Stop the Dock icon from bouncing on Mac

Click an app in the Dock and its icon leaps up and down until the app finishes loading. If that motion catches your eye every single time, you can switch it off with one Terminal command — defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool false — and it is fully reversible. There is no checkbox for it in System Settings, so Terminal is the only route.

The command that stops the bounce

Open Terminal (in Applications → Utilities, or type "Terminal" into Spotlight), paste the block below, and press Return.

# Turn off the Dock launch bounce
defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool false
killall Dock

The killall Dock line restarts the Dock so the change applies right away — you'll see it blink out and back in over about half a second, which is normal. From now on, apps open without the hop: click the icon, the running indicator appears, and the window arrives when it's ready.

Changed your mind? Put the bounce back with the opposite value:

# Restore the default bounce
defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool true
killall Dock

This works identically on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. The setting is stored per user account and survives restarts and updates, so you set it once and forget it.

Why there's no toggle in System Settings

Apple never exposed launchanim in the interface — there is no switch for it under Desktop & Dock or anywhere else. People often reach for System Settings → Accessibility → Display → Reduce Motion expecting it to help, but Reduce Motion targets things like the swipe between Spaces and window zoom effects; it leaves the Dock launch bounce running. That's exactly why the Terminal route exists, and why it's the only reliable way to remove this particular animation.

If Terminal isn't your thing, you can flip the same underlying setting with a labelled toggle instead — see the box below.

What changes, and what still bounces

It helps to know precisely what this key governs so you're not surprised later:

• Gone: the launch bounce — the jump an icon makes while an app is opening. That's the one this command removes.
• Still there: the attention bounce — when an app wants you to look at it (a dialog waiting for a response, for example), its icon bounces repeatedly in place. That's a separate behavior and launchanim doesn't touch it.

So after the tweak, launching feels calm and immediate, but an app can still get your attention when it genuinely needs to. For most people that's the ideal split: no busywork animation on every open, but the important nudge stays.

If other animations bug you too

The launch bounce is rarely the only motion people want gone. If you'd like a calmer Mac across the board, how to disable animations on Mac covers the window, Quick Look, and Mission Control effects that Reduce Motion and a few defaults keys can smooth out.