Refresh Launchpad in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
Launchpad is OS X 10.7′s iOS-like app launcher, it’s a nice utility but it does have some quirky behavior in Lion. One of the major issues is that sometimes apps won’t appear in Launchpad at all, or when you delete an app it doesn’t disappear as it’s supposed to. If you run into this, try this tip left in the comments about LaunchPad Control about refreshing Launchpad and its contents.
Relaunching Launchpad
Launchpad is attached to the Dock app, so the easiest way to relaunch LaunchPad is to kill the Dock from the command line:
killall Dock
Both the Dock and Launchpad will relaunch and that should clear up most minor issues with app persistence.
Refresh Launchpad Contents
If relaunching alone hasn’t fixed LaunchPad and apps are still not showing up, try deleting Launchpads database files located inside your home ~/Library directory, which forces them to rebuild. The directory path you are looking for is:
~/Library/Application Support/Dock/
The fastest way to get there is by using Command+Shift+G in the Finder to access the “Go To Folder” function, then just paste that directory path in. You will see a folder like this:
If you want to back these up you can, otherwise just delete them by dragging the .db files to the Trash, and then kill the Dock again from the Terminal to force the databases to regenerate.
killall Dock
Take note that you will lose any custom icon placement and folders that are setup within Launchpad, because that information is stored in the database file you are trashing.
One-Line Terminal Command to Refresh Launchpad Contents
If you are comfortable with the command line, you can also do this entire process through the Terminal with the following commands:
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db ; killall Dock
If you want control over exactly what shows up in Launchpad rather than just creating a bunch of folders, use the third party System Preference Launchpad Control, it’s free and works as a sql frontend to the Launchpad database.
Thanks to Igo for the tip!
I hope 10.7.1 resolves the bugs with LaunchPad, I can’t delete over half the apps so I just created a huge folder called MISC that holds everything that I can’t remove manually. Buggy, but I use it more than I thought I would.
killall Dock has become my ‘go to’ command with Lion for unfreezing Mission Control. Ah, the pain of early adoption.
Look at the Launchpad icon. Then look at the blue corner of the game center app icon on your idevice. MIND=BLOWN!!
Aside my shenanigans, I like the launchpad feature. It’s not really useless. In my opinion it’s a much, much faster way to get to my apps and not one of the useless gimmicks that came with lion.
THANK YOU, YOU CHAMPION!!!
I have another problem: when I sort all my apps in folders in Launchpad, each time I install or disinstall something, the mess from the beginning appears (no folders, just pages of apps) so I have to use Launchpad Control each time… is there any hint for this? I’d love to have there my order….
N
If for example you changed an icon of an app, instead of killing the dock like I tried and was still unsuccessful at refreshing the launchpad database, or deleting the .db file you can just rename that app and then name it back and that icon will change…
I am not sure if this is related, but i have a similar problem of the icons in launchpad not loading when launchpad opens for atleast 20 seconds so the all just appear as squares. Anyone else have this problem?
A gui alternative is to use the Activity Monitor and go to the “dock” process and quit it. I had a folder that was not showing anything but the dashed lines around it. Anytime I clicked on it launchpad would exit. This fixed it the same as the command “killall dock”.
It doesn’t work.
Works fine for me. Thnx
I’m still estranged as to why Apple haven’t thought of including a separate system preferences to launch pad. I, myself, is one of many within my network who can see the possibilities in the Launch Pad app, but I still find it to be a mess in many ways. Hope there’ll be a fix soonish. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to see the fix being Mountain Lion only, which I’ve been dreading since Lion. God, have I dealt with many issues regarding Lion.
Thanks .. It worked the way I wanted it. You are awesome
How do I use the killall command? Someone help :/
Excellent tutorial. Just need to share. It shows:
1. Applications distributed by Apple in alphabetical order,
2. Applications installed for all users in alphabetical order, 3. Any minor apps installed in other directories for all users(like subdirectories in Utilities),
4. Applications installed for current users only
Of course you can do manual changes as well for any change in order. Thanks
thanks for the help