Mac OSX - Wrong icons show up in dock!!!?

Question

I have Mac OSX Version 10.4.9 and just today when I open new programs, the incorrect icon appears in my dock. For example, I opened Limewire and the icon for "ImageZone" came up but when I control-click on it, it still says that it is Limewire and it allows me to get to Limewire. The same happened with FontBook and MacHelp. Has anyone had a similar problem? Could this be a sign of a bigger issue with my Mac? The icons that are always in the dock are correct as well as the ones I had open before today but just any program I open appears with the wrong icon on the dock.

Answer 1

GreyMachine's got some good steps. Before them, though, I'd try relaunching the dock. Open terminal (in the Utilities folder, in the Applications folder), and type "sudo killall Dock". This will relaunch the dock, and might fix it.



Another thing to add to GM's list of general troubleshooting, and something to do here, is to look for plist files to remove. I believe that there's a plist for the dock (yourhomefolder/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist); drag that to your desktop (drag, not copy). Then reboot, and that file will be recreated, potentially fixing your issue.



Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Something's fishy with your computer! Here's the first 3 things I try when something weird like this happens:





1. First thing I'd try is a safe boot:



Reboot and hold down the Shift key. The computer will undergo a minor maintenance routine (It forces a directory check of the startup volume). Then login and see if the problem persists. If yes...



2. Go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. Select your hard drive in the left side of the window (it will say something like 115.9GB Fujitsu or something). Then click "Repair Disk Permissions". It will proceed to run a repair on all of your disk's files and folders permissions settings. If it STILL persists...



3. Create a new user.



Go to Apple Menu>System Prefs>Accounts. Click the lock in the bottom left to be able to modify these settings and enter the necessary password. Click the "plus" button just above the lock to make a new user and enter the user info. Reboot and login as this user. If it works, there is something wrong with your old user (one of a million things not worth fixing.. just move your files to the new user via your user's Public folder).

Answer 3

Imac Dock Icons

Answer 4

That's wrong

Answer 5

Thank you all for your replies and opinions.