Problem with some apps in Dock being "unremovable"

[Mr_MG]

Dear Everyone,

I have an “unusual” problem with some icons in the Dock being somehow unremovable.

I received a new MacBook Pro (Mojave 10.14.6) which was setup by the IT department where I work. I have 3 simple extra apps (Cisco and support chats/forum) preinstalled. Those, together with the apple “App Store” icon, are present in the Dock as well from the start. However, there is no way to remove those icons from the Dock: either dragging them out or into the trash does not work. Actually, if I right-click on them the pop-up “Options” menu does not show “Remove” option. It is a woefully simple to remove icons, but somehow those 4 are "protected" from such action.

The IT "support" was to "just live with it". But I am a picky bastard and it just bugs me that they are there clogging my dock (I will rarely if ever use them).
Since I am the administrator of the machine, I should have all privileges and being able to remove them. But I don't know how.

Can anyone knowing the inner working of macOS help to me to find a solution to this issue?

Best,
MG

 

[Fishrrman]

Is your account a "regular" account?
Or... is it an "administrative" account?

I sense that if it's a regular account... well... you're just going to have to "live with it"...

 

[bogdanw]

However, there is no way to remove those icons from the Dock

Try

defaults delete com.apple.dock static-apps; killall Dock

 

[Mr_MG]

Is your account a "regular" account?
Or... is it an "administrative" account?

I sense that if it's a regular account... well... you're just going to have to "live with it"...

To Fishrrman:
Looking at Users & Groups, my user is admin and the box "Allow user to administer this computer" is checked

Try

defaults delete com.apple.dock static-apps; killall Dock

To bogdanw:
I tried the terminal command and got back two line:
Domain (com.apple.dock) not found.
Defaults have not been changed.

Dock restarted but nothing was changed

 

[LuisN]

Try onyx

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files; run tasks of cleaning and computer maintenance; configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications; and more.

www.titanium-software.fr

maybe it helps

...or check if you have the right permissions for that apps

 

[bogdanw]

Domain (com.apple.dock) not found.

Try to read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist with

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist

If static-apps show up, the only way to delete the values is to disable SIP and run

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist static-apps

Make a backup of the file.
Edit: It might not be necessary to disable SIP after all.

 

[Mr_MG]

Try to read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist with

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist

If I try this command: Domain /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist does not exist
Indeed if I search for the file in finder, I cannot find it

Trying the sudo commands says the default was not changed because the file was not found.

 

[bogdanw]

If I try this command: Domain /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist does not exist

That is strange, I have two systems with Mojave 10.14.5 and 10.14.6 and both return the same value.
Anyway, if that file is missing, I assume that the setting must be in the user file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
Use this command to read it and save the output into a dock.txt file on your Desktop

defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist >> ~/Desktop/dock.txt

Search into that file for the apps you want to remove and see how their settings differ from the other apps.

 

[Mr_MG]

Use this command to read it and save the output into a dock.txt file on your Desktop

defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist >> ~/Desktop/dock.txt

Search into that file for the apps you want to remove and see how their settings differ from the other apps.

I got the dock.txt file. Interestingly, they are missing, as well as Finder. So it really looks like they are treated like Finder in the dock, which cannot be remove from the dock.

 

[bogdanw]

I got the dock.txt file. Interestingly, they are missing, as well as Finder. So it really looks like they are treated like Finder in the dock, which cannot be remove from the dock.

Finder can be removed from the Dock. see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/30415/how-can-i-remove-the-finder-icon-from-my-dock and https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/getting-launchpad-off-the-dock.1104263/
DockMenus.plist can be edited with TextEdit.