Dock not showing on your external monitor (or missing entirely) on Mac

Applies to macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27Reviewed 2 November 2026Tested on macOS 27.2 and Tahoe 26.6.22 min read

Bring the Dock to the external monitor

1. Move the pointer to the very bottom of the external screen and keep moving down for a second. The Dock should slide over.
2. If it doesn't, open System Settings › Desktop & Dock, scroll to Mission Control, and check that Displays have separate Spaces is on. Without it, the Dock only lives on the main display. Changing it needs a log out.
3. If your Dock is on the left or right side, it only appears on the outermost screen on that side. Change Dock position on screen to Bottom, or rearrange the displays.

Make the external monitor the main display

If you mostly work on the external screen, make it the main display, so the Dock and menu bar start there:

1. Open System Settings › Displays.
2. Select the external monitor and set Use as to Main display.

The Dock has disappeared completely

Work through these in order:

1. It may be hidden. Press Option Command D, which toggles Dock hiding. Or check Automatically hide and show the Dock in Desktop & Dock.
2. You're in a full-screen app. Full-screen apps hide the Dock until you push to the bottom edge. Press Control Command F to leave full screen.
3. Restart the Dock in Terminal. This keeps your settings and icons.

killall Dock

4. Reset the Dock as a last resort. This restores the factory Dock: your added apps, position and size go back to the defaults.

defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock

Dock keeps disappearing on its own

• Autohide may have been switched on by accident with Option Command D. Press it again.
• Some full-screen games and video players hide the Dock and don't always give it back. Quit the app, then restart the Dock.
• If it started after updating to macOS Tahoe, see common macOS Tahoe problems.