My Mac (2020 MacBook Air) seems to think that I’m desperately in need of Apple TV. Almost every time I use the computer the Apple TV icon starts jumping up from the dock onto whatever page I’m viewing online, begging me to enter the wonderful world of Apple TV. Sometimes multiple sign-ins appear if I click on it to get it to stop.
I have never used Apple TV nor do I want to. I would be happy if it was deleted entirely from the computer, but since it’s part of the OS you can’t do that. There are recommended ways to delete the icon from your dock but none I’ve tried work (if you drag the icon to Trash it just boomerangs back to where it was in the first place).
Is there any way to send the blasted icon to never-never land so it stops plaguing me when I’m doing other tasks?
Remove an item from the Dock: Drag the item out of the Dock until Remove is shown. Only the alias is removed; the actual item remains on your Mac.
Nothing about dragging it to Trash, just drag it from the Dock and then a Remove option should appear.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Dock & Menu Bar.
In the Dock & Menu Bar section in the sidebar, change the options you want. For example, you can change how items appear in the Dock, adjust its size, locate it along the left or right edge of the screen, or even hide it.
There is the option to hide it, that might stop the behavior.
I tried that. The Apple TV icon remains stubbornly in place, even after a restart.
Dragging the item up out of the dock results in the word “Remove” appearing above the icon, but I don’t see any way to activate “Remove” (when I release the icon, it just reverts back into the dock).
Yeah, it’s launching at startup. That’s why you can’t remove it from the dock.
Make sure it’s not in the list of items to open at startup (System Preferences → Users and Groups → Login items.)