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

Check out Clear Mac OS X's icon cache. · GitHub @

SteveJobzniak

I've discovered that the BEST, most RELIABLE way to rebuild the icon cache in macOS is to right click the app, "Get Info", drag ANYTHING to its icon in the top left of the "Get Info" window (you can drag a FOLDER to its icon if you want to) to assign a new temporary icon....

Thank you for posting Orlando!

Just a small clarification for Rashdude...

1. Choose the Finder. (E.g. click the mouse on your screen background wallpaper.)
2. When in Finder, go to the menu bar at the top of the screen.
3. Choose top level menu Go
4. While the Go menu is displayed, press the option key to show hidden directories.
5. Choose the Library folder
6. In Library, find and open the Preferences folder
7. See the rest of Orlando's solution.

This solution (mostly) worked for me. I couldn't delete the com.apple.dock.plist file even though I'm an administrator. I had to use the terminal. Note that this solution reverts the doc to default format, including default apps, configuration, and behaviors. If you only have a few missing icons, I'd recommend TA_Allen's approach below.

Go to your applications folder, select ( do not open ) the app in question, bring up the get info box for the app ( I use command i ). Click on the icon at the top of the window and copy, click on the icon under the preview portion of the window and paste. Close the window and click on the dock icon of the app.

I had the same problem after upgrading to High Sierra. I tried many of the fixes here, but the thing that ultimately fixed it was rebooting in Safe Mode.

I found a very easy solution in another thread and it worked! Just restart with the Shift key held down. All of the original icons were there when my Macbook restarted.

i found that when you open SYSTEM preferences then select DOCK ---> position on screen choose LEFT or RIGHT at least appears again. 😁

I was having the same issue.

What worked for me:

Booting up the computer in safe mode. Then simply restarting the computer.

So how to do that?

1. Fully turn off laptop.

2. Then turn on your laptop while holding the shift button (you will be holding the shift button for about 1 minute)

3. Your laptop will boot up then in safe mode (note that the screen may flicker...and may be of poor quality)

4. Once you're at the log in screen, you can stop holding the shift button.

5. Log in to your computer.

6. At this point, for me at least, all of my dock icons were restored on my dock.

7. Then I restarted my laptop and logged in as I normally do. (Meaning powering up my laptop without holding the shift key this time)

Let me know if this works! Good luck

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!

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.

Clear Mac OS X's icon cache. · GitHub read post by Steve Jobzniak in bold - hope that helps.

SteveJobzniak

Hello,

after i've installed the "Combo Update to High Sierra 10.13.2, the problem didn't appear for some days now. MAYBE it's gone now.

The following will do the trick:

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Start in safe mode. As discussed above. Then after they back. Restart in normal mode.

Run NVRAM / PRAM see this article How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support