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After migrating to new Sequoia version, the dock cannot be moved to another monitor

After migrating to new Sequoia version, the dock bar cannot be moved to another monitor.

I am using the usual "move the Dock to a different display by moving your cursor to that display, and then moving the cursor as far down" but doesnt work.

I tried setting the monitor as primary but the dock always stays in the laptop monitor.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 18, 2024 2:26 AM

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Posted on Sep 21, 2024 9:20 AM

To avoid confusion and since they never replied, I'll reply since I'm have the same issue and believe I know what they are talking about. Plus this might help others for a temporary solution until Apple figures out a fix. After updating to Sequoia last night, the issue started for me.


Prior to updating to Sequoia, in Sonoma or whichever prior iOS people had, we had our secondary and Third monitors positioned above the Macbook in the "arrange display" in display settings (what he's showing in that diagram). What he's pointing to isn't the seem, it's where the dock would appear if you hovered over that section with the cursor (it won't move to both, just which ever you are hovering over at the time). With the update to Sequoia, the dock no longer moves if you have the monitors arranged above the Macbook in "Arrange Display". That's the main issue.


The only solution I have found is to put the monitors side by side and then the dock will move between monitors, which works but not how my monitors are positioned. So that's where the frustration lies since it worked perfectly before but now awkward and not intuitive.


So it's definitely a bug that needs to be addressed.

65 replies

Oct 11, 2024 5:04 AM in response to adiebaker

Sorry Barney but you're just plain wrong. This has worked for as long as I can remember (I've had a Mac for about 15 years) as described by others. It's just broken in Sequoia.

It may have worked in some intervening macOS versions, but when "Displays have separate spaces" was created by Apple, you could not put the Dock on the seam between two displays. You still cannot put the Dock on a vertical seam between two displays. In searching the evolution, eventually, Apple did make what you want work. I would have never known because my Dock has always been on the side of the screen and as noted, it has never been possible to put it on a vertical seam.

But, as has been the norm for quite some time, things that were "fixed" in one macOS tends to get "broken" about every other macOS release. It's almost as if the new macOS developers start from the preceding macOS, not the current macOS. Or, they just write everything from scratch and fail to incorporate the previous modifications.

Not sure why you think we'd overshoot the bar at the bottom of the screen, I think everyone using a computer nowadays can navigate using a mouse very accurately.

Well, Apple certainly thinks they can't. That's why the menu bar is at the top of the screen. I'll leave that research to you. You have to go way back to the '80's and the origins of the Macintosh.

Who wants to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the lowest monitor to open an app?

I don't know why anyone would reach for the mouse to open an app. Just type cmd-space, type a couple of letters, and hit return. The Dock is just something to make Windows user comfortable much like the Launchpad makes iOS users comfortable. Both are unnecessary wastes of space. There are some useful features in the Dock, like dragging a file to Mail to create an attachment and opening files with the non-default App, but that's not worth the effort. My Dock looks like this so I can make it the least obtrusive as possible:

Learn to live without the Windows Woobie.

Sep 18, 2024 7:03 AM in response to Chriz1984

Chriz1984 wrote:

Okay, correction. It worked before the update from Sonoma to Sequoia. I haven't changed my setup in over a year. After the update it no longer worked.

Many others have the exact same problem:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1fidqex/dock_behaviour_change_in_sequoia_with/

It has never been any different than I described since the introduction of the Dock. From your link, Iknappster reported the not bug in El Capitan. It is designed how it is designed and has always been designed like that.

If you and anyone else managed to make it happen, that was a bug, or you had installed some third-party system modification that allowed it. That software may no longer work under Sequoia and you need to update that software.

Sep 18, 2024 8:27 AM in response to ascdit

Your image shows how it has always worked. It doesn't matter which is the primary monitor. You can't place the Dock on a seam between displays. That would violate Apple design guidelines as you could easily overshoot the Dock and have to play whack-a-mole moving back and forth. That's why the menu bar is at the top of the screen and not on top of windows.

Sep 25, 2024 5:11 PM in response to abueleo

Upgraded last night and could no longer use the mouse to put the dock at the bottom of my external monitor.


I have my arrangement with my external above my MacBook Pro with no seam. Nothing changed except the upgrade.


worked with Apple support and they say “works as designed.” Apparently the dock now “falls” to the bottom of the arrangement stack and is immovable. I adjusted the arrangement to side by side and the dock went to my external display. While this is a workaround, it’s not ideal and I hope they put it back the way it was with the next version.

Sep 30, 2024 4:16 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Imagine a large external display situated above a laptop - you're working primarily on the external display as it offers increased real estate, but now have to move your cursor all the way to the very bottom of the laptop screen to change between apps by clicking their icon on the dock. It's incredibly frustrating, especially when it's been possible up to this point to have the dock move between displays easily to suit your workflow.


Before somebody suggests using cmd+tab to switch between apps, I'm left handed and use a WACOM so that isn't a viable option. The dock can switch between screens if they're side by side, so why not above and below, as before?

Oct 11, 2024 2:06 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I don't know why level 9 user can say something like this :). Many of users said that this was a bug, even Apple bring it back the function in version 15.1. Wanna stand with your thoughts?


I am a new in this forum just to report this bug, but I have been using MBP for about 12 years for developing software. But if you said that I'm a beginner, I can accept that as maybe you are using Mac since 50 years ago. 😂

Sep 30, 2024 5:30 AM in response to abueleo

After trying several different arrangements. It seems that the the only time that the dock can move to another monitor is when the laptop is not sitting directly between 2 monitors on top. I used to keep my Mac directly below the center of my 2 top monitors, and after the update, the dock failed to move to either of the top monitors. But if I now offset my Mac to sit directly under one of the monitors, then the dock will float to the top monitor opposite the one that the Mac sits directly under. The gap option also works but throws off a smooth mouse transition to the Mac below it. Also, side by side works as well, but for those of use that have arms for multiple monitors, that can be tough to rearrange. Here is the best configuration that I could find for my situation. Hopefully this will get worked out in a future update, so us users with this setup can go back to the original configuration.


After migrating to new Sequoia version, the dock cannot be moved to another monitor

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