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

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Posted on Nov 10, 2013 9:30 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).

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Nov 10, 2013 9:30 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

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 18, 2013 10:39 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

Hey guys,


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 5, 2013 7:43 AM in response to Topher Kessler

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.

Mar 9, 2014 6:44 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

I have the same problem. Drives me nuts because I use a VM Fusion in the second window and when I use the Windows task bar, Mac Dock jumps in the way.


Solution, go to Dock Properties and have it go to left (for me) or right instead of bottom. It locks on the leftmost or rightmost position of both monitors - so it always stays in the same place. This is less annoying than jumping around.

Apr 15, 2014 10:30 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

Sputnik really had the best answer. Even if the dock moves seemingly unexpectantly to get it back is quite easy. As he noted, just take your cursor and drive it down (i.e. with a bit of a brisk movement) down to the bottom center of the display where you want it to appear. With a little practice you can make it appear in any of the displays that you have up and running.


Thanks, Sputnik, this was a great help to me.

Apr 21, 2014 11:35 AM in response to Wayne from Maine

That helps, it does seem like you need to have the mouse start at a position > 50% of the way up the screen. Although I've found that sometimes it doesn't work if the mouse moves horizontally over a certain threshold.


A real solution from Apple might be to make this behavior separate from the checkbox to allow monitors to have spaces as I really don't want it but I really do want the rest of the features that come with it. Other users have shown that it is a hindrance in some use cases.

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Dock keeps moving between monitors

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