Mac Dock on Multiple Displays: How to Actually Show It on Every Monitor
macOS won't show the dock on all monitors at once — here's every method to fix it, including a dock replacement that does it properly.
macOS will never show the dock on every monitor simultaneously — it moves to whichever screen your cursor is closest to, one at a time. If you want a persistent dock on all your displays at once, you need either a workaround or a third-party app, because there is no setting in System Settings that unlocks this.
Why macOS only shows the dock on one screen at a time
This is a deliberate design decision that Apple has never revisited. The dock in macOS is a single, shared element — it floats to the screen edge where your cursor is, then retreats when you move away. On a two-monitor setup this is mildly annoying. On three monitors it becomes genuinely painful: you're constantly making long cursor trips to the main display just to launch an app on another screen.
The one exception macOS makes is when you enable "Displays have separate Spaces" in System Settings → Desktop & Dock. With that on, the dock will appear on whichever screen is currently active rather than only the primary one — but it still only shows on one screen at a time, and it still disappears while you're working elsewhere. That's not the same as having a dock on every monitor.
What "Displays have separate Spaces" actually does (and doesn't do)
Go to System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control and toggle "Displays have separate Spaces". This does two things:
- Each display gets its own menu bar (useful)
- The dock becomes available on whichever display your cursor is currently on
What it does not do: show a dock on every monitor at the same time. The moment your cursor moves to a different screen, that screen's dock appears and the previous one vanishes. For mouse-heavy workflows this is a bit better than the default, but it still means no persistent dock on secondary monitors.
Requires a log out and back in to take effect.
Can you get a real dock on every monitor?
Not with macOS alone. The native dock architecture doesn't support cloning itself across displays. To get a proper persistent dock on every screen you need a third-party app.
Dockish is the only current Mac dock replacement that explicitly supports independent docks across all connected displays. You can run it in three modes:
- All Monitors — a mirrored dock appears on every display simultaneously
- Main Only — dock on the primary screen only (matches macOS default)
- Independent — each display gets its own dock with its own set of pinned apps
The Independent mode is particularly useful for multi-monitor setups where different screens serve different purposes — a code editor on one, a browser on another, communications on a third. You pin the relevant apps to each display's dock rather than cramming everything into one.
Dockish handles hot-plug too: when you connect or disconnect a monitor, the docks adjust without you doing anything. Each layout mode remembers its own configuration, so switching between "at desk with two monitors" and "just the laptop" doesn't scramble your setup.
It's a one-time purchase at $6.99 with a 7-day free trial, and it runs macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later.
Setting up multi-monitor docks in Dockish
Once installed, the setup is straightforward:
- Open Dockish from the menu bar
- Go to Preferences → Display Mode and choose All Monitors (mirrored) or Independent (per-display)
- In Independent mode, click the display you want to configure in the sidebar and pin apps to that dock separately
- Use the Copy Layout button if you want to start one monitor's dock as a clone of another, then customise from there
Icon size, spacing, magnification, and theme (glass, dark, light, custom tint) are all configurable per-dock. The dock can sit on the bottom, left, or right edge of each display independently.
What about the native dock auto-hide trick?
Some guides suggest enabling auto-hide (System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Automatically hide and show the Dock) so the dock appears on demand wherever your cursor is. This is the built-in behaviour described above — it doesn't give you a dock on every monitor, it just makes the dock visible on whichever one you're on at the time.
If your workflow involves quickly switching between monitors to launch apps, this is fine. If you want a dock visible at all times on a secondary display — say, a communications screen where you always want Slack, Messages, and Calendar visible — auto-hide doesn't solve it.
Does hiding the macOS dock and using Dockish cause any conflicts?
No — Dockish includes a one-click "Hide macOS Dock" button in its preferences. This suppresses the native dock entirely (fully reversible) so the two don't compete for screen space. Most people using Dockish on a multi-monitor setup hide the native dock straight away.
If you ever want the macOS dock back, the same toggle brings it back. Nothing is permanently changed.
Common questions
Does macOS Sequoia add any multi-monitor dock features?
No. macOS Sequoia added native window tiling but made no changes to how the dock works across multiple displays. The single-dock-at-a-time behaviour is unchanged from much earlier macOS versions.
Will a dock on every monitor slow down my Mac?
Not noticeably. Dockish is a lightweight menu bar app — it uses a small amount of CPU when you're interacting with a dock and essentially nothing when you're not. On any Mac running macOS 14+, the impact isn't something you'd measure in practice.
Can I have different apps pinned to the dock on each monitor?
Yes, with Dockish in Independent mode. Each display gets its own pinned app list, so you can have a completely different dock on each screen. In All Monitors (mirrored) mode, every display shows the same dock — your choice depending on your setup.