Dock Customisation on macOS Sequoia: What You Can Change (and What You Can't)

macOS Sequoia doesn't change the dock in any meaningful way. The customisation options in Sequoia are functionally identical to what shipped in Ventura and Sonoma: icon size, magnification, position, auto-hide, and a toggle to show recent apps. If you came to Sequoia hoping for folders, per-monitor docks, or live window previews, none of that is there.

What dock settings does macOS Sequoia actually offer?

Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock and you'll find:

• Size — a single slider controlling icon size across the whole dock. There's no numerical value; you drag and guess.
• Magnification — hover zoom. Toggle it on and set a maximum size with a second slider.
• Position on screen — Bottom, Left, or Right. Applies to the whole Mac, not per-monitor.
• Minimise windows using — Genie or Scale effect.
• Double-click a window's title bar — Zoom or Minimise.
• Minimise windows into application icon — hides minimised windows inside the app's dock icon rather than as separate thumbnails.
• Automatically hide and show the Dock — standard auto-hide.
• Show suggested and recent applications — adds a section of recently used apps at the right end of the dock.
• Show indicators for open applications — the small dot below running apps.

That's the complete list. No colour themes. No icon spacing control. No folders. One monitor only.

Can you change dock icon size to an exact pixel value on Sequoia?

Not through System Settings. The slider gives you a rough range but no way to enter a specific size. There is a Terminal workaround that lets you set an exact value — for example, to set icons to 48 points:

bash defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 48 && killall Dock

Swap 48 for any value between roughly 16 and 128. The dock will restart and apply the size. This persists across reboots but gets overridden if you drag the System Settings slider afterwards.

You can also set magnification size separately:

bash defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 80 && killall Dock

These are the most useful Terminal tweaks — the rest are either cosmetic or unreliable across Sequoia updates.

How do you add folders or group apps in the Sequoia dock?

macOS has no native concept of app folders in the dock. You can drag a folder of files onto the dock (it appears as a stack), but you cannot drag one app onto another to group them — that simply doesn't work.

What you can do natively:

• Add app spacers (invisible gaps) using Terminal:

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

Run this once per spacer you want. Drag them into position. It's clumsy but it works.

• Add a folder of apps to the dock — drag any folder from Finder onto the right side of the dock divider. It appears as a stack you can click to fan out. This is as close as macOS gets to grouping.

If you want actual iPhone-style app folders in the dock — drag one app onto another, get a 2×2 grid preview, auto-naming — that's not something Sequoia offers. Dockish adds this: drag any app icon onto another and they collapse into a folder that sits in the dock exactly where you'd expect it.

Why doesn't the dock appear on my external monitor in Sequoia?

macOS shows the dock on one screen at a time. It follows your cursor — move to the bottom edge of any monitor and the dock migrates there — but it's never simultaneously visible on two screens. This is a longstanding limitation, not a Sequoia regression.

The only partial workaround is to pin the dock to the monitor you use most (set in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Position on screen, then drag the dock to the preferred screen edge). But the moment you move your cursor to the bottom of another monitor, it shifts.

For a dock that shows on every connected display at once — including external monitors — you need a third-party replacement. Dockish handles this with independent or mirrored docks per display, hot-plug support, and per-mode layout memory so each monitor configuration remembers its own setup.

Can you change the dock's colour or apply a theme on Sequoia?

No. macOS Sequoia applies the dock's appearance automatically based on your system appearance (Light, Dark, or Auto). You can switch between Light and Dark in System Settings → Appearance, which affects the dock along with everything else, but there's no dock-specific colour or transparency control.

Terminal can reduce the dock's transparency slightly:

bash defaults write com.apple.dock hide-mirror -bool true && killall Dock

…but this is inconsistent and not officially supported. Results vary by macOS version.

If appearance is something you care about, Dockish ships with glass, dark, light, and custom tint themes, all adjustable independently of system appearance.

What's the best way to customise the Sequoia dock if the native options aren't enough?

Depends what you're after:

For window previews only — DockDoor is free and adds hover previews to the native dock. It doesn't change anything else.

For icon size via Terminal — the tilesize command above. Free, instant, but coarse.

For a full replacement — Dockish ($6.99 one-time, 7-day free trial, macOS 14+) replaces the system dock entirely. You get exact icon sizes from 24–96px, adjustable spacing, themes, app folders, docks on every monitor, live hover previews, and correct minimise/restore behaviour. Version 1.1 added one-click import of your existing dock's pinned apps, so setup takes under a minute.

It's a one-time purchase — no subscription, lifetime updates included.

Common questions

Does macOS Sequoia have any new dock features compared to Ventura or Sonoma?

No meaningful ones. Sequoia's dock customisation options are identical to Sonoma's. The new Sequoia features (window tiling, iPhone mirroring, improved Safari) don't touch the dock at all.

How do I stop Sequoia from adding recent apps to my dock?

Go to System Settings → Desktop & Dock and turn off Show suggested and recent applications in Dock. This removes the Recent Apps section entirely and keeps your dock to only the apps you've pinned.

Can I make the macOS dock show on all monitors at the same time in Sequoia?

Not with native macOS — the dock always lives on one screen at a time and migrates on cursor movement. A dock replacement app like Dockish adds a real dock to every connected display simultaneously, which is the only reliable solution for multi-monitor setups.