Applications Intermittenly Wont Open

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Over the past 10 months or so, now and again, I can't open an application from the dock. It automatically opens the Apps folder in the finder, then I have to do a control right click to open the App manually. As my title says, its intermittent. I have tried all the disk utility permissions an rx stuff, to no avail. Any idea what could be causing this.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
You can try several things. Whenever an app refuses to open from the Dock, drag the icon on to the desktop to remove it. Then start the app from the applications folder. When the icon appears in the Dock, right click and select "keep in Dock".

The second thing you can try is to repair permissions on your Macintosh HD. You didn't tell us which version of OS X you're using as it will depend on how you do it.
 
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Yosemite, but it was happening with Maverick before that. Tried repairing permissions. Rmeoving icons didn't help either.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
I don't have time to dig for it right now but try this: Locate the Dock plist file and move it to the Trash but don't empty it! Then restart your Mac and let the default Dock and icons be created by the system. Then see if the same thing happens. If it doesn't, you can then modify your Dock with whatever apps you want and empty the Trash.
 

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