Felix Hernandez

Q: 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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Q: Dock keeps moving between monitors

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  • by haamz11,

    haamz11 haamz11 Apr 9, 2015 9:47 AM in response to Topher Kessler
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 9:47 AM in response to Topher Kessler

    This helped me a ton! I was getting so frustrated with the happening randomly! Thanks for the fix.

  • by tr3vor8rown,

    tr3vor8rown tr3vor8rown May 11, 2015 8:34 AM in response to Felix Hernandez
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 11, 2015 8:34 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

    Go to System Preferences > Mission Control ... Then deselect the option "Displays have separate Spaces" ...

  • by tommale,

    tommale tommale Jul 18, 2015 7:39 AM in response to smithmr8
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 7:39 AM in response to smithmr8

    Been bugging me for a while now. Thanks for the simple solution!

  • by Phillip Blanton,

    Phillip Blanton Phillip Blanton Oct 9, 2015 9:28 AM in response to smithmr8
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 9:28 AM in response to smithmr8

    Just move your mouse to the middle bottom of whatever monitor you want the dock on, and it'll jump there. I'm sure that's what you are accidentally doing when it switches without cause.

     

    I as well wish there was a way to turn it off, but now that I know what's causing it, I am much happier.

  • by Phillip Blanton,

    Phillip Blanton Phillip Blanton Oct 9, 2015 9:35 AM in response to dipakcg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 9:35 AM in response to dipakcg

    dipakcg wrote:

     

    Here is the steps I followed to fix this problem (it's a feature actually)

    [1] Minimize all the open windows

    [2] Click on the center part of the menu (top) of the screen in which you want Dock to be appreared (no matter it's first, second or third)

    [3] Simply move your cursor to the bottom of that screen

    ...Dock should appreared in that particular screen.

     

    I hope this helps!

     

    You can skip steps one and two. Simply dragging your mouse to the bottom of the screen where you want the dock, will do it.

  • by zozer7,

    zozer7 zozer7 Nov 24, 2015 5:34 AM in response to SputnikTechnologies
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2015 5:34 AM in response to SputnikTechnologies

    Thanks!!! It worked for me. It was driving me nuts.

  • by JamesfromMA,

    JamesfromMA JamesfromMA Dec 7, 2015 11:05 AM in response to dipakcg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 7, 2015 11:05 AM in response to dipakcg

    Thanks - I just found this issue and now you helped me solve the issue. Appreciate it.

    James

  • by Spartanicus,

    Spartanicus Spartanicus Feb 3, 2016 6:58 AM in response to Felix Hernandez
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 6:58 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

    As pointed out by many, this is a feature - moving the dock between monitors is accomplished by sliding the mouse cursor to the bottom of the monitor on which you want the dock to appear.

     

    However, this behavior is very clunky: it tends to be unresponsive when I do want it and prone to bouncing between monitors when I don't want it!

     

    What I'd much prefer is to use a keystroke (or right-click) to set the dock in the monitor of my choice and leave it there until I want to move it again.   If anyone knows of a means to achieve this natively, I'd love to hear it.  I'm otherwise going to resort to locking the dock each time I want to place it where it I want it (a la http://osxdaily.com/2010/02/08/lock-the-dock-in-mac-os-x/) - I don't yet know if this will cause the dock to stay put in any one monitor, but it's worth a try -- this is also a little clunky, but in the end perhaps less frustrating than having the dock bounce around when I don't want it to do so and then waiting a while for it to come back to the monitor I want while my mouse sits at the bottom of the screen --- makes for a big, annoying distraction when trying to get into a flow state for work ...

  • by Spartanicus,

    Spartanicus Spartanicus Feb 3, 2016 7:30 AM in response to Spartanicus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 7:30 AM in response to Spartanicus

    Ok - I found my own solution that I like well enough because it feels more native to the features as they exist.

