iPad dock keeps disappearing

I Found a way around turning my iPad off and then back on to get the dock show up. I simply drag all my icons off the dock and don’t use it anymore. When it disappears I’m still able to use the apps and I don’t miss the dock. I have noticed another issue since the update. My Apple Pencil is no longer linked with my iPad after first turning it on. I always have to plug it in the side to get it to recognize I have a pencil. Hope this helps everybody with their dock issues until they can get it fixed.

I am having the same problem since shortly after the last update. Apple chat support wanted me to restore my ipad, so in trying to backup to itunes, it kept recognizing malware and wouldn’t backup (another issue I see apple has). Then the tech said use icloud to backup instead. I questioned what I would lose and have to set up again, that the two backups weren’t the same and she was insisting it was...I know differently from what I have read. So for now I have not restored my ipad, but I moved the icons out of the dock so I have access to them when the dock disappears. If and when they fix it, I will use the dock again. Another issue since the last update...my music will suddenly pause itself. Not sure what is causing that but one solution I read was turning Siri off, which I don’t use often, and so far that has worked...only been one day though so we will see.

I just started having this same issue on my iPad mini 4. It’s a bit out of the blue since I updated to 11.1.2 at least a week ago and I’ve been using my same apps, and the issue didn’t appear until today. Maybe related—I think I was using messages right before I noticed the dock went missing (in landscape orientation). Either messages or a game called ruzzle. And in messages, I was trying to play an Animoji someone sent me but it was very glitchy and refused to play normally at first. After a couple tries it eventually played correctly, and soon after that was when I noticed the dock was missing.

As I’m typing this, I also realize the keyboard autocorrect in iOS 11 is also very glitchy.

I didn’t realize there was another page of comments. I just read them, and the similarity I found is that around the time I noticed the dock was missing I was using a game that has full page ads, video and still. Though in my case the game was different (ruzzle, not cribbage). The ads are also sometimes glitchy, displaying only a white screen. One ad is a white screen with a tiny banner ad in the top left corner.

Note to those who move icons off the dock—another option you have is to just use spotlight to search for your app. It’s pretty easy. Some people even use spotlight to open their apps all the time.

My feeling is that in the recent iOS release there was a change to video handlers and some apps are taking control of the display may be using calls that re no longer the way they were. So when they finish iOS is left in a state that is not compatible with the dock. Just a guess but that seems to fit with my experience. Trouble with it is that Apple devs can say that there is nothing wrong with their code and of course the app companies believe that there is nothing wrong with their code either!

I found that rotating the iPad Pro to portrait mode the back to landscape then to landscape again showed the dock on the second rotation to landscape. Although the dock remained the same size as in portrait mode it still worked.

Hope this helps, Geoff

I have this problen too since upgrade to ios 11, i was on an ipad air and have just upgraded to ipad pro 12.9

both have the problem

i am pretty sure it occours when i use angry birds 2 and am also convinced it is the embeded adverts that cause this

if i flip top to botton the doc appear in the centre of the screen and then disapears when flipped back

if i fip to portrait the doc appears offest to one side at the bottom and then disappears when i go back to landscape

my guess is that the doc has a location variable to place it on the screen which is corrupted by this bug and its virtual position is actually an inch or two below the bottom of the screen. When you flip the screen that position variable is changed using a reative shift of x,y to place it appropriately for the screen orientation but because its value is corrupted the relative variable change puts the doc in the wrong place when you flip the screen

turning off and on fixes the problem, it resets the doc position variable to default, temporarily until the next corruption but thats a real pain

apple you need to fix this please

This just occurred on my iPad as well. if I rotate my iPad I can see it, then it disappears again. Happened after I downloaded an app yesterday with full page ads, I didn’t like the app and deleted it, now this problem has shown up.

Just had a support call with apple on this

they are aware of the problem and have escalated it to investigate and fix

they had me do two things that MAY have resolved this permanently for some people

1 go to setting general , go to the bottom select reset, select reset all settings

i was a bit nervous but they assured no data would be lost

lost some minor config like walpaper Wi-fi password etc but rest all good

it restored the iPad dock but a reset is the same as turning on and off however support chap says this MAY fix it permanently

this is not a thing to do repeatedly but just the once to see if it resets the bug permanently

2 he suggested I swipe up and get the control panel and switch the lock rotate on and off

i think the idea was that if it happens again to try this to see if it fixes problem

wish we had tried this first🙈😑

my apple fault will remain open and I will continue to play angry birds 2 which seems to cause the problem quite frequently and report back to apple if problem recurs

i mentioned quite a few people have reported on the forum had not seen much apple interaction so far

he assures me it’s on their internal forum and is being actively investigated by apple

hopefully we will see a firmware update soon👍-1F3FB;😏

good luck

So update on my previous post

reset all does get rid of quite a few tedious settings which took me over an hour to put back so do a full backup before trying this

more importantly it just doesn’t work. I started angry birds 2 and watched one add and the doc was gone again😩😭😩😭😩

I tried switching the lock rotation whilst changing the orientation in all sorts of combinations and this had no effect either

in short a flat bust👎-1F3FC;👎-1F3FC;👎-1F3FC;👎-1F3FC;

will report back to apple

Had another chat with apple support

They suggested a full reset to factory and reinstall again, I told them I thought it unlikley that this would resolve anything

we had quite a long chat with a very nice chap call Cuan he informed me they have had a handful of other reports so I think that many people are not logging this, although they are looking into this I don’t get the impression that it is a high priority I strongly recommend logging it as a fault if you can so we move up the priority list

Interestingly my own problem is either occurring less frequently or has been resolved, the only game I play in angry birds 2 and they released an update on 20/12 since then I have not lost my doc, maybe the app providers are doing something wrong and have been forced to fix it by Apple. Or maybe I just haven’t hit an advert that does the bad thing recently, who knows.

Cuan had asked me to do a full encrypted backup and the do a factory reset add angry birds and see if the problem happens on a factory install but as I can no longer reproduce the problem 🏼there seems little point doing this.

I have a call scheduled with Cuan in the new year for an update as he has promised to touch base with the engineers and see if they are planning to do anything or can suggest a fix

If anyone else has noticed an improvement please post here

I've simply stopped using the Dock at all. It's not a feature -- it's a big, ol' honkin' bug. I followed Apple Support's sure-fire fix instructions, and it didn't work. I can't afford to spend all day, every day, restarting my iPad, changing its vertical or horizontal orientation, or fiddling with Settings in the hope that some change will permanently fix the problem. It's a pervasive, annoying bug that has affected both iPad Pros in our household. Apple needs to fix this.

Completely agree with candacevanlion but it appears that people are not logging this as a fault, apple claim that only a handful have reported it. I am of the opinion it is a much bigger problem so encourage everyone to report this directly to apple. I have asked apple why no reply here and they say that they do not monitor this forum so it’s only function is for us to share intel

good luck everyone

I called support today as my dock kept moving, partially showing or disappearing. Th support person said that some day they will release a beta program that may fix it. As of now there is nothing to be done. By the way, I’ve contacted support for 2 months. Then finally took it to the Applestore, where they said it must be a hardware problem. They finally gave me a new iPad. When I downloaded my programs from the cloud the new IPad did the same thing.

The reset works temporarily, but it continues to happen. I too play Angry Birds 2. I’m going to delete it. But, APPLE NEEDS TO FIX THIS! This renders the dock useless. Who is coding your fixes? This is ridiculous. It started after the update.