Can't revert Dock static-only on MacBook M1

First of all, the words "dynamic" and "static" are misnomers.

"static" means that the Dock only shows running applications...

"dynamic" means that the Dock can be customized to show whichever applications you choose.

To be clear:

defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE; killall Dock 

clears the contents of the Dock, and makes it show ONLY running applications.

defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool FALSE; killall Dock 

reverts the Dock to the default behavior as most users expect from it, letting you add or remove applications as desired. What is does NOT do is to reset the Dock to its default set of applications, NOR does it restore whatever applications the user had previously put on the Dock.

If you want, you can do this to reset the Dock to its default factory settings:

defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock

This puts the Dock at the bottom, always visible just as it will look if you login to a newly created user account.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

First of all, the words "dynamic" and "static" are misnomers.

"static" means that the Dock only shows running applications...

"dynamic" means that the Dock can be customized to show whichever applications you choose.

To be clear:

defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE; killall Dock

clears the contents of the Dock, and makes it show ONLY running applications.

defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool FALSE; killall Dock

reverts the Dock to the default behavior as most users expect from it, letting you add or remove applications as desired. What is does NOT do is to reset the Dock to its default set of applications, NOR does it restore whatever applications the user had previously put on the Dock.

If you want, you can do this to reset the Dock to its default factory settings:

defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock

This puts the Dock at the bottom, always visible just as it will look if you login to a newly created user account.

Let us hope this works for OP issue

It is unclear what you are trying to achieve.

It seems that you want the Dock to show only the running applications, and then go back to a situation where it shows other (not currently running) applications.

Is that what you want? (and, if you don't mind my asking... why?)

If I understand correctly, things do not work the way you expect them to.

Setting this to true does not "save" the rest of the Dock.

You can set it to false again, but then you will have to rebuild your Dock.

FWIW, I do not get why people are so fixated on the Dock. Mine is hidden (except for testing stuff in regard to questions posted here in the forum) permanently. You can easily launch applications without it, thus rendering the question of what is there (or isn't) moot. Just press command-space and type two or three letters, and press enter. To switch to another application, press command-tab. You will soon find that the Dock is largely superfluous, anyway.

sheres69 wrote:

Hi,

Running Tahoe on a Macbook M1 2020.

For some reason this command does not revert back to the full dock, it still shows only the active applications: defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool FALSE; killall Dock

This works: defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE; killall Dock but I can't get back to the original status.

I've tried to delete the plist, without success.

Thanks for your help!

Stéphane

Not sure what behavior you see exactly and what it is you want...?

Is this an old issue, new issue, what changed?

is this about Hide and Show(?)

Is this about multiple displays?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253716507?sortBy=oldest_first

Typically changes to dock happen through >System Settings>Dock

you can try changing the location of the Dock to test

no resolve—

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

—A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies.

third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

Login and test and compare your results. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

This was a pretty interesting issue that caught my attention!

I’d never heard of ‘Dock static’ before, so I decided to look it up.

Turns out, there are both Dynamic Dock and Static Dock.

The most I could find is that static-only is now basically one-way on the latest macOS 26 builds.

Setting it to TRUE still works, but setting it back to FALSE is ignored by Dock.

FALSE no longer restores pinned apps

Dock treats TRUE as a permanent mode, not a switch.

How can I get this all sorted out again?

I was thinking I might try rebooting in Recovery Mode and choosing to reinstall the Operating System over the existing installation.

Whoa! Wait a minute!

Reinstall the full OS for this?!!!!!

You just have to set the icons in the Dock the way you want them, that's all.

Open the Applications folder, and drag any applications that want to see in the Dock.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Whoa! Wait a minute!

Reinstall the full OS for this?!!!!!

You just have to set the icons in the Dock the way you want them, that's all.

Open the Applications folder, and drag any applications that want to see in the Dock.

Perhaps so

Honest question

Will doing so, bring back the Dynamic Dock versus Static Dock ?

I do not know