After update, background turned black, the dock is missing
Solution 1:
This is now a famous glitch in the MacOS (i.e., OS level) and no one knows the solution except Apple Genius folks as they have been getting more and more of this issue recebtly. Contrary to popular attempts, this problem is NOT SOLVED by:
- Updating DisplayDriver
- Resetting NVRAM or PRAM
- Trying uselessly to
killall Dock(in fact, that will tell you that no matching process found in your name) - Booting in Safe mode
- And there’s no problem in your monitor!
Here's the solution (latest, 2020):
In System Preferences → Displays → Arrangement tab, you have to drag and drop the exact white bar which represents the dock (not the blue screen) anywhere on the monitor and leave. Problem solved. Then optionally drag it back to wherever you want. This also works for a multi-monitor setup, as is my case below.
Solution 2:
On rare occasions, I have had to go nuclear and clean out specific preference files:
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
One might argue that you should back it up first. In that light, I suggest simply moving it out of the way and force-quitting Finder.
cd ~/Library/Preferences
mv com.apple.finder.plist com.apple.finder.plist-orig