Cannot Add, Remove, Move, or Drag icons from Dock

Question

I'm using OS X Yosemite (10.10.2) and recently I have been unable to drag or move any items on the dock. Right clicking them gives no option for "remove from dock", and the icons cannot be rearranged. New icons cannot be added, old icons cannot be deleted.

I have tried restarting, and resetting dock preferences to default, and killall Dock, as suggested by earlier askers. None of it works.

I heard about problems with PushBullet - but I do not have PushBullet. Just in case, I deleted a lot of random applications. Still nothing works.

I've tried various commands from lots of answerers on other questions. I've consulted the Mac Help pages. Nothing.

Does anyone know how I can resolve this? After resetting my Dock in an attempt to fix it, it is now filled with the default icons too. This is really limiting my productivity.

Admin account, I presume? I'm wondering if perms have gotten screwed somewhere… maybe see http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/42107/85275 — Tetsujin, Jun 27 '15 at 19:28
Have you tried deleting com.apple.dock from ~/Library/Preferences? — MorganR, Jun 27 '15 at 19:55
@MorganR I think I already have tried it, because I don't see it in the directory. I do see com.apple.dock.plist, should I try deleting that too? — moonkey69420, Jun 27 '15 at 19:57
No - just follow the instructions, you're not actually going to be resetting the password, but that's the only way into this particular 'fix' — Tetsujin, Jun 27 '15 at 19:57
@DaemonOfTheWest Sorry, I should have been more clear. Yes, delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and restart your machine. When you log back in, your Dock should have reset. — MorganR, Jun 27 '15 at 19:58
@MorganR Just did that and restarted. Still unable to move icons. — moonkey69420, Jun 27 '15 at 20:00
Yeah. They were the default ones already tho because I reset preferences once in an attempt to fix it. — moonkey69420, Jun 27 '15 at 20:04
Maybe related to http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/166999/cant-rearrange-dock-icons/168804 — emx, Jan 25 '17 at 13:03

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 27 '15 at 19:18

2

Make sure the Dock is not locked:

defaults delete com.apple.Dock contents-immutable && killall -HUP Dock

answered Jun 27 '15 at 19:18

grg

201,078

Unfortunately, it's not locked. I've run that command before, but I ran it again just in case - still no change. Thanks for the answer, though. – moonkey69420 Jun 27 '15 at 19:20
I had to call killall Dock twice before changes applied. (macOS 10.13.2) – Tamás Sengel Dec 12 '17 at 14:39

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '15 at 19:28

1

In Apple menu choose forcequit: Finder is in the list, choose relaunch.

answered Jun 27 '15 at 19:28

LexS

1,451

Unfortunately this was not the issue. – moonkey69420 Jun 27 '15 at 19:51

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 29 '16 at 17:14

0

go to system preferences, click parental controls, select your user account, click other, deselect "Prevent the dock from being modified"

answered Aug 29 '16 at 17:14

chris

1

It appears the OP has an admin account, so it can't have parental controls applied to it; also, you cannot unlock parental controls if you're not the admin. – Jaime Santa Cruz Aug 29 '16 at 19:21

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 12 '17 at 22:19

0

For what it's worth, simply going to the Parental Controls section of the settings, unlocking it to modify (even though it was already off), then closings the settings window, fixed it for me.

answered Apr 12 '17 at 22:19

Starion_Tech

1

Was this enabled on an admin account? – bmike Apr 12 '17 at 22:56

Cannot Add, Remove, Move, or Drag icons from Dock

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