How to stop the Mac Dock moving to your other monitor
Short answer: macOS has no setting to lock the Dock to one screen. It moves to any display whose bottom edge you push the pointer against. The built-in workarounds are turning off Displays have separate Spaces (which has side effects) or moving the Dock to the left or right side. To keep it on the screen you choose while everything else behaves normally, Okie Dockie has a Keep the Dock on option, free.
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Why the Dock keeps moving
With more than one display, macOS treats the Dock as something that follows you. Move the pointer to the very bottom of any screen and give it a small nudge downwards, and the Dock slides away from wherever it was and appears there instead.
It is meant to be helpful. In practice it happens by accident all the time — reaching for a window's bottom edge, or a scroll bar at the bottom of a page — and the Dock ends up on the wrong screen several times a day.
Workaround 1: turn off separate Spaces
Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock, scroll to Mission Control, and turn off Displays have separate Spaces. Log out and back in. The Dock then stays on your main display.
The cost: the menu bar appears only on the main display, and an app in full screen blanks out your other monitors instead of leaving them usable. Many people with two screens find that worse than the moving Dock.
Workaround 2: put the Dock on the side
In System Settings → Desktop & Dock, set Position on screen to Left or Right. A side Dock can only sit on the outer edge of your leftmost or rightmost screen, so it has far fewer places to jump to. Whether that fully fixes it depends on how your displays are arranged — and many people simply want the Dock at the bottom.
Lock the Dock to the screen you choose
Okie Dockie adds the setting macOS leaves out. From its menu bar icon, open Keep the Dock on and choose:
- Any display — the normal macOS behaviour.
- Main display — the Dock stays on your main screen.
- Any other connected display, listed by name.
It works by stopping the pointer one pixel short of the bottom edge on the other screens, which is the exact spot that makes the Dock move. The pointer still travels freely between displays, nothing else about Spaces or full screen changes, and it is the real macOS Dock throughout. The choice is remembered when you unplug and reconnect a monitor; while the chosen one is disconnected, the main display is used.
If the Dock is already on another screen when you choose, move the pointer to the bottom of the chosen screen once to bring it back — after that, it stays.
Get every Chrome profile into your Dock
Okie Dockie builds a real Dock icon for each Chrome profile you use, badged with that profile's own picture. Click one and you land back in the window it already had open.
Everything except Chrome profile icons is free forever, and the profile icons come with a 7-day free trial that starts on its own — no sign-up, no card. macOS 13+, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stop the Dock moving to my second monitor on a Mac?
macOS has no direct setting. Turning off "Displays have separate Spaces" keeps it on the main display, with side effects. Okie Dockie's "Keep the Dock on" option locks it to the display you choose while everything else works normally.
Why does my Mac Dock jump between screens?
With multiple displays, the Dock moves to any screen whose bottom edge the pointer is pushed against. Accidental nudges at the bottom of a screen are the usual cause.
Can I keep the Dock on a screen other than the main one?
Not with macOS alone. Okie Dockie lets you pick any connected display, not only the main one.
Does locking the Dock stop the pointer moving between monitors?
No. Only the last pixel at the edge of the other screens is held back; the pointer crosses between displays as normal.
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