You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Delay in Dock Appearance

I find that within a few days after a reboot on my 2019 16 GB iMac that the Dock becomes increasingly unresponsive. At first there is a delay of 1-2 seconds, and eventually I have to move the mouse around in the Dock to get it to appear.


I notice that it seems to get worse when I have a lot of documents open, especially TextEdit docs: 5-7 of these will palpably slow down the Dock response, and quitting TextEdit will often fix it. But this is true to a lesser degree with large Excel spreadsheets and Word documents.


I bought a 16GB, 6-core iMac to be powerful enough to have as many documents and Chrome tabs open at the same time as I want. What is the problem?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on May 9, 2021 7:13 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 9, 2021 8:23 AM

Does the same behaviour happen when booted into Safe Mode ? This mode will do a Repair Disk, clear System Cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and Fonts - so the loading process will be slow - Normal. Once logged in run this mode for 10 - 15 minutes and Test. Reboot normal and Test Again.

Similar questions

2 replies

May 9, 2021 8:33 AM in response to LKHill

LKHill wrote:

I find that within a few days after a reboot on my 2019 16 GB iMac that the Dock becomes increasingly unresponsive. At first there is a delay of 1-2 seconds, and eventually I have to move the mouse around in the Dock to get it to appear.

I notice that it seems to get worse when I have a lot of documents open, especially TextEdit docs: 5-7 of these will palpably slow down the Dock response, and quitting TextEdit will often fix it. But this is true to a lesser degree with large Excel spreadsheets and Word documents.

I bought a 16GB, 6-core iMac to be powerful enough to have as many documents and Chrome tabs open at the same time as I want. What is the problem?



You can try from Terminal, copy and paste:

killall Dock


You can try Relaunching the Finder from the >Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch



—Rebooting


—Troubleshoot further:

—Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test as caches get rebuilt.


In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.


This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.



—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 



Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus all known to cause issues



Delay in Dock Appearance

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.