Mac os move dock to other monitor

How to Move Your Dock to Another Monitor on Mac

The Dock is one of the essential features of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. It makes using the Mac a whole lot easier and simpler. The latest versions of the OS have seen changes in your Dock’s behavior when multiple displays are connected to the computer.

In this article, we’ll investigate how to move it to another monitor. We’ll also brush up on the basics of multi-monitor setups.

Mac and Multiple Monitors

Mac laptops have had multiple monitor support for a long time now. However, Apple has changed the way you can set them up and what you can do with them throughout the years. Some features were introduced only to be dropped after a version or two, while others stuck and got refined over time.

For example, the Menu bar used to only be displayed on the primary monitor. Nonetheless, with the introduction of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, your Mac would start displaying it on every monitor you’ve plugged in. The bar would only be active on the currently active monitor, while it would be grayed out on other monitors.

With the introduction of OS X El Capitan, you can now move the Dock to a secondary display without changing the primary display settings. All subsequent versions, including Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave support this function.

How to Move the Dock

Moving the Dock to a non-primary display on a Mac laptop is a breeze. The method is identical for Mavericks, El Capitan, and all later versions. If you’re running Mountain Lion, Lion, or any previous version of OS X, you’re out of luck when it comes to this neat little feature.

Here is how you can use it:

1. Move your mouse or trackpad to a non-primary monitor. If you have three, four, or more displays connected, move the cursor to any of them.
2. Move the cursor to the bottom of the display, approximately to the position where the Dock should appear on a Mac display.
3. Wait for a few seconds until the Dock appears below your cursor.
4. The Dock is now active and ready to use on this monitor.

Have in mind that you can use this method to move the Dock to any monitor of your choosing just by repeating these steps.

There’s been a lot of speculation as to why the Dock doesn’t automatically appear when you move the mouse or trackpad cursor to a non-primary display. Our take on this is that Apple ruled that one out in a bid to make the user experience smoother and with less visual distractions.

This way, you can always summon the Dock when and where you need it in a matter of seconds. You don’t have to think where the Dock is or what your primary display is anymore. Likewise, the Dock doesn’t jump at you as you move to another display. Instead, it waits patiently in the background until it’s needed.

How to Change the Primary Display

While we’re at it, we might as well brush up on how to set and change the primary display on a Mac. Have in mind that the actual steps and available options might have changed slightly over time and between all the different OS X versions released over the years. However, the process remains largely the same. Here’s how to change the primary display on Mac OS X:

1. Click on the Apple menu.
2. Go to System Preferences.
3. Now, click on Displays.
4. When the Displays section opens, you should click on the Arrangement tab.
5. Click on the white bar at the top of the primary display’s icon and drag it to the display you’d like to set as primary.
   

If you’d like to arrange displays, you can drag the display icons around until they match the left-to-right arrangement of your physical monitors. When you select a display and start moving it, a red border will appear around the icon and the display of the actual monitor.

Another thing to have in mind is that, since the introduction of the Mavericks version, all monitors display the Menu bar. However, it is used to designate the primary display in the Display settings.

Extend Your Primary Display

Mac OS X also allows you to extend your primary display to the external monitor. Here’s how it works:

1. Click on the Apple menu.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Displays.
4. If it is checked, un-check the Mirror Displays checkbox.
   

The Free Dock

Some people think that Apple’s decision to make the Dock appear seamlessly when it’s needed greatly improves the user experience. Some users, on the other hand, find it confusing.

Which side are you on? Is this a good feature that Apple should keep for future versions or something that needs to be discarded? What’s your take on this? Make sure to give us your two cents in the comments section below.

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How to Move the Dock to Another Monitor in OS X El Capitan

Mac users can hide the menu bar in OS X El Capitan, but what if you want to move the dock to a second monitor?

Moving the dock to a second display has been possible on Mac OS X for many years, but the dock and menu bar changes in recent versions make it worthy of another look.

