Mac OSX Icon missing in launchpad

[bernieb]

   

I cannot figure out why the Oscar icon does not show up in launchpad. I can click in the blank area and program will open and works properly. I have tried reloading Oscar a couple times. Icon shows up fine in applications. Using Mac OS Catalina version 10.15.7 on a brand new MacBook Air. Very weird that the name shows up but not the icon.

[Jeff8356]

Try restarting your computer and see if it shows up in the Dock.

[bernieb]

Try restarting your computer and see if it shows up in the Dock.

I tried restarting my computer a few times. I can put the icon in my dock and it will stay there but will still not show up in my launchpad. I realize I don't ever have to see it in my launchpad-I can just click above the name but that is not the way it is supposed to work.

Bernie

[Jeff8356]

The most likely culprit is a bad icon cache (.db) for LaunchPad (Dock). It happens sometimes. Fire up your favorite search engine and look for "Catalina launchpad icons missing". Been a long time since I have needed to do it, but it involved deleting a file (or two), killing Dock, and restarting the computer to rebuild the cache.

Usually has nothing to do with the OSCAR.app itself, but anything is possible. Mine has always shown up in Launchpad without issue.

[bernieb]

I did that a couple of times yesterday and again just now with no positive results. Hopefully Big Sur will be released soon and maybe that will fix it. No problem just waiting a while.

[Jeff8356]

Hopefully Big Sur will be released soon and maybe that will fix it.

I wouldn't count on that.  Usually it brings about more issues than it fixes when a new version first comes out.

Have you tried creating a shortcut, and see if the shortcut shows up in Launchpad?

[bernieb]

I had not tried that until now and it does not work either.

Bernie

[Jeff8356]

I cant think of anything else to try at the moment. I just normally leave the shortcut (alias) on my desktop and use it from there, but my desktop is very empty.

[bernieb]

Jeff,
 
Thank you very much for your suggestions even though they did not solve the problem. You are much more knowledgeable about OS X than I am but just thought of one thing I have not tried. Thought I would run it by you first. I just purchased a new MacBook Air and have been using an iMac. The Oscar data file is in my document folder as well as iCloud so it moved to my new laptop automatically. I was thinking about deleting that data folder and then reinstalling Oscar from scratch. I would lose all of that data but everything I really need will be on the SD card. 

Just a thought.

Bernie

[Jeff8356]

The OSCAR_Data is all your machine data, backups, and program preferences. There is usually no need to delete all that, unless something is going seriously wrong.  But it's up to you if you want to start completely fresh.
There is nothing wrong with using the cloud for OSCAR data.  Many people use DropBox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc.  There is just a slight delay while OSCAR gets the data ready.  I happen to use a NAS with an SMB connection and OSCAR works fine with it.

If you decide to start over, there are two other hidden files you will need to delete that are in your <username> Library:

You may need to show hidden files to see them.  In Finder, click on your username and  press "Shift Command Period" to see the hidden files.

/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Saved Application State/org.oscar-team.OSCAR.savedState

/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Preferences/org.oscar-team.OSCAR.plist

That should leave you with no signs OSCAR was ever installed and you will have a clean slate.

EDIT: As usual, reboot your computer after you do this to clear out any cache's that may be lingering