How to Remove iPhone App Icons From the Mac Dock

Seeing Safari-from-iPhone or Mail-from-iPad icons at the end of your Dock? Those aren't apps you opened — they're macOS suggesting you continue what you were doing on another device. Two settings produce them, and both switch off cleanly.

What those icons actually are

The icons appear in the Dock's suggested and recent apps section — the short stretch between the divider lines — and they come from Handoff. When an iPhone or iPad signed into the same Apple ID is using a Handoff-capable app nearby, your Mac offers to pick up the activity. The giveaway is the small device badge in the icon's corner: a tiny iPhone or iPad symbol. Clicking the icon opens the matching Mac app and continues the page, draft, or document from the other device. Useful if you use it; noise if you don't.

Fix 1: turn off suggested and recent apps

If you'd also like recently used Mac apps to stop shuffling in and out of the Dock, disable the whole section:

1. Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
2. Turn off Show suggested and recent apps in Dock.

Terminal equivalent, with the undo:

# hide the suggested/recent section (Handoff icons included)
defaults write com.apple.dock show-recents -bool false
killall Dock

# undo
defaults write com.apple.dock show-recents -bool true
killall Dock

This is the broader switch: it removes the Handoff suggestions and the rotating recent-apps icons in one go, leaving only apps you pinned and apps that are actually running.

Fix 2: turn off Handoff itself

If you want to keep recent Mac apps but never see iPhone suggestions, switch off Handoff on the Mac:

1. Open System Settings → General → AirPlay & Handoff.
2. Turn off Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.

Know the trade before you flip it: Handoff also powers Universal Clipboard (copy on iPhone, paste on Mac) and the continue-in-Safari flow. Turning it off here disables those for this Mac. To undo, return to the same switch. You can also silence a single noisy device from the other end — on the iPhone, Settings → General → AirPlay & Handoff → Handoff off — while leaving the Mac's setting alone.

Which fix should you use?

• Hate Dock churn in general? Fix 1. Your Dock becomes fully predictable.
• Like recent apps, dislike iPhone noise? Fix 2, if you can live without Universal Clipboard.
• Use Handoff sometimes? Fix 1 still shows Handoff one other place: the app switcher and Spotlight continue to work with it, so you lose only the Dock icon, not the feature.

Keeping Handoff? Get the good half

If you leave Handoff on, make sure you're actually using its best feature — copying on one device and pasting on another. Setup and troubleshooting are in our Universal Clipboard guide.