macOS app icon stuck on my screen

Question

I just tried to open Spotify's Mac app through the OS X LaunchPad, and when I clicked on the icon, the Mac app icon remains stuck on my screen.

I've attached some screenshots to show you. I don't know how to get it down. No matter what I do to the screen, the icon is always stuck "on top" of it.

How do I make this go away? If you're curious, Spotify opened on the second attempt. The first attempt it just got stuck.

I have a ton of things open for work, I was hoping to avoid that... — Dwebtron, Dec 30 '15 at 23:09
I think ending your session (log out) or restarting the computer as suggested, may actually be the solution here. If you have a myriad of items open for work as you say, what makes it so difficult to just save the work, close the applications and then move on? No offense, but this sounds trivial to me. — Phoenix, Dec 31 '15 at 09:34
As AntonTheGreat mentions in a reply on this page, if it's a launchpad icon, open launchpad and click and hold an icon as if you are going to move it. That fixes the issue. — Dan Brady, May 03 '17 at 08:12
Holding an icon as if I'm going to move it does not (no longer?) work as of at least 10.15.7. — ijoseph, Dec 28 '20 at 05:34
6 years later... Latest mac and everything. The bug is still here :) — sr9yar, Feb 17 '22 at 09:36
Really funny and painful to see the struggle. I faced the same. :D — Yatix, Feb 28 '22 at 10:41

score 158 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 27 '20 at 18:37

158

Turns out, I just had to reset the 'dock' process. I opened Terminal and typed

killall Dock

and pressed enter. The screen flashed for a second, and everything came back with my stuck icon gone.

If that fails, the issue may be with Finder (this is the case with the similar issue of Stacks categories "burned in" to your desktop background). Running

killall Finder

will address that.

edited Apr 27 '20 at 18:37

Jacob Ford

257

answered Jan 04 '16 at 21:03

Dwebtron

2,471

12

Worked perfectly. Much better than having to reboot! – Jack Vial Jul 15 '18 at 14:40
4

In case anyone misses answer further down: killall Finder works if this one doesn't. – Spoike Sep 14 '18 at 07:46
1

Thank you so much. I've had so much downtime from this happening over and over. – ldmtwo Oct 10 '19 at 22:06
Super helpful, this happens to me frequently, – Tom Walker Feb 10 '20 at 15:25
this helps, as I see the Dock restarted by itself – vladkras Apr 08 '20 at 08:47
I prefer the answers that do not involve killing processes. For example, I just opened the launchpad, found the original location of the icon that was stuck, moved it, and it went away. I bet the moving any icon answer from AntonTheGreat works too. – CortexCompiler Nov 02 '21 at 16:13
Works. Make sure you use Dock and not dock. – Harlin Jun 27 '23 at 20:24

score 31 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 26 '18 at 14:08

31

The easiest fix is to just open the app drawer, holding any icon until the move motion occurs, then move any application; it seems to fix it everytime it happens for me.

edited Aug 26 '18 at 14:08

Community

1

answered Jan 04 '16 at 20:25

AntonTheGreat

411

3

or launchpad in this case! i bet it'll fix the issue anytime it happens! – AntonTheGreat Jan 04 '16 at 20:26
1

I wish you posted this a few hours sooner! I figured it out this morning and am going to write up the answer that I used now – Dwebtron Jan 04 '16 at 21:01
1

Yes, this approach was easy! I simply did this: 1) Open LaunchPad, 2) Click and hold on any icon, to get them to wiggle (like on an iPhone). – Michael R Sep 03 '16 at 18:45
Always works. It worked on Catalina and continues to work on Big Sur – LondonGuy Sep 23 '21 at 12:26
I come here to say thank you, 7 years later the bug still exists in macOS 14.1.1 Sonoma, and the fix still works! – TeoTN Nov 27 '23 at 23:12

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 23 '18 at 13:41

11

What I do is pressing CTRL+OPTION+ESC then relaunch Finder app. Works for me.

answered Feb 23 '18 at 13:41

Luigi

299

6

killall Finder worked for me. – Oleg Mar 27 '18 at 20:02
This worked for me on High Sierra. – tk421 Jul 18 '18 at 20:07

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 18 '21 at 20:13

5

Same thing!!

Very simple solution: Just search look for the original icon in the launch pad and drag it!

Apparently this is a drag action that never completed.

answered Mar 18 '21 at 20:13

estani

159

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 22 '23 at 13:09

I found an amazing solution for this and i am so happy because i suffer from this problem for few years now !!!! the trick is like this: press F4 to show all apps, and drag one of the apps icon over the logo that is stuck on your screen, and voila ! it makes it gone ! hope it helps

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 31 '15 at 01:28

0

The same thing happened to me with Firefox recently. The way I got the icon to go away was to delete all desktop spaces except one. Hope it works for you.

answered Dec 31 '15 at 01:28

Drai

151

Interesting. I already have only 1 space. But, making a new one makes it disappear, then moving back to the original and it's still there. – Dwebtron Dec 31 '15 at 22:03
Strange. I think I added and removed spaces a few times and then it suddenly went away for good. – Drai Dec 31 '15 at 22:26
I tried that. Thanks for the suggestion, but I couldn't get it to go away. :/ – Dwebtron Jan 04 '16 at 21:01

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 06 '18 at 02:35

I had a similar problem with an app that won't to go away and was in the top of every window.

I installed htop (brew install htop) and searched for a part of the app name (F3), which brings me another app inside the app's folder.

Just pressed F9 and killed it. (Press q to quit htop)

The executable was not listed on Activity monitor, so htop helped me to find and kill it.

score -2 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 27 '16 at 11:10

-2

Working solution for me:

start the application that stuck to screen in launchscreen.

answered Jun 27 '16 at 11:10

Uwe Partzsch

1

Welcome to Ask Different! We're looking for answers that provide explanations as to why it answers the question as well as why it's the best answer. See [answer] for info on what makes up a good answer. - From Review - – fsb Jun 27 '16 at 13:45
This doesn't help. Also, the question by OP confirms this as well. – eis Feb 27 '17 at 12:54
That doesn't work. Most importantly because the app is already running. – Martin Jan 08 '20 at 08:54

macOS app icon stuck on my screen

8 Answers8