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I want my dock to be purely for shortcuts to the programs I use the most. Frankly it annoys me that you can't remove the Trash from the dock, but I can live with that.

What I really want to get rid of is this folder shortcut that I have next to the Trash. I think it's called a stack? It's to the right of the dividing line that separates my application shortcuts from the trash icon. When I right-click it, there's no option to remove it from the dock.

My question is two-fold-

  • Why do I have this shortcut there to that specific directory?
  • How do I get rid of it?

I'm very new to OSX, so forgive me if I'm missing something obvious here.

Edit: Screenshot of what I see when I try to remove it:

Screenshot

Edit2: I'm on Mountain Lion, 10.8.1.

Edit3: I should mention that the folder in question is not on my local machine. It's a networked drive, mounted at /Volumes/Student/Home/6514944/.

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6
  • 1
    Sometimes in questions it helps to mention what version of OS X is in use.
    – GEdgar
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:42
  • @GEdgar Of course it does! Added :)
    – Cam Jackson
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:45
  • If you drag another folder in the dock next to it, does it behave in the same manner?
    – David Holdeman
    Feb 28, 2013 at 3:05
  • @DavidHoldeman Nope, if I add another folder, I can then remove it. It's just this one that's stuck. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that it's a network drive?
    – Cam Jackson
    Feb 28, 2013 at 3:34
  • Just to confirm: the network drive is mounted when you try to remove the folder, right?
    – David Holdeman
    Feb 28, 2013 at 3:41

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
2

Simply click on it to hold it then drag it off of the dock and release the click. It should disappear in an animated puff of smoke.

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4
  • You can also right click on any file/folder in the dock to see available options - including removing them. I really use the downloads folder in the dock, but the others, not so much.
    – ICL1901
    Feb 28, 2013 at 0:46
  • 1
    Nope. After I release the drag, it slides right back to where it was before. And @DavidDelMonte, like I said, there's no option to remove it. My applications have an Options->Keep in Dock option, but for this option there's only "show in finder".
    – Cam Jackson
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:11
  • 1
    You need to drag it off the dock and hold it there for a few seconds (until you see a smoke thing) before releasing it.
    – revolver
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:21
  • @revolver I tried holding it over the desktop for like 10 seconds and there's no smoke thing. I don't think this is a normal shortcut, because it's grouped with the trash, not the application shortcuts I have. See the screenshot I added to the question.
    – Cam Jackson
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:27
1

Open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist in Xcode (I see you have it in your screenshot) and remove the entry for the folder (Probably Root > persistent-others > Item 0). Then, in Terminal, run killall Dock.

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3
  • Sorry for not responding to your answer. I'm casual staff at the employer where I'm forced to use OSX, and I haven't been working there the last week-and-a-bit. I'll come back to your answer once I get more work there and I have a chance to test this out. Cheers.
    – Cam Jackson
    Mar 8, 2013 at 3:03
  • I have the same thing - tried this one. I have Item 0 and Item 1 -- my Applications and my Downloads folders. The mounted network drive isn't there in the plist (only two items), even though it shows on the dock.
    – Matt H
    Jan 14, 2014 at 19:52
  • This didn't work for me. I have 3 folders sitting in the dock. And only two entries in plist: Item 0 and Item 1. Both are the good ones. Moreover, changing anything in plist is not affecting the dock.
    – Geo
    Sep 16, 2014 at 22:11
1

I had a similar issue but after realizing that the folder which couldn't be deleted was basically a "mounted network drive" like you originally mentioned I looked at Mac's solution for remote working when not on your work's network. It's called "mobile accounts". So basically I had set my Mac up to copy and sync with a particular drive on our work network so when I was away I had access to my files. You can check if this is your case by working backwards from setting up such an account (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11307). That folder couldn't be deleted from the doc until I turned off this mobile account and then the folder was absent after restarting my machine.

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0

I'm seeing this:

enter image description here

Can you please show what you are seeing..

Thanks Cam, that is a weird folder, and looks like it has nothing to do the the system. What if you select "Show in Finder", and find the original. If it's nothing important, throw it away, and empty trash. Then, does the alias stay in the dock?

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3
  • Added to question.
    – Cam Jackson
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:26
  • Added to my answer..
    – ICL1901
    Feb 28, 2013 at 2:40
  • If I show in finder (which is also the upper-most item of the stack when I left-click it), it opens up the relevant directory. I know what the folder is, it's my networked home directory here at uni (the number is my student number), what I don't know is why it's there in the dock. I did at one point have the folder in the 'favourites' sidebar in Finder, (that may have been what added it to the dock?) but I've since removed it from the favourites, and the icon on the dock remains.
    – Cam Jackson
    Feb 28, 2013 at 3:00
0

I think this may be what you're looking for: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3302952?tstart=0

Basically, delete AddDockMCXOriginalNetworkHomeFolder from /Library/Preferences/OpenDirectory/Configurations/Active Directory/[YOUR_DOMAIN].plist and restart.

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-2

I thought this may be late but it can help you to sort it out. Open Terminal in Utilities and use this command line:

defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock

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2
  • 2
    How does this improve over the previous answer given years ago? This resets the entire Dock, rather than just removing the specific folder from the plist — why is your method of resetting all the settings better?
    – grg ♦
    Apr 21, 2017 at 11:22
  • @grgarside It did not look like someone said it was fixed for them. Even me, I tried that but it did not show correct things like the directory. After all, I thought maybe I should try to reset the dock and then I can remove the new folder as well as I added to the dock.
    – truc anh Huynh
    Apr 23, 2017 at 5:17

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