macOS Catalina released just a few days ago. Many Mac users already praise the new features of this newly introduced OS. However, some users are having various problems when they are trying to upgrade to macOS Catalina.
Mar 30, 2018 How to Get Your Mac's Dock to Show Running Apps Only Friday March 30, 2018 1:53 AM PDT by Tim Hardwick Last week we explained how you can use a. Apps can transform the way you do anything you’re passionate about, whether that’s creating, learning, playing games, or just getting more done. And the App Store is the best place to discover new apps that let you pursue your passions in ways you never thought possible.
One of the commonly reported problems is the disappearance of the Mac’s Dock after the update. Some users are reporting that the Dock keeps disappearing forcing users to restart their computers multiple times a day.
If you notice that your Dock is missing after you update, then this article is for you. The Dock offers a great way to easily access your favorite apps. So when it is missing, you may find that very annoying. Here is how you can fix this problem.
Please try each step one at a time until you resolve your issue.
Before we start, please check your Dock settings. Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, then Dock. Here you can change many appearance settings. Please make sure that you did not set the Dock to hide. Make sure that your settings are accurate. You can adjust your settings.
Furthermore, pressing the Option-Command-D keys will hide or show the Dock. Is this shortcut working?
1. Restart your Mac by going to Apple menu > Restart.
2. Start your Mac in safe mode (or safe boot). Here is how:
- Power off your Mac by going to Apple menu > Shut Down
- Turn on your computer and immediately press and hold the Shift key
- Keep pressing the Shift key until you see the login window. When you see the login screen, release the key
- Enter your password (you may have to enter your password a few times, this is normal)
- Now your computer is running in safe mode. Your computer may be slower than normal.
- Do you see the Dock or is it still not visible?
- Now leave the safe mode. To to that simply, turn off your computer and start your computer normally without pressing the Shift key. (cannot exit safe mode?)
3. Resetting the Preferences list may help you fix your problem. Here is how:
- Go to Finder
- Press and hold the Option key down and click “Go” menu in the Finder menu bar.
- Click Library
- This will open the Library folder
- Click the Preferences folder
- Find the file named com.apple.dock.plist
- Delete this folder (move it to Trash)
- And restart your computer
4. If nothing above helps you, you may want to reinstall macOS using macOS Recovery. Here is how:
- Turn off your computer
- Turn on your computer and immediately press and hold the Command (⌘)-R
- Release the keys when you see the Apple logo, or a startup screen.
- You may have to enter your password
- Then you will see the macOS Utilities window
- Select Reinstall macOS and click Continue
See also: Slow Mac? How To Speed Up Mac: Tips and Tweaks
If you’re new to Macs and OS X, you may have noticed that some of your app icons in the Dock have a small black dot under them. The black dot is normally always under the Finder icon no matter what.
The black dot basically indicates that the application is running. It’s kind of like when you launch a program in Windows and it shows up on the taskbar with a grey line underneath it.
On the Mac, most of the apps installed are listed on the Dock, so the only way to tell when something is open is by changing the icon. In OS X, it’s done by simply adding a small black dot.
By default, these indicators are turned on and overall, I find them pretty useful. However, if you prefer to simply use Mission Control or some other method to see your open apps, then you can disable the black dot indicators in System Preferences.
Disable Dot Indicators for Apps in Dock
To do this, click on the Apple icon at the top left and then click on System Preferences.
In the top row, you should see an icon for Dock.
Mac Apps Stay In Dock
When you click on that, you’ll be able to adjust several different settings related to the Dock. The main one we are interested in is at the bottom: Show indicators for open applications.
Once you uncheck that option, you will no longer see the black dots under the app icons. Clicking on an icon where the app is already opened will bring you to that app, just like before.
Mac Apps Stay In Dock After Closing
If you still need to view the currently open apps on your Mac, you can use Mission Control. Just swipe up using three or four fingers and it’ll show you all open windows that are not full-screen in the main area and any full-screen apps up at the top as icons.
Why Do Apps Stay In Dock Mac
Lastly, one other option that I sometimes change in Dock settings is Minimize windows into application icon. Normally, when you minimize an app in Windows, it simply goes to the icon in your taskbar and that’s it. On a Mac, it doesn’t go to the icon by default. Instead, another icon is added to the right side of the dock.
As you can see, if I open Calendar and Notepad at the same time and the minimize them, it creates two more icons at the far right. I find this annoying since I’m used to just having one icon like Windows. When you check that option in dock settings, it will minimize those apps into the app icon rather than separately.
Since Finder can never be closed in OS X, the Finder icon will always have a black dot underneath it. Hopefully, as you begin to learn more about your Mac, it’ll become easier to use. Enjoy!