Lock your Mac's Dock

Both, and they need different things. On your own Mac the point is the accident: one brush of the divider and every icon is the wrong size, with no undo in macOS. The normal locks cover that and come off whenever you want. On a Mac other people use, a shared family Mac, a front desk, a shop display, a classroom or a kiosk, the point is that the Dock you set up is still the Dock next month. There the permanent lock installs a macOS configuration profile, which survives Terminal, a restart and deleting Still Dock. It is the wrong choice for your own Mac and the right one for a machine you hand to somebody else.

Yes, underneath. We put the actual commands on this page rather than pretend otherwise. macOS has had these settings for years and Apple simply never gave them a switch.

What you're paying for is the switch: four locks in one menu, changeable without opening Terminal, that remember the Dock you had before and put it back when you're done. If you'd rather run the commands, run them.

Yes, 7 days, and after that the size lock stays free. The trial starts when you first install Still Dock, before you pay anything, and it is the complete app rather than a limited version, so every lock works and you can be sure before the first payment. Cancel inside the 7 days and you are not charged.

When the 7 days end, locking your Dock's size keeps working for good. The other locks, the keyboard guards, profiles and iCloud backup stop until you purchase.

Monthly and lifetime have no trial. A month is already the shortest commitment there is, and lifetime is a single payment. See Pro.

Every lock you pick installs its own macOS configuration profile. Unlike the normal locks, those survive Terminal commands, a restart, and deleting Still Dock, which is the point: it is built for Macs other people use, like a shared family Mac, a shop or showroom display, a front desk, a classroom or a kiosk.

macOS asks you to approve each one in System Settings. You can remove any of them at any time in System Settings, General, Device Management.

On your own Mac the normal locks are usually the better choice. They undo in one click and never ask for a password.

Yes, and the other way round. One purchase covers both versions, so purchase it whichever way you prefer and use either build, or both, on the Macs you own.

There is no license key to find or type. Sign in with the email you paid with and everything unlocks. If you purchased through Apple, the App Store version unlocks on its own.

Worth knowing because the two builds are not identical. The direct download does more, so a lot of people purchase through Apple for the convenience and then use the direct build on their main Mac.

Apple's rules for App Store apps are stricter than for apps you download directly, and some of what Still Dock does isn't allowed under them.

Both versions lock size, position and hide & show, keep the Dock on one display, and unlock with Touch ID. Direct download adds the contents lock, profiles and hotkeys, the permanent lock that survives deleting the app, and full iCloud backup rather than just your locks. The App Store version also stops working while the Dock is set to auto-hide, and its locks work by keeping your pointer away from the divider rather than blocking the drag outright, so a determined drag can still get through. In exchange it asks for no permissions at all, where the direct download needs Accessibility for two of its features.

The App Store version asks for nothing whatsoever. Everything in it works the moment you install it.

The direct download needs no permission for the four Dock locks either. Two of its features do: keeping the Dock on one display, and the ⌘Q and ⌘W protection. Both are opt-in, so macOS only asks if you switch one on, and everything else keeps working if you say no.

The reason is the same for both: macOS requires Accessibility before any app is allowed to stop a gesture or a keystroke reaching another app, and stopping them outright is what makes those two features work the way they do in the direct download.

No. That's just macOS's standard wording for a Dock setting that's currently locked. It's Still Dock, and it disappears the moment you unlock.

Everything unlocks. Still Dock reverts every setting when it quits and when it's removed. It will never leave your Dock stuck.

No. It doesn't theme, replace or add anything. Your Dock looks exactly as it does now; it just stops moving.

Yes, and it is one of the reasons people reach for it. macOS moves the Dock to whichever display your cursor last touched the bottom of, which is why it keeps disappearing from the screen you wanted it on. Pin it to one display and it stays there.

Yes. Sign in on another Mac and your setup comes back rather than leaving you to rebuild it by hand.

The direct download backs up your whole Dock. The App Store version backs up which locks you turned on, but not the Dock itself.

Every Mac you personally own or use, up to 5. It's licensed to you, not to a machine, and 5 covers every Mac a person realistically uses, and it's there to stop a single license being rolled out across an office.

Seats free up on their own: a Mac that stops checking in releases its seat after 60 days, so replacing a machine costs you nothing and needs no email.

Not on a personal license. If you want Still Dock on more than 5 Macs, or on machines your company owns rather than you, email hello@littlebirdtrading.com and we'll sort out volume licensing. Tell us roughly how many Macs and we'll come back with a price.

Built for macOS 13 and later, on Apple silicon. Most of our testing is done on macOS 26.

Still Dock is in nine languages: Spanish (Spain and Latin America), French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean, as well as English. It follows the language your Mac is set to.