So, if you’re new to macOS or just brushing up on your Mac skills, here’s how to move your dock and configure your primary display in OS X El Capitan or newer. Note that Mac OS X is now called macOS, but the terms Mac OS X and macOS are still used interchangeably.

How to Move the Mac Dock to Another Monitor

There are many different multi-monitor configurations supported by Mac OS X. While the steps discussed here will focus on a dual-display structure, they can be applied to other setups as well.

For this article, our setup is a Mac with two external displays. The display on the right is currently configured as the primary display, while the screen on the left is the secondary display.

Set Your Primary Display

Starting with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the OS will show the menu bar by default on all displays. Still, the default location of your dock and the appearance of desktop icons will tell you which monitor is currently your primary display.

To change this up, follow these instructions:

1. Go to System Preferences

2. Click on Displays.

3. Next, click on the Arrangement tab.

The “Arrangements” tab will show you the layout and relative resolution of all monitors currently connected to your Mac, including the built-in display on a MacBook (i.e., the laptop monitor itself), with each monitor represented by a blue rectangle icon.

One of the display icons will have a white bar at the top, representing the menu bar. This depiction is a holdover from older versions of OS X, which did not display the menu bar on all monitors. Still, it helps us identify which monitor is currently the primary display.

If you’re connecting many displays to your Mac for the first time and you aren’t sure which icon in System Preferences corresponds to which physical monitor on your desk, click and hold to select one of the icons. A red border will appear around the monitor the icon represents.

Once you’ve identified all of your Mac’s displays, you can click in the blue area of any display icon and drag and drop it to the appropriate position. This process arranges your virtual monitor images to match the actual layout of your physical monitors.

To make the monitor on the left your primary display, click and hold on the white bar at the top of the right icon, and then drag and drop it on the left icon.

When you release the white bar on the left display icon, all of your screens briefly dim to black. When the desktop reappears, your new monitor—in our example, the one on the left—will now contain the dock, active application windows, and any desktop icons.

Suppose you don’t like the new display arrangement. In that case, you can revert to having the right monitor configured as your primary display again by heading into System Preferences and dragging the white bar back to the desired monitor icon.

Other than the brief period in which the displays dim, your changes will take effect immediately, so there’s no need to reboot or log out to see your changes.

Move Only the Dock to Another Monitor

Starting with OS X 10.10 Yosemite, there’s a new method for moving just the dock to another display without making changes to your primary screen in System Preferences.

To try it, move your mouse or trackpad cursor to the very bottom of the display where you want your dock to appear and hold it there.

After a brief moment, the dock slides down and out of sight on your primary display. It then slides up into view on the other screen.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the Mac system displays the dock on the left monitor. Simultaneously, the desktop icons and active windows associated with your primary display configuration remain on the right one.

Once your desired monitor displays the dock, you can easily reposition it to the left, right, or default bottom of the screen to suit your liking.

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Question: Q: Show Mac dock on all screens

So I have bought the new 15″ Macbook Pro and two LG Ultrafine 5K montors and I really enjoy the setup. But there is one ting tha is disturbing. I have set up separate spaces on all three screens, but the Dock only shows up on my laptop screen. And its annoying when whoeking on the big screens in highest resolution.

In my previous setup with a iMac and two older Apple 22″ monitors I had the Dock on all screens (Sierrra). But not now. Have anyone out there the same problem or a sollution?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Jan 13, 2017 8:04 AM

The Dock can only appear on one display. I keep my dock on the right side (I have 2 displays so this might be a bit different with 3 but I don’t think so.) Open the System Preferences program and select the display tab. Here you can arrange the displays. Notice that one of your displays is shown in this dialog box with a white bar at the top. This is the main display. You can drag it to another display. I’ve dragged mine to my LCD. The Dock will appear on the main display at the bottom assuming you have your displays arranged from right to left. If they are arranged on top of each other it will display on the bottom display.

