Automatically Clean Your macOS Dock Based on App Usage

2026-01-20

My Dock has a habit of slowly turning into a junk drawer.

Apps I tried once. Tools I needed for a single project. Stuff I haven’t touched in months —
all sitting there, stealing attention. I wanted a way to clean it up based on reality,
not memory.

So I wrote a small script that removes Dock apps you haven’t used recently.

It doesn’t delete anything. It just keeps the Dock honest.

What the script does

Reads your current Dock apps

Checks each app’s last used date

Finds apps not used in the last X days

Removes only those apps from the Dock

Restarts the Dock cleanly

This is especially useful if you prefer a minimal Dock or want it to reflect
what you actually use day to day.

The script

#!/bin/bash
# ===== SETTINGS =====

DAYS_UNUSED=30   # change this if you want (e.g. 14, 60)

# ====================
echo "Cleaning Dock apps not used in last $DAYS_UNUSED days…"
# Get Dock persistent apps

dock_apps=$(defaults read com.apple.dock persistent-apps | \

grep -A2 '"_CFURLString"' | \

sed -n 's/.*"_CFURLString" = "\(.*\)";/\1/p')
now=$(date +%s)

cutoff=$((DAYS_UNUSED * 86400))
for app in $dock_apps; do

  # Skip non-app paths

  [[ "$app" != *.app ]] && continue
# Get last used date

  last_used=$(mdls -name kMDItemLastUsedDate -raw "$app" 2>/dev/null)
# If never used, treat as old

  if [[ "$last_used" == "(null)" ]]; then

    echo "Removing (never used): $(basename "$app")"

    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-remove "$app"

    continue

  fi
last_used_epoch=$(date -jf "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z" "$last_used" +%s 2>/dev/null)
# If date parse fails, skip

  [[ -z "$last_used_epoch" ]] && continue
age=$((now - last_used_epoch))
if (( age > cutoff )); then

    echo "Removing unused: $(basename "$app")"

    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-remove "$app"

  fi

done
# Restart Dock

killall Dockecho "Dock cleanup complete."

How to use it

Save the script as clean_dock_unused.sh

Make it executable:
```
chmod +x clean_dock_unused.sh
```

Run it:
```
./clean_dock_unused.sh
```

Adjust DAYS_UNUSED to be more or less aggressive depending on how you work.

Why this approach works

This keeps the Dock aligned with actual behavior, not intention.
If I haven’t used an app in a month, it probably doesn’t deserve permanent space.

Small automation. Less friction. Better focus.

Back to building.