How to fix the issue of icons replaced with '?' and unresponsive Dock on Mac OS Ventura?

I'm afraid I can't really do that because my friends is a teacher and the computer was given to her by the uni so I don't have admin power so I can't restart on safe mode I don't have the password, and yes I did try to restart it and it doesn't worked like I said in the question.

Take it to the uni IT and have them fix it.

Give these a try in order as needed:

1 - open Terminal and run the following:

killall Dock

followed by the Return key

2 - boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Daniel_Attali wrote:

after installing the new Mac OS Ventura on my friend MacBook Air Retina, 13-inch, 2018

I saw a problem with the Dock all of the first party app like Calendar,

Notes Message etc icons were replaced with the '?' icon and the Dock seem to be none responsive

Did you try Shutting down and restarting the Mac...

—A SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Daniel_Attali wrote:

I'm afraid I can't really do that because my friends is a teacher and the computer was given to her by the uni so I don't have admin power so I can't restart on safe mode I don't have the password, and yes I did try to restart it and it doesn't worked like I said in the question.

if your hands are tied—you can always drag the ? marks off the Dock one by one and from Applications folder drag and drop the icon you want to see.

or use the Option>Remove from Dock

I have seen the ? Show up many times. Often I've moved the folder, or updated something IN the folder (Like Applications)For Applications, you can (or are supposed to be able to) drag the app to the dock and it will then be available to select. I ALSO have created some folders with a bunch of Aliases in that folder and then drag that folder to the dock. This lets me have multiple apps in a folder and they are selectable.

Have you tried to drag and delete the ? Icons? Normally you can drag a folder or app away from the dock and it will be removed

Attached is a screen capture of how my Dock is set (I am running Monterey 12.7.5 and CAN'T go to a higher macOS, due to old hardware)

Try restarting the Dock by going to the Terminal and running this command:

killall Dock

followed by the Return key.

It will take about 2 seconds for the Dock to restart.