Every time I restart my imac 10.5.8, the dock "loses" all the apps I've dragged on

I have tried control + click, however the message "keep in dock" does not consistently show up for every app. I'd like to permanently delineate folders and apps that are on my dock and have it stay the same regardless of restart, power on, power off, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? Needless to say I am really irritated about the amount of time I have to waste everytime I update my software, rebuilding my dock.

Thanks so much in advance. I'm not a superuser but I can follow directions.

Control + click? Message "keep in dock"?
I don't know what you are doing based on your description, but if you are having problems with your dock, repair disk permissions, drag com.apple.dock.plist from user/library/preferences to your desktop, and reboot.
Setup your dock again how you want it.
Should be fixed and you can delete that plist from your desktop.

When you installed those apps that disappear, how did you go about doing so? Did you drag and drop them into the Applications folder?

My guess is that you are only mounting the dmg file and when it opens you do keep it in the dock or whatever. I don't think that will work because every time you restart or shut down your machine it will unmount the dmg file and the short cut goes byebye.

You need to drag the files from inside the dmg file into the applications folder. Then when you open the application you can do the "Keep in dock" thing and it will stay there.

I agree with Crimson. I have a feeling that is what the OP is doing. If not, check CWA's question also.

Let us know.

6string said:

Control + click? Message "keep in dock"?
I don't know what you are doing based on your description, but if you are having problems with your dock, repair disk permissions, drag com.apple.dock.plist from user/library/preferences to your desktop, and reboot.
Setup your dock again how you want it.
Should be fixed and you can delete that plist from your desktop.

Click to expand...

This worked like a charm. Thanks very much for the advice. I restarted it again after I rebuilt it and it's all there. Saved me a bottle of Tylenol it did. Thanks!

Thanks for coming back and letting us know which method worked. It will help someone else down the line with the same issue. Glad you got it all sorted!