macOS gives you exactly one customisation slider for the Dock — icon size — and a handful of toggles buried in System Settings. If you want anything beyond that (icon spacing, folders, themes, a dock on every monitor, or live window previews), you need either defaults write terminal commands or a third-party app. Here's everything that's actually possible, starting with what's built in.
What System Settings actually lets you change
Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock and you'll find:
- Size — a single slider controlling icon size for the whole Dock
- Magnification — icons grow when your cursor hovers over them (toggle + slider)
- Position — Bottom, Left, or Right
- Minimise effect — Genie or Scale
- Automatically hide and show the Dock — hides the Dock until you move your cursor to that screen edge
- Show suggested and recent applications — controls whether apps you've opened recently appear at the right end of the Dock
- Show indicators for open applications — the small dot under running apps
That's genuinely the entire list. There's no icon spacing control, no colour theme, no per-app configuration, and no way to show the Dock on more than one monitor at a time.
How to change icon size and spacing with terminal commands
If you're comfortable with Terminal, you can push beyond the slider. These commands require you to relaunch the Dock after running them.
Change the tile size (icon size in pixels, 16–256):
bash
defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 48
Enable larger magnification than the slider allows:
bash
defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 96
Add spacing between icon groups using a blank spacer tile:
bash
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'
Relaunch the Dock after any of these:
bash
killall Dock
The spacing command adds an invisible draggable gap to the right end of your Dock — you can then drag it wherever you want. To remove it, just drag it off the Dock as you would any other icon.
These commands work on macOS Sonoma and Sequoia, but they're fiddly. If you run the spacer command twice by accident you get two spacers; removing them means dragging each one off individually. There's no undo.
Why you can't make app folders in the macOS Dock
On iPhone you drag one app onto another and iOS creates a folder automatically. macOS has never had this. You can put files and folders from Finder into the Dock (drag any folder to the right side of the Dock's dividing line), but you can't group app icons together the same way. The workaround most people use — a Finder folder full of aliases — works but feels clunky and doesn't look like a real folder.
How to get a proper Dock on every monitor
macOS shows the Dock on only one screen at a time. It moves to whichever display your cursor is sitting at the bottom of (or left edge, or right edge, depending on your position setting), but it takes a noticeable moment to re-appear and it's never on two screens simultaneously. There's no setting to change this — it's a fundamental macOS limitation.
What Dockish adds if the built-in options aren't enough
Dockish ($6.99 one-time, 7-day free trial, macOS 14+) is a full Dock replacement that handles the things above that macOS can't. The things that are genuinely different from the system Dock:
Multi-monitor support — Dockish shows a Dock on every connected display simultaneously, either mirrored or with independent app sets per monitor. When you plug in or unplug a monitor it adapts automatically. This alone is the reason most people with two or more screens switch.
iPhone-style app folders — drag one app icon onto another and Dockish creates a folder with a 2×2 preview grid, auto-named from the apps inside. It works the same way it does on iPhone — no aliases, no Finder workaround.
Full visual customisation — icon size from 24–96px, adjustable spacing and magnification, themes (glass, dark, light, or custom tint), app name labels, and dividers you can place anywhere in the Dock. All of this is changed in a settings panel, not by running terminal commands.
Live window previews — hover over any app icon to see thumbnail previews of its open windows. You can close a window directly from the preview without switching to the app first.
Context menus with real controls — right-click Chrome and switch directly to a different profile; right-click a media app and get playback controls; hold Option and right-click to Force Quit without opening Activity Monitor.
Smart click behaviour — clicking a minimised app in the macOS Dock often does the wrong thing (opens a new window instead of restoring the minimised one). Dockish always does what you meant: launch if not running, focus if running, restore if minimised.
Dockish installs alongside the macOS Dock — you don't have to permanently remove the system Dock, though there's a one-click toggle to hide it. If you decide Dockish isn't for you, re-enable the system Dock and uninstall.
The fastest way to import your existing Dock into Dockish
On a new install, Dockish automatically imports your pinned macOS Dock apps so you're not starting from scratch. If you're upgrading from an earlier version, there's a one-click import option in settings. Your existing Dock arrangement — app order, any spacers — carries over.
Which approach should you use?
| What you want | Best option |
|---|---|
| Slightly bigger icons | System Settings slider |
| Spacers between app groups |
defaults write terminal command |
| Dock on every monitor | Dockish |
| App folders | Dockish |
| Custom themes / icon spacing | Dockish |
| Window hover previews only (free) | DockDoor (free, window previews only) |
| Taskbar-style Dock (Windows feel) | uBar (~$30, different philosophy) |
DockDoor is worth an honest mention: it's free and adds window hover previews to the system Dock without replacing anything else. If that's the only thing you're after, start there.
Common questions
Can you change the Mac Dock icons themselves — not just the size?
macOS lets you replace individual app icons by pasting a new image in Get Info (right-click app → Get Info → click the icon → ⌘V). This changes the icon system-wide, not just in the Dock. There's no way to set a different icon just for the Dock using native tools.
Does macOS Sequoia add any new Dock customisation options?
Sequoia added improvements to window tiling but nothing new for Dock customisation. The Dock settings in Sequoia are identical to Sonoma. The icon size slider, magnification toggle, position setting, and auto-hide option are still the full extent of what's built in.
Can I have a different set of apps on the Dock for each monitor?
macOS can't do this — it shows the same Dock on whatever display it moves to. Dockish supports independent dock layouts per monitor (set in Independent mode), so you can have your design tools on the left monitor's Dock and communication apps on the right monitor's Dock.
Originally published at appish.app
Top comments (0)