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I have two displays, stacked vertically. The bottom display is my Mac's built in display, and the top display is an external monitor.

Here is the screenshot of my multiple display arrangement in Settings > Displays > Arrangement:

enter image description here

"Displays have separate spaces" is checked in Settings > Mission Control.

I would like to transfer the dock to the top monitor. The usual way of moving the dock --moving the pointer to the edge of the display, as detailed in the Apple support documentation does not work.

Is this possible when the displays are arranged in this way?

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  • 1
    IMO your workaround should be an answer; the question shouldn't contain a possible solution
    – grg ♦
    Commented Aug 9, 2014 at 22:30
  • @olimay What is the end result you want? The menubar on one display and the dock on another?
    – Alistair McMillan
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 0:27
  • @Alistair: by default in Mavericks the menu bar is on both. I'd like to be able to move just the dock, similar to how I can do it when the displays are arranged horizontally and the dock is at the bottom of the screen. When it's confugured like that, I swipe down to the bottom of the screen when the mouse is on the target display. I have not found a way for only moving the dock using gestures or any other method when the dispays are vertically aligned.
    – olimay
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 7:29
  • @George: I tried adding my workaround as an answer, and said I had to wait 8 hours before answering my own question. (It seems you did not know about this rule either.) I just put it in the question temporarily and will move it now.
    – olimay
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 7:32

2 Answers 2

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I have had success with my vertical arrangement by hovering the mouse in the orange areas to bring the dock to the top screen. On the bottom screen you can hover anywhere on the bottom of the monitor.

enter image description here

In your case, where your monitors are almost the same size, it might be a bit tricky to find a spot on the bottom of the top monitor where the cursor wont slip through to the bottom screen and prevent the trigger.

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  • This worked for me in El Capitan, except it's not quite as simple as just hovering, I have to try to move the mouse past the bottom of the screen in one of the orange zones to make the dock appear.
    – CupawnTae
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 10:23
  • This is super helpful! Been trying to figure out a solution for a while.
    – Ryan Walls
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 20:45
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    This was very useful. The only thing I was found was that 'Displays have separate Spaces' must be ticked in Mission Control settings for this to work (or at least that is how it seemed when I tested it).
    – user3166580
    Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 13:38
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Best workaround I have found so far:

When the spaces are arranged vertically, you can move the dock by switching which display is the primary display.

In Settings > Displays > Arrangement, drag the thin grey bar (representing the menu bar) from the box representing the current display with the dock to the box to the other display's box.

Bar in bottom display: Dock/menu bar in bottom display

Drag it to the top display: Dock/menu moved to the top display

This will move the dock to the other display. The other display will now be the default starting point for the dock. It will also switch the spaces, including desktop folders and wallpaper.

[Note: this is essentially the procedure in "Method 2" of this answer modified for a vertical display arrangement:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/112829/87288

That answer has a slightly better screenshot of dragging.]

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  • does not work in Mavericks
    – jitbit
    Commented Jul 8, 2016 at 9:55

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