In this quick guide, we explain why you may see a gray question mark, or the same question mark over an app icon, in your Mac’s Dock and how to address this issue.

You’ll see the question mark only for apps that you added to the Dock, but since then it has been deleted, moved, renamed, or made unavailable.

Deleted: You uninstalled the app and removed it from the Trash, but its app icon stayed on the Dock. Then, when you click that Dock icon, it will start showing a question mark.

Moved: You have moved the app from its original location, like the Finder Applications folder, to another folder.

Renamed: In some cases, the question mark may also appear if you renamed the app and moved it to another location.

Unavailable: You installed the large app directly to an external drive, added that app icon to the Dock, but then clicked the app icon when the drive isn’t connected to your Mac.

Simply drag the app with the question mark out of the Dock onto the Desktop to make it disappear.

Or, right-click on it in the Dock and select Options > Remove from Dock.

If it was a deleted app, you don’t have to do anything else. However, if it was an app you moved to a different location or renamed it, just add it again to the Dock, and it should no longer show the question mark.

In case the question mark appears over an app that’s installed on the external drive, and you want to keep that app icon in the Dock, simply restart your Mac and the question mark should disappear; it won’t show up again, provided you don’t click on the app icon in the Dock when the external drive isn’t connected.

If the above tips have failed to work for some reason, consider resetting the Dock to its default state. This will remove all your apps from the Dock and show only the Apple apps that are on the Dock when you first set up a new Mac or boot into a fresh version of macOS installation. Once the reset is complete, you can customize the Dock again with your preferred apps and settings.

Also, check out: How to automatically hide and show the Dock on Mac