The Mac «pretends» multiple displays are one big display. Given this, if your dock is set to appear on the left or right it will appear on the left or right of this virtual setup. That means if I had my dock on the left it would show up on my Mac because my Mac’s display is arranged on the left with the LCD on the right.

Posted on Jan 13, 2017 8:29 AM

Helpful answers

You can get the Dock to appear on any single monitor of a multiple monitor setup, but with a caveat.

Since all displays form a single virtual display surface, there is only one «Right» and one «Left» but multiple «Bottoms» if the displays are organized horizontally from left to right. If you organize them vertically there are multiple «Left» and «Right» but a single bottom. Not sure what will happen if you form some sort of «L» shaped pattern as I only have two monitors in my setup — would guess that the rule still holds but unable to verify — perhaps OP can verify with his triple monitor setup?

Unfortunately, only the horizontal Display layout and the «Bottom» Dock setting will allow the Dock to migrate to whichever screen bottom you place the cursor at (takes a second or two for the Dock to appear on the new monitor). So if you have a horizontal arrangement (which you can change in the Displays System Preferences pane) , select «Bottom» for the Dock location in the Dock System Preferences pane, and if you move the cursor to the Bottom of any of the monitors the Dock should appear there in a second or two (I verified this in a two monitor setup — so hopefully OP can verify this in a three monitor setup).

If you have a vertical arrangement, selecting either «Right» or «Left» for the Dock location in the Dock System Preferences pane, and the Dock DOES NOT MOVE to the corresponding monitor edge you move the cursor to — inconsistent and a BIG BUMMER.

This has been the case for quite a while — at least since Yosemite (I verified on a Yosemite two monitor setup also).

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Question: Q: Dock keeps moving between monitors

I have connected on to my MacBook Pro Retina ( Model Identifier: MacBookPro10,1) two monitors. A Thunderbolt Display connected to the Thunderbolt port (next to power connector), a HP LCD Monitor w2408h connected to the Thunderbolt port (next to USB) with a DisplayPort to DVI adapter (using DVI/HDMI cable) .

Display Arrangement is MacBook Retina (left), Thunderbolt Display (middle), and HP LCD (right). The main menu bar is on the middle monitor, which puts the Dock in the middle.

My Dock keeps moving randomly to any of the 3 monitors. It supposed to be in the middle.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Model ID: MacBookPro10,1

Posted on Nov 5, 2013 5:47 AM

Helpful answers

So apparently, this is an actual feature and not a bug. Its been ******* me off as well as I use 3 monitors, but I read on a different forum how to actually make it appear on a different monitor and all you have to do is actually move your mouse to the center of the screen, and move it all the way down as if you’re trying to drive into the bottom of the screen. you’ll see it appears on any monitor you do this to (clearly being a feature). I think its stupid and would love to have the option to disable this without losing my separate spaces for each monitor, but I guess this is the Apple way. What can ya do?

Hope this helps.

Nov 18, 2013 10:39 AM

Well, I’ve just figured out why it does it. If you move the mouse to another window and pull it down to very bottom of the screen and hold it there, the dock moves over. To move it back, move the mouse pointer to the screen you want it on and hold the pointer at the very bottom of the screen.

Nov 21, 2013 7:49 AM

This is a feature of the way Mavericks handles multiple displays. As you move your mouse and focus to different displays, the system menu bar and Dock will appear on that display. To prevent this, go to the Mission Control system preferences and uncheck the «Displays have separate spaces» option.

Nov 5, 2013 5:54 AM

The dock does not move to different monitors when I change focus. The menu bar is on all 3 monitors and the menu gets focus and changes to which ever app it has focus on, but the Dock always stays in the middle monitor. Every once in while the dock will move to a different monitor.

I checked Mission Control and Display have separate Spaces is checked.

I am leaving it checked, since I like the menu bar on all 3 monitors.

The dock should just stay in the middle monitor, so far for the past 2 and half hours the dock is in the middle monitor and I have switched focus to all 3 monitors. Currently I am on my MacBook Pro Retina Display (left monitor) and dock is still in the middle.

