Care, they will try to take care (just call them, they are nice guys). But in this case, it's a software bug - and unless they work on it on the developer level, they won't be able to help you either.

Quality of Apple products and software should be addressed as a No.1 issue by the company. Everyone knows this isn't the case right now. This is a showstopping error if it continues. But if they have ears to hear, they know this already.