The Dock profile can be used to configure the dock on macOS. The following is an overview and example of the Dock MDM profile.
Create a new Dock Profile
Start by going to Catalog > MDM Profiles at click New. Then select the Dock option.
Configuring the Dock Profile
You will be presented with a wide array of options within this profile. To keep the article more concise, we will only cover major settings. We have also added details of certain settings within the Dock profile creation window, so for any settings not covered here, we recommend checking the UI for additional insight.
Static Apps:
Static apps are applications on the Dock that cannot be removed by any user, including admin users. These are great to use for apps shared across a fleet of devices, such as a communication tool like Slack or Teams, a VOIP app if applicable, etc...
If the position of an app in the Dock is moved by a user, it will reset to its default position upon device restart.
Persistent Apps:
These are apps that can be removed from the Dock, however, Apple has dictated that upon device restart the configured apps will re-appear on the Dock and any user apps added will be removed.
It is also important to note using this setting will clear all apps currently in the Dock and only show the configured apps.
Static/Persistent Others:
The 'others' part of this means the configured item (does not have to be a (dot).app) will be shown on the far-right-hand side of the Dock, like so:
You can add a directory, file, or URL as the 'other' item.
Example Profile:
In the example window below, the macOS Dock has been configured to display a certain set of applications that all employees will be using:
We have also added a URL to the support page so that users can easily find helpful resources by clicking one button.
Options relating to the cadence of the Dock are purely based on what is preferred by the group of users who will be receiving the profile. A breakdown of each option can be found in Apple's support documentation.
After configuring the MDM profile to the desired settings, click Save and Review.
Additional Notes
- If you see a question mark in your dock, that means that the application was not located at the specified path. In this screenshot, you will see that Spotify was added to the profile, but is not installed on the device:
- The Persistent Apps setting will cause the dock to remove user-added apps upon device restart. This behavior is controlled by Apple.
- If you wish to reset a dock to its default settings, you can use this command:
defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock
- If you wish to reset a dock to its default settings, you can use this command:
- Static apps will not allow users to add apps to the Dock. This behavior is controlled by Apple.
- Apple Developer Documentation for Dock profile