Nov 5, 2013 7:43 AM

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This is a feature of the way Mavericks handles multiple displays. As you move your mouse and focus to different displays, the system menu bar and Dock will appear on that display. To prevent this, go to the Mission Control system preferences and uncheck the «Displays have separate spaces» option.

Nov 5, 2013 5:54 AM

The dock does not move to different monitors when I change focus. The menu bar is on all 3 monitors and the menu gets focus and changes to which ever app it has focus on, but the Dock always stays in the middle monitor. Every once in while the dock will move to a different monitor.

I checked Mission Control and Display have separate Spaces is checked.

I am leaving it checked, since I like the menu bar on all 3 monitors.

The dock should just stay in the middle monitor, so far for the past 2 and half hours the dock is in the middle monitor and I have switched focus to all 3 monitors. Currently I am on my MacBook Pro Retina Display (left monitor) and dock is still in the middle.

Nov 5, 2013 7:43 AM

I have the same setup and the same problem. I agree that it is not related to focus and is almost certainly a bug — it happens randomly, and I can get the dock back to its original location by right-clicking the dock, and setting the position to another value and back again to the original value. (I.e. I don’t really change anything, yet the dock jumps back to its original location).

Nov 10, 2013 9:30 AM

Thanks for the workaround to this bug. I Right-Click and reselected Bottom (already checked) in «Position on Screen» menu and it moved the dock from being on the bottom of the right monitor back to the bottom of the center monitor.

Apple needs to fix this bug with Maverick, never had this issue before with Lion and Mountain Lion.

Nov 14, 2013 6:29 AM

So apparently, this is an actual feature and not a bug. Its been ******* me off as well as I use 3 monitors, but I read on a different forum how to actually make it appear on a different monitor and all you have to do is actually move your mouse to the center of the screen, and move it all the way down as if you’re trying to drive into the bottom of the screen. you’ll see it appears on any monitor you do this to (clearly being a feature). I think its stupid and would love to have the option to disable this without losing my separate spaces for each monitor, but I guess this is the Apple way. What can ya do?

Hope this helps.

Nov 18, 2013 10:39 AM

Hm, I feared as much. What a hopelessly stupid idea.

My third monitor is a Cintiq (I.e. a touch screen), and I frequently have the pen along the lower edge during a paint stroke, with the interresting result of dragging dock icons all over the place.

I don’t care whether they call it a bug or a feature as long as it goes away 🙂.

Nov 18, 2013 11:38 AM

I’m also experiencing this issue. Can’t seem to pinpoint when / why it actually changes between monitors. The only way I’ve found to change it back is to go into Dock Preferences change the position toggle to left and then back to bottom. If it’s a feature, it’s a poor one.

Nov 21, 2013 6:11 AM

Well, I’ve just figured out why it does it. If you move the mouse to another window and pull it down to very bottom of the screen and hold it there, the dock moves over. To move it back, move the mouse pointer to the screen you want it on and hold the pointer at the very bottom of the screen.

Nov 21, 2013 7:49 AM

this is exactly it. the dock movement was always happening randomly, but being able to recreate it like this makes me thing its just a feature so people can quickly lunch dock apps from any monitor (the higher the res of the monitor and the more monitors you have the more work it would basically be to get to the dock).

Nov 30, 2013 6:48 PM

VERY Helpful, Sputnik. Thank you!

Dec 27, 2013 1:33 PM

It’s a 100% bug! My dock suddenly appears on monitor #2 and to fix it I change the dock locatin to the left and then to the bottom. It’s a BUG Apple.! Plus, I used to use VMWare to remote into my windows work machine and used 2 monitors for the real estate. Now that’s gone. «A feature?» Some lame brain fool at Apple came up with that brainstorm. So now I login using windows 8.1 only to RDP into work and have use of my 2 monitors for some real work. BAD, BAD feature! Wise up Apple.

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