Remove the delay before your hidden Dock appears

Why it happens

When the Dock is set to hide, your Mac waits a short moment before showing it, then plays a slide animation. That pause stops the Dock popping up every time you reach for something near the bottom. System Settings doesn't offer a control for it, so the change is made with a Terminal command.

How to fix it

1. Open System Settings, click Desktop & Dock and make sure Automatically hide and show the Dock is on. The delay only matters when the Dock hides.

   Desktop & Dock›Dock›Automatically hide and show the Dock

2. Open Terminal. You'll find it in the Utilities folder inside Applications, or press Command-Space and type Terminal.

3. Copy the command in the Terminal section below, paste it into the Terminal window and press Return. The Dock blinks off and back on as it restarts.

4. Move the pointer to the bottom of the screen. The Dock should now appear straight away and slide in quicker.

Still not fixed?

1. Nothing changed? Check the command was pasted as one whole line, with nothing cut off, then run it again.

2. If you'd rather have the old timing back, paste the undo line from the Terminal section and press Return.

3. If the Dock pops up too easily now, keep your pointer a little higher on the screen, or turn off hiding in Desktop & Dock so the Dock always stays put.

4. A Dock that stops showing at all after the change usually comes back after you restart your Mac from the Apple menu.

5. If the Dock still won't show or keeps freezing after a restart and the undo line, contact Apple Support.