Mac Dock Tips: 15 Tweaks Worth Making

The Dock has a handful of settings in System Settings and a much longer list that Apple never put in a menu. This is our list of the ones worth changing: the built-in options that people overlook, the keyboard shortcuts that save a click, and the hidden commands that make the biggest difference.

Every Terminal command below ends with killall Dock, which restarts the Dock so it picks up the change. Each one comes with its undo. Before you start, it is worth saving your current layout so you can always get back to it:

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

Mac Dock settings people overlook

All of these are in System Settings, then Desktop & Dock.

If a folder such as Downloads has gone missing from your Dock, start with getting the Downloads folder back on the Dock, then come back to these.

1. Minimise windows into application icon. Off by default, which is why the right side of your Dock fills up with minimised windows. Turn it on and minimised windows tuck into their app's icon instead. Right-click the app to get them back.

2. Turn off suggested and recent apps. Show suggested and recent apps in Dock adds up to three apps you did not pin. Turn it off and the Dock only shows what you chose, which also stops the "why is this app in my Dock" moments.

3. Magnification. Lets you keep the Dock small but have icons swell as your pointer passes over them. Useful with a lot of pinned apps; distracting with a few.

4. Position on screen. On a wide display, moving the Dock to the left or right frees vertical space, which is the scarcer dimension for most work. Note that folders then open as grids or lists, since Fan only works with the Dock at the bottom.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

5. Option, Command and D toggles auto-hide on and off without opening Settings.

6. Command-click any Dock icon to reveal it in Finder. Works for apps and folders.

7. Option, Command-click an app to switch to it and hide every other app at once. The fastest way to clear a cluttered screen.

8. Drag a file onto an app icon to open it with that app, even if it is not the default for that file type.

9. Hold Option while right-clicking an app in the Dock and Quit becomes Force Quit.

Hidden Mac Dock settings, via Terminal

Open Terminal with Command and Space, type Terminal and press Return, then paste the command.

10. Remove the auto-hide delay. With auto-hide on, the Dock waits about half a second before appearing. This removes the wait:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0; killall Dock

Undo: defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay; killall Dock

11. Speed up the hide animation. Pair it with the one above for a Dock that feels instant:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.15; killall Dock

Use 0 for no animation at all. Undo: defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier; killall Dock

12. Add spacers between app groups. A spacer is a blank tile you can drag like an app, so you can split the Dock into browsers, communication, work tools and so on:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock

For a half-width spacer, use small-spacer-tile instead. Run it once per spacer, then drag each one into place. To remove a spacer, drag it off the Dock.

13. Show only running apps. Turns the Dock into a pure app switcher with no pinned icons at all:

defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool true; killall Dock

This suits you if you already launch apps from Spotlight or a launcher and only want the Dock to tell you what is open. Undo: defaults delete com.apple.dock static-only; killall Dock

14. Make hidden apps look hidden. Apps hidden with Command and H get a translucent icon, so you can tell at a glance what is hidden and what is just in the background:

defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true; killall Dock

Undo: defaults delete com.apple.dock showhidden; killall Dock

15. Lock the Dock. If you share a Mac, or you keep dragging icons off by accident, you can stop the Dock's contents from being changed:

defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool true; killall Dock

There is a matching size-immutable key that stops the size being changed by dragging the divider. Undo: defaults delete com.apple.dock contents-immutable; killall Dock. Remember this one is on before you try to add a folder, or it will look like the Dock is broken.

Two more for folder stacks

If you use folders on the Dock, two extra commands are worth knowing. defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -bool true; killall Dock lets you scroll up on a stack to open it. And a Recent Applications stack can be added with one command, which our guide to adding any folder to the Mac Dock covers along with the folders worth adding.

Undoing everything

If you have gone too far, restore the backup you exported at the start:

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

No backup? defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock resets the Dock to Apple's factory layout. Our guide to resetting the Mac Dock to default covers what that clears. And if your changes keep undoing themselves without your help, why the Mac Dock keeps resetting goes through the causes.

The biggest tweak of all

Several of the tweaks above, faster auto-hide, only showing running apps, locking the contents, point at the same idea: the Dock is better as a status bar than as a launcher. That is the setup we use, with the Dock hidden and apps launched from ShortcutDock, a grid of chosen apps behind a menu bar icon or a hotkey, with Groups for sets of apps that open together. It runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later, and the free version holds eight app shortcuts, five favourites and one group. We explain the reasoning in why we hide the Mac Dock.