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How to refresh OS X Lion's Launchpad contents

by Erica Sadun Jul 21st 2011 at 3:00AM

The young guys over at HaiTeq have been running into issues with Launchpad updating after installing software that wasn't bought on the Mac App Store. Because of this, they've figured out a workaround to force Launchpad to refresh its data base.

Removing the database files from the user's Dock application support folder and restarting the Dock allows Mission Control and the Launchpad to re-build the database from scratch, updating the presentation with all the new applications.

Here are HaiTeq's steps, with a few modifications on my part for safety. Admittedly, if you are not comfortable at the command line, this is not the hack for you.

  1. Launch Terminal (from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal).
  2. Navigate to the Application Support folder in question (cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock)
  3. Open the folder (open .) and drag all the .db files to the trash.
  4. Restart Dock (sudo killall Dock, followed by authentication)

I am not a Launchpad/Mission Control user and cannot verify these steps will reflect newly installed software. However, I did test them out for safety, and my Lion install is still working; my db file was instantly re-generated, and I did not find any harmful side-effects.

Please share your experiences in the comments.



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The young guys over at HaiTeq have been running into issues with Launchpad updating after installing software that wasn't bought on the...
 

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38 Comments

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azfar

thanks dude, working fine

November 22 2011 at 10:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
achecht

I get an error on run:

sqlite3: Error: too many options: "/Users/MyUserName/Library/Application Support/Dock/F1DA7F53-1E94-4ECA-A3AD-A97C5AE23A05.db"
Use -help for a list of options.

COuld it be that I have too many apps in my launchpad?

August 09 2011 at 6:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to achecht's comment
achecht

I ended up deleting all the db files in that location, rebooting, and then LaunchPadCleaner seems to work fine. Good thing I hadn't done much customization!

August 10 2011 at 12:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mere

There's a simple and free app for cleaning/restoring launchpad items: http://zoltanb.co.uk/how-to-remove-items-from-launchpad/

July 28 2011 at 9:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bruce Ishikawa

This process wipes out and rebuilds your launchpad. So if you have arranged anything, all your personal organization is lost. If all you want to do is add a newly installed application to launchpad, simply drag the app to the launchpad icon in the dock. The new app will appear in launchpad, sometimes on a newly created page, so watch for the obscure paging lights at the bottom.

July 28 2011 at 7:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Acer1096xxx

I can't seem to find where this folder is:
Navigate to the Application Support folder in question (cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock)

After Library, I go to the Application Support folder, and "Dock" isn't there.

July 27 2011 at 1:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brett Michaels

This is great. Thank you!!!

I didn't even want to use LaunchPad because it had so many apps that made no sense to "launch".

One interesting issue. Every app was removed except for Google Canary. Weird!

July 25 2011 at 4:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jasoco

I don't think this is required. For the past few days, Apps have been disappearing and appearing in realtime as I deleted and installed them. The first day I had to manually delete a couple, but since then it's been doing it automatically for me. Especially when I deleted the old unneeded Parallels "Windows 7 Applications" folder Parallels used to put in the Applications folder but now places in its own location away from Applications in order to prevent them all from being put in there. As soon as I deleted the folder, all 80 of my Windows 7 application "shortcuts" disappeared from LaunchPad without me having to delete them or refresh the database.

July 23 2011 at 11:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shane Cooke

Does this undo all the folders I've ordered my apps into? Or will the folders remain as is?

July 21 2011 at 1:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rafael Reuter

I'm one of those guys that has issues with certain default icons, so I'd change them. The new icons never showed up in mission control.

It worked with this though :] Only issue is of course deleting the database resets the organization of mission control. Happy with the icon results though! Thanks!

July 21 2011 at 12:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gu3st

You can actually drag applications to the Launchpad Icon in the dock and that will also add them to launchpad.

July 21 2011 at 12:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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