Disappearing Dock icons on start up

[NickBB]

Since upgrading to imac 10.13.3, every time I have to reboot for whatever reason, my carefully set up and personalized dock does not reappear - I get a bare bones dock and have to reinstall my files and preferences all over again. Makes no sense. It was never a problem before. Very frustrating!
Any ideas?
Nick

 

[honestone]

Another quirk with High Sierra? Have not heard of that before. When you upgraded to V10.13.3, did you do it "in place", that is, have V10.13.3 basically overwrite what was there already? And from which OS did you upgrade from?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Do you have "Keep In Dock" checked under Options when you Ctrl-click or right click any of the items you prefer to always be in your Dock even after reboots?

 

[NickBB]

To answer Honestone....I always update directly from the app store app when Apple tells me to.

To answer Spawn.....Wow, the crazy world of the Dock right-click Options! These options vary from icon to icon. Some apps have a Keep in Dock option to check, some don't (eg Photos, Launchpad), and for the files and folders I create on the left side of the dock, there are no options! This was never a problem before - whatever was in the Dock was faithfully restored on each restart.

 

[honestone]

To answer Honestone....I always update directly from the app store app when Apple tells me to.

Yes, I also get the original Mac OS from the App Store. But for updates, in most instances, I'll download the Combo Update, and I get that from Apple's site. I am not even sure if it appears in the App Store.

Now, my question was not about where you obtain the update. It was more about the update process itself. I actually did not get the initial version of High Sierra, as 1) there were too many serious issues with that release (especially with this new APFS stuff), and 2) not all of my third party (non-Apple) software was compatible with High Sierra. There were some updates for such compatibility for some of the programs (most were actually OK), but not for three critical ones: Tech Tool Pro, Onyx, and SuperDuper!. The same was true when Apple issued the first update, OS 10.13.1. Yes, a number of bugs that were in V10.13 were eliminated, but Micromat was still working on a version of Tech Tool Pro. Finally, in late November, Micromat released an update for Tech Tool Pro. Shortly thereafter, Apple released V10.13.2. I downloaded that full OS from the App Store, then via my SuperDuper! backup, erased and formatted both of SSDs inside my Macs, did a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation fo OD 10.13.2, and finally via Migration Assistant, "migrated"/copied all my needed "stuff" from the SuperDuper! backup.

For OS 10.13.3, I upgraded by downloading the OS 10.13.3 Combo Update and applied it.

There are a number of folks who download an update for the new Mac OS, and just apply it to their current system. For example, if one is running the last version of Sierra, OS 10.12.6, and then decides to "move" to High Sierra, one way is, yes, get the update from the App store (whether Apple prompts you or not), and have it just update Sierra to High Sierra. But there are times that method can cause issues, especially if one has done very little (or no) disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs (of course a backup is mandatory). Then there is the issue of third-party compatibility with the new OS.

No matter how one "upgrades" to a new Mac OS (or even just to update the version within that OS), it is just about mandatory to get prepared for such an upgrade/update. Not doing that can result in issues, some serious, some not so serious. My attitude is "Better to be safe that sorry".