How-To: alter the macOS Dock autohide animation for a more responsive experience [Video]

Full screen apps on macOS are great, because they automatically hide the dock and menu bar, providing users with maximum screen real estate for work. Yet, some apps, like those in Adobe’s Creative Cloud Suite, have yet to adopt proper full screen behavior in macOS.

When using apps that don’t allow proper full screen usage, hiding the Dock is a viable option for gaining additional screen real estate. Unfortunately, the Dock’s autohide feature comes bundled with an animation that results in a perceivable delay.

The animation is minimal and probably won’t bother most people, but I find it annoying. For this reason I use a simple terminal command to alter the autohide delay for the Dock. It’s one of the first things that I do on a new macOS installation.

How to enable autohide behavior for the Dock

To enable Dock autohide, right click on the Dock separator and select Turn Hiding On. You can also do so via System Preferences → Dock, or simply use the Option (⌥)+Command (⌘)+D keyboard shortcut for quick hiding and revealing.

How to remove the Dock autohide animation

To remove the autohide animation, you’ll need to employ the use of a Terminal command. To open Terminal, go to Finder and navigate to Applications → Utilities. Once Terminal is open, simply paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Return on the keyboard:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0;killall Dock

This command sets the Dock autohide time to 0, effectively removing the animation. It also restarts the Dock so that the changes to the autohide time take effect as soon as the command is used. Don’t worry, this command can be easily reverted to go back to default settings.

Video walkthrough

Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more videos

How to reduce the Dock autohide animation

Not having a delay will cause the Dock to abruptly appear and disappear, which can look odd and out of place when everything else in macOS is beautifully animated. With this in mind, some users may prefer to reduce the autohide animation instead of getting rid of it altogether. To reduce the autohide delay, we’ll use a decimal (float) value smaller than 1. Again, just paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Return.

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.25;killall Dock

Feel free to experiment with the decimal value. Larger values will increase the length of the animation, while smaller values will reduce its length.

How to restore the autohide animation speed of the Dock

Restoring the stock autohide animation for the Dock is easy. The following Terminal command will delete the values associated with the autohide time modifier, restoring the default animation.

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier;killall Dock

So there you have it, three handy Terminal commands for disabling, reducing, and restoring the Dock’s autohide animation. If you regularly employ the use of autohide on your Mac, you should considering removing or reducing the Dock’s animation to see if it’s to your liking. For more handy macOS tips, be sure to read our 10 getting started tips for new macOS users.