Accidentally deleted the Launchpad button from the macOS Dock? Here’s how you can add it back on your Mac in a few easy steps. Luke Filipowicz has been a writer at iMore, covering Apple for nearly a decade now. He writes a lot about Apple Watch and iPad but covers the iPhone and Mac as well. He often describes himself as an “Apple user on a budget” and firmly believes that great technology can be affordable if you know where to look.
However, the Dock has been around much longer than Launchpad. It’s not going to appear in Launchpad automatically, but you can place it there. New apps you install from the Mac App Store or have downloaded and put into that folder will automatically appear. At the bottom of the screen are dots, which will show you how many pages of apps are included in Launchpad, as well as which page you are looking at.
Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. If you want to have all your favorite and most used apps in a certain location in Launchpad, you can easily move them around to arrange them however you want. The Dock also differs from Launchpad as you can choose which apps appear in it. In Launchpad, you have quick access to all your apps, while in the Dock you have quick access to the apps you choose to place in it. It may not be necessary to get an iPhone 16 to get an Action Button, as Apple appears to be working on a case with buttons built in that can control the enclosed iPhone. Once within Launchpad, you can navigate between apps using the arrow keys, then using Return to enter folders or to open apps.
How to organize apps into folders in Launchpad on Mac
- You can create new folders by dragging an app on top of another, or you can add an app to a folder by dragging and dropping an app onto a folder.
- Let’s say that you want to speed up your accessing of apps within Launchpad, or don’t want to use your mouse as much.
- I really like the auto-hide feature of the dock in Mac OS X.However, the animation for the dock to reappear is just a bit too slow for me.
Think iPadOS and its Home Screen and you’ll know exactly what I’m trying to say here. With the Launchpad back in the Dock, you can now simply click on the icon and access all your apps from an iPad-like Home Screen interface. Although there are trackpad gestures to jump straight into Launchpad – pinch in using four fingers – but accessing it from the Dock is also an option. And if you find yourself in a situation where you accidentally deleted the Launchpad icon from the Dock, then can your cash enhance in bitcoin pockets don’t panic, as you can add it back in a few simple steps. If you wish to start the Launchpad without using its icon in the dock even after you place it back, you can do that by pressing the Launchpad key (F4) on your keyboard.
Luke also heads up the iMore Show — a weekly podcast focusing on Apple news, rumors, and products but likes to have some fun along the way. Your computer will restart, and when it boots back up, you should find all your apps available in Launchpad. Sometimes, after installing a new app (especially third-party apps), you may notice it doesn’t show up in Launchpad. There is a way to manually refresh Launchpad, which will most likely resolve the issue. The Live Photos feature in the Camera app on an iPhone or iPad takes about two seconds of video. For many, the best email app is the one that came on your iPhone, Apple’s own Mail app.
How to move apps in Launchpad on Mac
If all you want is quick access to apps, but without the pretty UI, you can do this with a right-click of the Launchpad icon. This will display a context menu containing a list of all applications held within Launchpad, which can be scrolled through and clicked to open like any other context menu. If your Dock is on the right side of your screen (mine is; vary this for your desired Dock location), set upper and lower right Hot Corners to trigger Launchpad. When the mouse hits a hot corner, it triggers the action instantly, as opposed to after a brief delay with Dock Hiding.
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Anyway, if you ever, by accident, deleted Launchpad from the dock in macOS, you now know how to add it back right up. It’s not simple at first, but once you try it yourself, you’ll be tossing the icon around like a champ the second time onwards. After the Finder is launched, go to the Applications folder within Finder by pressing Command ⌘+Shift ⇧+ A.
Since it’s an application in its own right, you can handle it like any other app on the Dock. There are also options to remove Launchpad from the Dock, if you don’t want it there anymore, or to bring up the usual Launchpad experience by clicking Show Launchpad. Click the Apple logo in the menu bar then select System Preferences. You can switch between pages in Launchpad using the keyboard, by holding Command then pressing the left or right arrow keys.
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To get the most use out of the Mail app, you can set it up to have all of your email accounts and addresses in one place in it. To remove it, click and drag the icon off the Dock, raising it up enough until it goes transparent and is tagged with the word “Remove.” Release it to remove the icon. If you want to simply get rid of Launchpad to get more space on the Dock, you can do that.
Launchpad reflects the applications in your Applications folder. If your Launchpad app icon has seemingly disappeared from your Mac Dock, don’t panic. It’s a relatively simple fix if you’d like to show the Launchpad on your Dock. Although Launchpad is an amazing feature on the Mac, but it is simply not customizable at all. It can do with features like the ability to place icons wherever we like or maybe even widgets, a feature which is currently limited to just the Notification Center on the Mac.
Launchpad was first introduced in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion back in 2010. If you have an older Mac that you’ve upgraded—or if you’ve removed Launchpad by dragging off the Dock—you might not see Launchpad where you expect it.
However, Launchpad is generally the most user-friendly, especially if you are new to the Mac and have only ever used an iPhone before. If you need to get out of Launchpad, simply click anywhere on the background that isn’t an app icon or another on-screen element, or press the Escape key on your keyboard. For example, you could search for the name of the app via Spotlight. You may have placed the app icon on the Dock for ease of access. You may have even manually gone to the Applications folder to find and open the app. As you approach the Dock, other applications will slide to the side, and when the Launchpad icon is where you’d like it, release the mouse or trackpad button.