Mac Dock Too Small or Too Big? A Better Approach

Your Dock is either so large that it takes up the screen, or so small that you cannot tell the icons apart. The real cause is that one row has to show everything. Adjust the Dock for the apps you really need in it, and move the rest to bars where you control the tile size.

Short answer: the best app for spreading a crowded Dock across several sized bars, in my opinion as its developer, is Jetty: it adds up to four extra docks to the edges of your screen, or floating anywhere, each with tabs of one-click tiles for apps, files, folders, websites and Shortcuts. It is a $9.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later.

Disclosure: I build Jetty.

How to resize the Dock on a Mac

Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock. In the Dock section you have:

• Size: a slider from small to large.
• Magnification: a toggle and slider that enlarges icons near the pointer.
• Position on screen: left, bottom or right.
• Automatically hide and show the Dock: a toggle.

You can also drag the thin divider line in the Dock up or down to resize it. Those controls scale one row. With 25 apps, any size is a compromise: large icons fill the screen edge, small ones are hard to read.

If the zoom effect is what makes the size feel wrong, see Dock magnification annoying?.

The scaling problem

The Dock was designed around a modest number of icons. The more apps you pin, the more you trade readability against screen space. Magnification helps you read small icons, but the Dock then changes size as the pointer moves along it, and some people find that harder to aim.

A different fix is to put fewer icons in the Dock. See how to remove apps from the Dock for the steps.

Spread apps across bars you can size

Jetty gives each bar its own settings, so a bar can fit the apps on it:

• Tile size: Small, Medium or Large (40, 56 or 72 points).
• Rows or columns: 1 to 6 rows for top and bottom bars, 1 to 6 columns for side bars.
• Labels: show or hide the label under each tile.
• Position: top, bottom, left or right edge of your main screen, aligned to the start, centre or end, or floating anywhere.

With tabs, a bar with 6 to 8 tiles per tab stays readable at a comfortable size. You could keep your Dock down to the three or four apps you open constantly, and put the rest on a bar.

Pick a size for each job

A bar of your daily apps can use Large tiles. A bar of occasional utilities can be Small and tucked on a side edge. You decide per bar.

A note on screen space

A bar takes screen space while it is visible. If you want it out of the way, turn on auto-hide for that bar: it fades when the pointer moves away, and you bring it back from Jetty's menu-bar item. It does not return when you move to the screen edge. You can also close a bar with its × button and reopen it from the menu-bar item.

What Jetty does not do

Jetty does not resize or edit the macOS Dock. It also has no magnification. Its bars appear on your main screen.

For other ways to reduce clutter, see too many apps in the Dock and our comparison of Dock apps.

How we checked

Jetty's details on this page were checked against the app's source code and its App Store listing on 2026-10-10 and are collected on the facts page; I build Jetty. For built-in macOS steps, Apple's Mac User Guide is the reference for your version of macOS.

FAQ

How do I make the Dock smaller on Mac?

Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock and drag the Size slider to the left. You can also drag the divider line in the Dock.

How do I stop the Dock icons from growing when I point at them?

In System Settings > Desktop & Dock, turn off Magnification.

Can I change the icon size in Jetty?

Yes. Each bar can use Small, Medium or Large tiles, with 1 to 6 rows or columns.

Does Jetty change my Dock size?

No. Jetty adds its own bars and does not change the Dock. You adjust the Dock in System Settings.

How do I make the Dock bigger on Mac?

Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock and drag the Size slider to the right (Apple Support). If the Dock is big because it is full, our pick is to move some apps to a Jetty bar with large tiles instead (I build it).

Get Jetty on the Mac App Store. $9.99 one-time purchase, macOS 14 or later.