How to Reset Mac Dock to Default: A Simple Terminal Guide

One command resets the Mac Dock: defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock. The Dock disappears for about a second, then returns with its factory layout, size and position. Before you run it, there is one thing worth knowing: that command wipes your hot corners too.

What does resetting the Dock actually do?

macOS stores your Dock configuration in a preferences domain called com.apple.dock. Deleting that domain removes every customisation you have made: pinned apps, folder stacks, icon size, magnification, screen position, auto-hide, the reveal delay, and the animation timing. macOS then generates a fresh set of defaults the next time the Dock starts.

What it does not do is remove anything from your Mac. Applications stay installed, files stay where they are, and the only thing you lose is the arrangement. That is why a reset is a reasonable first move when the Dock is behaving strangely rather than merely being untidy.

What else lives in com.apple.dock?

More than the Dock, which is the part most guides leave out. The same domain also holds:

• Hot corners. Every screen corner action you have configured goes back to none.
• Mission Control preferences, including whether spaces rearrange themselves by recent use and whether windows group by application.
• Your current Spaces arrangement, so desktops you had set up are rebuilt.

None of these are difficult to set up again, but it is annoying to discover afterwards. If hot corners are load bearing for you, write them down before you run the command.

How do you see what is set before you wipe it?

defaults read com.apple.dock prints the whole domain into Terminal. It is long and mostly machine readable, but it is the fastest way to check one value before changing it. Naming a single key is more useful: defaults read com.apple.dock autohide-delay returns just that setting, and reports that the key does not exist if you never set it, which is a quick way to confirm whether a previous Terminal fix is still in place.

Back up your Dock first

The defaults tool can export a domain to a file and import it back, which makes the reset genuinely undoable:

defaults export com.apple.dock ~/Desktop/dock-backup.plist

That writes your current Dock configuration, hot corners included, to your Desktop. To roll back:

defaults import com.apple.dock ~/Desktop/dock-backup.plist; killall Dock

Thirty seconds of work that turns a one-way change into a two-way one. Do it.

The command that resets the Dock

1. Open Terminal. Press Command and Space, type Terminal, and press Return.
2. Type or paste this exactly:
   defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock
3. Press Return.

What to expect. The Dock vanishes and the screen may flicker briefly as the process quits. Within a second or two the Dock reappears at the bottom of the screen, at default size, holding Apple's default set of apps for your macOS version. Any app that is currently running also shows an icon, as usual.

The two halves do different jobs. defaults delete com.apple.dock removes the stored preferences. killall Dock quits the running Dock so it restarts and reads the now-empty settings. Without the second half, the Dock keeps drawing from what it already has in memory and nothing appears to change. That pattern is true of every Dock setting: the change is written immediately, but it does not take effect until the Dock restarts.

If Terminal replies that the domain was not found, the preferences were already cleared. That is not an error and the reset still works.

How do you reset only part of the Dock?

A full wipe is often more than the situation calls for. These are narrower and each one needs the same killall Dock to take effect:

• Clear pinned apps only: defaults delete com.apple.dock persistent-apps; killall Dock
• Clear folder stacks only: defaults delete com.apple.dock persistent-others; killall Dock
• Undo a reveal delay: defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay; killall Dock
• Undo a changed animation speed: defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier; killall Dock
• Reset icon size: defaults delete com.apple.dock tilesize; killall Dock

These leave your hot corners and everything else alone, which is usually what you actually wanted. The full list of what each key does is in our guide to completely removing the macOS Dock, which uses the same settings in the opposite direction.

What a reset will not fix

Worth knowing before you spend an afternoon on it:

• Finder problems. A misbehaving sidebar or Finder window is a separate process. killall Finder is the equivalent there.
• Third-party window managers. If another app is positioning or hiding your Dock, resetting Apple's preferences will not stop it.
• A managed Mac. A configuration profile can push a Dock layout that reapplies at login, overwriting your reset. Check System Settings, then General, then Device Management.
• Your habits. A clean Dock fills up again. That is not a bug, it is what happens to every Dock.

Rebuilding the Dock afterwards

Once the Dock is back to defaults, resist filling it immediately. Add apps for a week only as you actually reach for them, and you will end up with a much shorter Dock than the one you started with.

Two jobs to do straight away, though. Remove the default apps you know you will never open, using the methods in removing apps from the Dock. And put back any folder stacks you were relying on, since the reset cleared those too: getting the Downloads folder back on the Dock covers the drag and the stack options.

If the Dock is still broken after a reset

Work through these in order:

1. Log out and back in. Some Dock state is only rebuilt at login.
2. Restart the Mac. Boring, and it clears a surprising number of window server oddities.
3. Test a new user account. Create one in System Settings under Users and Groups and log in. If the Dock is fine there, the fault is in your account, not in macOS.
4. Check for a configuration profile under Device Management, which would explain settings that keep coming back.

If you get this far and the Dock is still misbehaving, our support page is a better use of your time than another Terminal command.

A quieter alternative to rebuilding it again

A reset gives you a clean Dock, not a Dock that stays clean. If you find yourself resetting it every few months, the useful question is whether you need it to be your launcher at all.

The setup worth trying: hide the Dock so it stops taking a strip of screen, and open apps from the menu bar instead. Hiding the Mac Dock covers the first half. For the second, ShortcutDock puts your apps in a grid behind a menu bar icon or a global hotkey, with Groups for sets of apps you open together. It runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later, uses under 20MB of RAM, works entirely offline, and starts free with eight app shortcuts, five favourites and one group. Pro lifts those caps for a one-time payment rather than a subscription, and you can download the free version to see whether the workflow suits you first.