Bar under app icons in Dock--what does it signify?

[theorist9]

A dot under an app icon means the app is running, e.g.:

But what does it mean if there's a bar between two app icons?:

If I open the two apps, then I get dots underneath both of them. But the bar remains:

I've never seen this before, so it could just be a meaningless artifact that will disappear when I restart my computer....but I'll leave it running for now in case there's a way to check what's going on.

 

[usagora]

A dot under an app icon means the app is running, e.g.:

View attachment 1823869

But what does it mean if there's a bar between two app icons?:
View attachment 1823900

If I open the two apps, then I get dots underneath both of them. But the bar remains:

View attachment 1823901

I've never seen this before, so it could just be a meaningless artifact that will disappear when I restart my computer....but I'll leave it running for now in case there's a way to check what's going on.

Are you using some sort of custom dock theme? Doesn't look "stock" to me. Have you tried interacting with that bar by clicking and dragging or anything?

 

[theorist9]

Are you using some sort of custom dock theme? Doesn't look "stock" to me. Have you tried interacting with that bar by clicking and dragging or anything?

No custom dock theme. Why does it look custom? It's semi-transparent, so it has a mustard-colored background because of the standard High Sierra wallpaper that's underneath it which, at the bottom of the screen, is lake water near sunrise or sunset.

I had to reboot my computer, and the bar is gone, and thus I can't do any testing on it. Maybe it was just an artifact.

 

[hfg]

I have seen a 'progress bar' appear under the App icon while downloading an application program. Perhaps you had initiated a download which had been stopped for some reason, leaving the empty progress bar showing?

 

[usagora]

No custom dock theme. Why does it look custom? It's semi-transparent, so it has a mustard-colored background because of the standard High Sierra wallpaper that's underneath it which, at the bottom of the screen, is lake water near sunrise or sunset.

Well, it's been a long while since I used High Sierra, and I just never remember the dock appearing that bright pumpkin orange color (I always keep the stock wallpaper too). Looks more solid in your screenshots than semi-transparent. I guess since the screen shots were such a small prtion of the dock, the lack of context threw me off

 

[usagora]

I have seen a 'progress bar' appear under the App icon while downloading an application program. Perhaps you had initiated a download which had been stopped for some reason, leaving the empty progress bar showing?

But that would appear directly underneath the app's icon, not between two apps, as far as I know.

 

[adrianlondon]

I can only think of the download progress bar. It is weird that it's not fully underneath a particular icon.

I assume you've tried restarting the dock? This example also has the bar between two icons.

What is this black bar at the bottom of my Dock?

I have this strange bar at the bottom of my Dock: What could it possibly be and how could I remove it? It is non-blocking but distracts me when using the Dock.

apple.stackexchange.com

 

[theorist9]

I have seen a 'progress bar' appear under the App icon while downloading an application program. Perhaps you had initiated a download which had been stopped for some reason, leaving the empty progress bar showing?

Yes, I think I did interrupt a download; it's possible the bar's placement got messed up due to a glitch. Interestingly, the version of Kindle I ended up downloading kept crashing. I thought that was due to a compatability problem between the new Kindle version and HS. But maybe it was a corrupted download.

 

[theorist9]

Well, it's been a long while since I used High Sierra, and I just never remember the dock appearing that bright pumpkin orange color (I always keep the stock wallpaper too). Looks more solid in your screenshots than semi-transparent. I guess since the screen shots were such a small prtion of the dock, the lack of context threw me off

This should give you the context missing from the tiny screenshots...looks like it's "semi-transparent" in the sense that it adopts some average of the background color, but none of the details, which causes the dock's own background to appear solid.

For comparison, here it is with a white background. Notice the gradual transition at the left. So there's a lot of averaging—probably to keep the dock's own background relatively non-distracting. Completely OT from my question, but still fun to explore; I've never given much thought to it before.

 

[theorist9]

I can only think of the download progress bar. It is weird that it's not fully underneath a particular icon.

I assume you've tried restarting the dock? This example also has the bar between two icons.

What is this black bar at the bottom of my Dock?

I have this strange bar at the bottom of my Dock: What could it possibly be and how could I remove it? It is non-blocking but distracts me when using the Dock.

apple.stackexchange.com

Nice find! I didn't restart the Dock, but when I rebooted it disappeared. It seems like it was a progress bar whose placement was offset due to a glitch.