Fix macOS "Dock" Frozen
Is the Dock stuck, not showing open apps, or refusing to hide?
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The Symptom
You can't click icons, the "magnification" effect is frozen, or the Dock has completely disappeared.
The Fix
- Kill the Dock Process
killall Dock
*(The system will automatically relaunch it in 2 seconds.)*
- Reset Dock to Defaults
If a specific icon is causing the crash:
defaults delete com.apple.dock
killall Dock
- Clear the Dock Tile Cache
rm ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dock.iconcache.*
Pro Tip
If the Dock is slow to appear, go to System Settings > Desktop & Dock and set "Minimize windows using" to Scale effect instead of Genie.