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Enable spring loading for all Dock items

Drag a file over an icon in the Dock, hover, and the application will open. The behaviour is unchanged if the app is already open. This behaviour has been observed with Preview, Quicktime, and iWork (Keynote, Pages, Numbers).

  • Tested on macOS:
    • Monterey
    • Big Sur
    • Catalina
  • Parameter type: bool

Set to false (default value)

Spring loading is disabled for Dock items.

bash
defaults write com.apple.dock "enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items" -bool "false" && killall Dock

Set to true

Spring loading is enabled for Dock items.

bash
defaults write com.apple.dock "enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items" -bool "true" && killall Dock

Read current value

bash
defaults read com.apple.dock "enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items"

Reset to default value

bash
defaults delete com.apple.dock "enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items" && killall Dock