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 5, 2013 5:54 AM

This is a feature of the way Mavericks handles multiple displays. As you move your mouse and focus to different displays, the system menu bar and Dock will appear on that display. To prevent this, go to the Mission Control system preferences and uncheck the "Displays have separate spaces" option.

77 replies

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.

May 6, 2014 10:46 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

At first I thought this was nutty, but then I gave it a try and sorta liked it. Well, this morning it behaved randomly. I switched it off in Mission Control hard booted, I mean power cord out. Tried to log out couldn't do it, never had to. So, I pulled the plug and the behaviour is the same.


BUG


FAIL


Essentially a good feature but it


DOESN'T WORK.


How about a new version of Mavericks with this corrected.

May 21, 2014 8:44 PM in response to Felix Hernandez

Sputnik is spot on, but the key word is "center" of the screen. I've been completelly flumoxed by this one as well and that is the key. If run your mouse to the dead-middle of a monitor (go too far even) it will pull the dock there. If you go down but not in the middle and then move to the middle, maybe 30% of the time that it works. And then, trying to do it correctly will fail - you need to go to another monitor, click on some stuff, maybe even move the dock THERE, then go to the target monitor and it will work. I think the 30% bit is why people see it as random. It's definitely not a clean UI control.


+1, Sputnik.

Jul 17, 2014 10:41 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

For some reason, I was able to work around this problem initially, but now that I've updated Mavericks it's returned with no solution.


With "Displays have separate spaces" unchecked on my new work machine last month, I was able to have the menu bar show on all three of my monitors (MacBook, Thunderbolt, Wacom Cintiq) but the dock would stay at the bottom of my Thunderbolt where I wanted it.

Now I either have to get rid of the menu bar on the Cintiq, or suffer with the dock popping up every time I make a long brushstroke or use toolbars on the bottom of the screen. Since I have my Thunderbolt in the center, setting the dock position to left or right either puts it over my Adobe toolbars on the Cintiq, or squashed onto the far side of the laptop.


The best "workaround" I've found is to detach the toolbars from the sides of Photoshop + Illustrator and shorten them so that I never have to use the bottom inch of my Cintiq. =_=;

We need to be able to set the dock and menu bars independently, otherwise, those of us with art desk jobs are losing a lot of productivity.

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Dock keeps moving between monitors

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