Can't remove Dock icon from the dock

[feelinpapal]

Hi there. I'm a new Mac owner and I think I've inadvertently screwed something up. I can't remove the Dock icon from the dock. When I drag it to the desktop or trashcan, it stays there. When I try to hide it or force quit, it stays there. I've tried deleting plist files and updating permission changes and pretty much everything I could find from many hours of Googling. Please help me out!

Please enjoy my lovely picture of what I'm trying to close.

 

[Elbert C]

You'll need to shut down the app before removing it's icon from the Dock.

 

[feelinpapal]

Done that...

 

[Elbert C]

Are you sure? Because from the attachment you uploaded it is showing that it's still running.
Try deleting the Dock's preference file (com.apple.dock.plist) from User > Library > Preferences.

 

[Ice-Cube]

The new ML dock requires you to drag the icon away, hold it for a while before the poof icon shows

 

[samh]

The new ML dock requires you to drag the icon away, hold it for a while before the poof icon shows

That doesn't look like the Mountain Lion dock.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'll guess that somehow your Mac believes (through defaults) that the dock is supposed to be "locked".

No promises, but a couple of terminal commands that might UNlock it for you (one or the other may work, or they may not)

Try this:
- Open Terminal
- Type this command:
defaults write com.apple.Dock contents-immutable -bool no
(you can copy and paste into Terminal)
- Then force the Dock to quit and relaunch with this command:
osascript -e 'tell application "Dock" to quit'

Any better?

If that doesn't work, try this in place of the first command above:
defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool false
(in above command, "no" has been changed to "false")
Not sure if that will make a difference.

 

[feelinpapal]

I'll guess that somehow your Mac believes (through defaults) that the dock is supposed to be "locked".

No promises, but a couple of terminal commands that might UNlock it for you (one or the other may work, or they may not)

Try this:
- Open Terminal
- Type this command:
defaults write com.apple.Dock contents-immutable -bool no
(you can copy and paste into Terminal)
- Then force the Dock to quit and relaunch with this command:
osascript -e 'tell application "Dock" to quit'

Any better?

If that doesn't work, try this in place of the first command above:
defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool false
(in above command, "no" has been changed to "false")
Not sure if that will make a difference.

How do you open Terminal? I'm running OS X 10.5.8


Don't have Mountain Lion.


Deleted plist file for dock many times.

 

[Elbert C]

How do you open Terminal? I'm running OS X 10.5.8


Don't have Mountain Lion.


Deleted plist file for dock many times.

Terminal is in Applications > Utilities.