Keeps the macOS Dock on the display you want it on.
macOS pops the Dock up whenever your pointer touches the bottom of any screen. On a multi-monitor desk it keeps appearing on the wrong one, usually right where you were about to click.
Dock Lock lets you pick one screen to keep the Dock, and blocks it everywhere else.
- Download the
.zipfrom Releases and unzip it. - Drag Dock Lock to your Applications folder.
- Open it. macOS will refuse the first time — that's expected, the app isn't notarized.
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway.
- Dock Lock will ask for Accessibility permission. Say yes — it can't work without it.
That's it. Future updates install themselves.
Click the menu-bar icon, pick the screen that should keep the Dock, and leave Enabled switched on.
The top line of the menu always tells you what's actually happening:
| It says | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active — Dock locked to … | Working |
| Paused | You switched it off |
| Not active — needs Accessibility permission | Grant permission and it starts |
| Not active — could not install the event tap | Permission is granted but something else went wrong |
"It says Enabled but the Dock still appears." Check the top line of the menu — that's the real status. If it mentions permission, grant it.
Upgrading from a version before 1.1.0? You need to reset the permission once. Open
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, select Dock Lock, remove it
with the − button, then let the app ask again and switch it back on.
Older versions were signed differently, and macOS ties the old permission to the old signature — so it looks switched on while doing nothing. This is a one-time fix; from 1.1.0 onward permission survives updates. (Why, in detail.)
macOS 14 or later. Apple Silicon or Intel.
git clone https://github.com/upipibi/dock-lock.git
cd dock-lock
./build.shNeeds a codesigning identity called Dock Lock Signing — see docs/SIGNING.md.
For a plain compile without bundling, swift build -c release.
- It remembers your chosen screen by an ID that macOS can reshuffle when you unplug monitors or reboot, so it may occasionally revert to your main display.
- Not notarized, hence the one-time Open Anyway step.
Dock Lock needs Accessibility permission, so it's fair to ask what it does with it. Short version: it watches three mouse-move event types and cannot see what you type. Details, and how to report a vulnerability, in SECURITY.md.
MIT — see LICENSE. Third-party credits in CREDITS.md.