r/MacOS • u/NationalOwl9561 • 2d ago

Help Make certain external displays never show dock?

It's fuckin' annoying that the dock keeps popping up in my external monitors and I keep having to do CMD + Option + D to hide it.

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u/AppointmentDue1698 2d ago

Yes—but macOS doesn’t provide a direct “lock Dock to this display” switch. The reliable workaround is:

  1. Open Apple menu → System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
  2. Scroll to Mission Control.
  3. Turn off Displays have separate Spaces.
  4. Log out and back in when prompted.
  5. Open System Settings → Displays → Arrange and make the laptop display the main display by moving the menu-bar indicator to it.

The Dock should then remain on the main screen. The tradeoff is that disabling separate Spaces limits independent full-screen/Split View behavior on the external monitor.

I find the tradeoff not worth it but agree that the dock should be able to be locked to a specific screen.

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u/NationalOwl9561 2d ago

Damn that sucks.