Stop recent and suggested apps in the Dock

What the setting actually controls

The Dock keeps a separate section on the right, after the divider, holding up to three apps you have opened recently that are not already in the Dock. They are not pinned and you did not put them there. They appear, push everything else along, and disappear again.

That shifting is why people describe it as the Dock rearranging itself. Nothing you placed has moved; a temporary section has grown next to it.

Turning it off

In System Settings

1. Open System Settings and choose Desktop & Dock.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the Dock section.
3. Switch off Show suggested and recent apps in Dock.

On macOS 26 this lives in Desktop & Dock. On older versions it was Dock & Menu Bar, and before that the Dock pane in System Preferences. The wording has barely changed.

From Terminal

defaults write com.apple.dock show-recents -bool false
killall Dock

Without killall Dock the value is written and nothing happens, which is the single most common reason a command copied from a blog appears not to work. See what killall Dock does.

To put it back, use -bool true, or defaults delete com.apple.dock show-recents to return to the macOS default.

Doing it for other people, or for every account

This is the version most people arrive looking for and rarely find written down. On a shared Mac, a lab machine or a kiosk, turning the setting off in one account does nothing for the next person who logs in, because it is a per user preference.

Two options that do hold:

• A configuration profile. A profile delivering the com.apple.dock payload applies to every user it targets and cannot be switched back on from System Settings. This is what MDM does, and it is what an administrator actually wants.
• The contents lock. defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool true stops the Dock's contents being changed at all, including by dragging. It does not remove the recents section on its own, so set show-recents to false first, then lock.

Order matters. Locking the contents first freezes the Dock with the recents section still enabled.

What this does not fix

• Icons you placed moving on their own. That is usually the Dock being resized or reset rather than recents. See why the Dock resets itself.
• Apps reappearing after a restart. If an app returns to the Dock after every reboot it is being launched at login, not suggested.
• The Downloads or Trash stack. Those are separate, permanent parts of the Dock and are not affected by this setting.

Does turning this off delete anything?

No. It stops the Dock displaying recently used apps. Nothing is uninstalled, and the apps still appear in Launchpad, Spotlight and the Applications folder.

Why does it come back after an update?

A macOS upgrade can reset preferences that were never explicitly written. If you set it from Terminal or in a profile it survives; if you only toggled it once years ago it may not. Locking the Dock's contents afterwards is what makes it stick.

Is there a configuration profile key for this?

Yes. show-recents in the com.apple.dock domain, delivered as a managed preference. Because it is managed, the switch in System Settings is grayed out rather than merely set, which is the behavior an administrator is usually after.

If you would rather not keep a list of commands, Still Dock is the same four settings as switches, and it remembers the Dock you had before you locked it. The size lock is free.