What does this blue dot in the Dock in Mojave mean?

Question

I have this pale blue dot above Firefox (I have seen in on other apps also.)

I have only noticed this in Mojave.

What does it mean?

My Dock is in the vertical position.

Here is is in the horizontal position:

More info from Dock:

$ defaults read com.apple.dock.plist | grep "file-label"
                "file-label" = Siri;
                "file-label" = Launchpad;
                "file-label" = Safari;
                "file-label" = Mail;
                "file-label" = Contacts;
                "file-label" = Notes;
                "file-label" = Reminders;
                "file-label" = Maps;
                "file-label" = Photos;
                "file-label" = Messages;
                "file-label" = FaceTime;
                "file-label" = Pages;
                "file-label" = Numbers;
                "file-label" = Keynote;
                "file-label" = News;
                "file-label" = iTunes;
                "file-label" = Books;
                "file-label" = "App Store";
                "file-label" = "System Preferences";
                "file-label" = iTerm;
                "file-label" = Downloads;
                "file-label" = "Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub";
                "file-label" = "Activity Monitor";
                "file-label" = Firefox;

Welcome to Ask Different :) Can you position the Dock to the bottom of the screen and share a screenshot with that view too? — Nimesh Neema, Aug 02 '19 at 00:56
Can you clarify for me if you've ever seen more than one instance of this icon at the same time? — Monomeeth, Aug 02 '19 at 01:32
@Monomeeth, I don't believe so, but I have only really noticed it today. — tahsmith, Aug 02 '19 at 02:00

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 08 '19 at 22:34

16

I've seen instances in the past when certain app icons appear incredibly small in the Dock, to the point that clicking on them does nothing. The icon in your screenshot looks very similar to the Twitter icon, so if you're a Twitter user it could be that.

Regardless, I would start with restarting the Dock as a first step. To do this:

Now open Terminal (usually located in Applications > Utilities)
Enter this command killall Dock
Press enter

Once you've done that, use your Mac for long enough to know if this has resolved the issue. If it hasn't, then you can do a reset and restart of your Dock as follows.¹

To reset and restart the Dock, follow these steps:

Go to Finder
Press and hold the option key down
Now go to the Go menu
Select the Library option to open the User's Library folder. You can let go of the option key now.
Go to the Preferences folder (i.e. within the Library folder)
Find and move the com.apple.dock.plist file to the Trash
Now open Terminal (usually located in Applications > Utilities)
Enter this command killall Dock
Press enter

Once you've done that, use your Mac for long enough to know if this has resolved the issue.

^{1. IMPORTANT: After doing this you will need to re-add any non-default icons (i.e. apps) that you've added to the Dock. Before proceeding you may want to take some notes (or a screenshot of your Dock) as a reminder of what you had there previously.}

edited Aug 08 '19 at 22:34

user3439894

58,676

answered Aug 02 '19 at 01:39

Monomeeth

64,558

2

@tahsmith can also share the screenshot of the app switcher to help establish this theory. – Nimesh Neema Aug 02 '19 at 01:48
I have to disagree by starting with a destructive process! Investigate a bit first by looking at the output of e.g. defaults read com.apple.dock.plist | grep "file-label" and see the names of the apps that are there. See what's listed between Activity Monitor and Firefox. – user3439894 Aug 02 '19 at 01:56
@user3439894, Updated my Q with that info. There is nothing between them. – tahsmith Aug 02 '19 at 02:05
@NimeshNeema there are no Icons in the app switcher which are not in the Dock – tahsmith Aug 02 '19 at 02:05
@tahsmith, If you do just killall Dock in Terminal, is the blue dot still there? – user3439894 Aug 02 '19 at 02:07
@user3439894 Nope, it's gone. :S – tahsmith Aug 02 '19 at 02:09
This was the issue in the end. But I did not actually go through these steps. – tahsmith Aug 02 '19 at 02:26
@user3439894 Thanks for the feedback. Based on this and the OP's experience, I've updated my answer. :) – Monomeeth Aug 02 '19 at 22:21
One should not have to use the -KILL signal, killall Dock should be all that's necessary. – user3439894 Aug 03 '19 at 08:40

What does this blue dot in the Dock in Mojave mean?

1 Answers1