     

    First, my setup:  I'm using a large monitor and a laptop on dual monitor arms.  I pull my laptop off when I want to carry it with me or use it elsewhere.  I use them together about 65% of the time.

     

    So for me, to solve the dock snapping annoyance I did the following:

    1. I went to System Preferences > Mission Control and deselected the option "Displays have separate Spaces" (as suggested above by tr3vorBrown)
    2. I went to System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement and moved the main desktop to the second monitor.

    Now, when I'm using both monitors, the dock stays put in the bottom of my larger monitor.   When I pull the laptop off, the dock (of course) reverts to the bottom of it.

     

    Having the displays use a single space would probably not have been my first choice, as I like some of the advantages of having the monitors as separate spaces.  But it works well for my setup since I almost always want the dock to be on my larger monitor when I'm using both.  If I need to swap the dock, I can easily go back to the display settings, and move the apple desktop stuff over to it.

     

    I don't know if that will help anyone, but it works best for me.

  • by AlexKaz7,

    AlexKaz7 AlexKaz7 Apr 9, 2016 5:34 AM in response to SputnikTechnologies
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 9, 2016 5:34 AM in response to SputnikTechnologies

    thanks very much for this, really helped me as was getting SO frustrated with the dock bar moving to different screens!!

     

    Much appreciated

  • by jfdo,

    jfdo jfdo Apr 22, 2016 9:58 AM in response to Spartanicus
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 22, 2016 9:58 AM in response to Spartanicus

    Thank you so much for the link (http://osxdaily.com/2010/02/08/lock-the-dock-in-mac-os-x/). I think this finally fixed this issue for me once and for all. I really don't understand why anyone would need to easily keep moving their dock from one screen to another.

     

    This was a simple and REAL fix. Just make sure you have the dock where you want it and type in two lines at a Terminal window:

       defaults write com.apple.Dock position-immutable -bool yes

       killall Dock

     

    Done and done! Love it. Thanks again.

  • by akfarhat,

    akfarhat akfarhat May 17, 2016 2:40 PM in response to smithmr8
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 17, 2016 2:40 PM in response to smithmr8

    thank you very much.. this thing was driving me crazy

  • by chivo243,

    chivo243 chivo243 Jun 8, 2016 5:54 AM in response to Felix Hernandez
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jun 8, 2016 5:54 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

    I too have this issue.  Only after my dock flips to the other screen, no amount of jerking the mouse up and down brings a happy ending.  I have to manually go to sys prefs and click the radio buttons. 

     

    I've tried the fix suggested, If it doesn't work, I'll be back!

     

    We're calling it a bug, but it seems it's an Apple Hidden Feature.  Steve wouldn't put up with this kind of superficial fluffery...

  • by DeJoker,

    DeJoker DeJoker Jun 8, 2016 8:02 AM in response to Felix Hernandez
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 8, 2016 8:02 AM in response to Felix Hernandez

    Well thanks to all who came before me and found out what the issue was.

     

    By the way, being a programmer, the terminology "It is an undocumented feature" comes up often however it is just another way of saying IT'S A BUG without actually calling it a bug.  Now that is not to say that it was not planned and implemented as it is but the mere fact that it is not documented and that it still affects people today means the "Bug" resides within the documentation department assuming that is really is a feature and not simply some bug that they have not figured out how to fix.  The only real reason to not document something is because it was not planned to be there and/or there is no plan to keep it.

     

    So Apple if this is truly a "feature" as the claim seems to be then you ought to create a tool tip that informs people what it is and how to work around it and even better (as someone already suggested) be able to toggle this single feature off without toggling any other features off.  Considering how it seems to be implemented that should be almost as simple as  if (toolbarautomove == true) ImplementAutoMoveFeature;  this way the auto-move aspect of the toolbar does not take place if someone has toggled it off.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jun 8, 2016 10:13 AM in response to DeJoker
    Level 9 (69,991 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 8, 2016 10:13 AM in response to DeJoker

    Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.

     

    Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

     

    Feedback

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