Mac OS X: Icons of Apps Disappeared from Launchpad

A Solution for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan as well as older releases like OS X Mavericks

Sometimes it is strange. Suddenly icons of apps are disappearing from the Launchpad. If you open the applications folder in Finder you will see that the apps are still there. What’s going on here?

The problem is a corrupt configuration of the Launchpad. Unfortunately Apple does not provide a comfortable graphical user interface to change or refresh Launchpad’s configuration manually. Normally Launchpad should detect changes while they occur and update its configuration accordingly. This does not work if the configuration is corrupt. – Without a tool to correct this, it seems to be an dead end.

OS X Mavericks and earlier

Solutions for OS X Mavericks and earlier releases of Mac OS X can be found en masse in web. The easiest way to force Launchpad to rebuild its configuration. To do so you have to remove some .db files.

Do NOT execute the following steps on OS X Yosemite or El Capitan or any later release of OS X!!!

In Finder:

WARNING: Be very careful here! Check at least twice so that you remove the right files!  Otherwise your system might get damaged!

  • Open a new window in Finder.
  • Press and hold the ⌥ key and click Go -> Library in the menu.
  • Open folder Application Support.
  • Open folder Dock.
  • Check at least twice that you are in the right folder now!
  • Delete the .db files in there.
  • Logout and login again.
  • => Launchpad updates.

Via command line:

WARNING: Be very careful here! Check at least twice that you enter the right commands here! Otherwise your system might get damaged!

  • Press the keys ⌘ + SPACE and type “Terminal”.
  • Press ↵ key.
  • Enter the following commands (in one line) and check what you’ve entered at least twice that it’s correct!
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db; killall Dock
  • If you checked it at least two times 😉 press the ↵ key.
  • => Dock will relaunch immediately and Launchpad will rebuild its configuration. (No logout and re-login is required.)

Your apps should (re)appear in your Launchpad now.

If you open Launchpad you will notice that it will have returned the default layout. All bundled apps will appear on the first screen and the third party apps on the secondary and (if applicable) the following screens.

If you arranged the icons in another order before these settings are lost. But: If you want to you can rearrange the icons again.

What would happen if you were following this instructions on Yosemite or El Capitan? – You would simply loose your settings for your desktop’s background picture. Launchpad would still work with its corrupt configuration.

OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan

Since the release of Yosemite things have changed. If you examine the Folder ~/Library/Application Support/Dock you will find there .db files. If you upgraded from Mavericks or earlier OS X versions you will find a couple of .db files with cryptic names besides a file called desktoppicture.db. These files with the cryptic names are the legacy of the upgrade process. Deleting them won’t change anything regarding Launchpad’s corrupt configuration.

To force Launchpad to rebuild it’s configuration you will have to use the command line:

WARNING: Be very careful here! Check at least twice that you enter the right commands here! Otherwise your system might get damaged!

  • Press the keys ⌘ + SPACE and type “Terminal”.
  • Press ↵ key.
  • Enter the following commands (in one line) and check what you’ve entered at least twice that it’s correct!
defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock
  • If you checked it at least two times 😉 press the ↵ key.
  • => Dock will relaunch immediately and Launchpad will rebuild its configuration. (No logout and re-login is required.)

As in earlier releases. You will notice that after this reset will have returned the default layout. All bundled apps will appear on the first screen and the third party apps on the secondary and (if applicable) the following screens.

If you arranged the icons in another order before these settings are lost. But: If you want to you can rearrange the icons again.

This solution will work on OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan. If it will work on future releases of OS X is written in the stars. Things might change again maybe. 😉

This entry was posted in Mac, OS X and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Mac OS X: Icons of Apps Disappeared from Launchpad

  1. Ian Parker says:

    Hi Oliver,
    I installed some software yesterday from the App Store and could not find it in Launchpad. The Terminal commands have just worked successfully on my iMac running El Cap. I copied the command string and pasted it in to Terminal. Thanks for the tip!

  2. Kuno Schulz says:

    Hi Oliver,
    many thanks for your helpful advice.
    I copied the line for El Capitan into my Terminal and it took just a glimpse of an eye to correct the Launchpad contents.
    I have discovered that the very last update of El Capitan in January 2016 has done some scramble in my Launchpad.
    Now everything runs well again.

  3. Pingback: Launchpad: Alkuperäisten asetusten palauttaminen - mactuki-Kuopio.fi

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *