Auto-hide the Mac Dock with zero delay

Auto-hiding the Dock frees up screen real estate — but the default animation is sluggish. Here's how to enable auto-hide and make it instant, so you get the space savings without the wait.

Enable auto-hide in System Settings

The quickest way to turn on auto-hide without touching Terminal:

1. Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
2. Turn on Automatically hide and show the Dock.

Alternatively, right-click the divider line in the Dock (the thin line separating apps from recent items) and choose Turn Hiding On.

Auto-hide is now on, but the default delay and animation are still slow. The next step fixes that.

Remove the delay with Terminal

Open Terminal and run all three commands at once:

# enable auto-hide via Terminal (skip if already done in System Settings)
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true
# make the Dock appear instantly when cursor hits the edge
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0
# remove the slide animation entirely
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0
killall Dock

The Dock restarts. Move your cursor to the screen edge — it appears with no perceptible delay.

Disable auto-hide again

If you change your mind, this brings the Dock back permanently:

# turn off auto-hide
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool false
killall Dock

Your delay and animation settings stay set to zero, so if you re-enable auto-hide later the Dock will still be instant.

Why the delay exists

Apple added the hover delay intentionally — without it, the Dock would pop up every time your cursor passes near the edge while working in a maximised window. The default ~0.5 second pause means you have to intentionally hover to summon it. Setting the delay to zero disables that protection, so the Dock will appear whenever your cursor briefly grazes the edge. Most people find this fine in practice; if you find accidental reveals annoying, try 0.1 or 0.2 instead of 0.

Tips for living with a hidden Dock

Once the Dock is hidden, most interactions happen without it:

• ⌘⌥D toggles auto-hide on and off without opening any settings.
• Use Spotlight (⌘Space) or a launcher like Alfred to open apps — it's faster than reaching for the Dock anyway.
• Switch between open apps with ⌘Tab rather than clicking Dock icons.
• If you need to see which apps are running, move your cursor to the edge — the Dock appears in under a second even at zero delay.

Most people who switch to a hidden Dock find they stop using it for launching and rely on keyboard shortcuts instead. The Dock becomes a quick visual reference rather than the primary way to navigate.