macOS Tweaks | Holy Grail

What are macOS Defaults?

macOS stores system and application preferences in property list (plist) files. The defaults command lets you read and write these preferences from the terminal — enabling tweaks that are not exposed in System Settings.

Important: Some changes require a logout, restart, or killing a system process to take effect. Each tweak below notes what is needed.

Prerequisites

None — these commands work on any macOS installation.

Dock

Faster Dock Auto-Hide

By default, the Dock has a noticeable delay before it appears when you move your cursor to the edge of the screen. Remove the delay and speed up the animation:

# Remove auto-hide delay
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0

# Speed up the hide/show animation
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0

# Restart Dock to apply
killall Dock

Revert to Default Dock Speed

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.5
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.5
killall Dock

You can also delete the keys entirely to restore the system default: defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay

Disks & Storage

Disable Disk Eject Warning

macOS shows an annoying notification when a disk is not properly ejected. If you use external drives frequently, you can suppress it:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.DiskArbitration.diskarbitrationd.plist \
  DADisableEjectNotification -bool YES
sudo pkill diskarbitrationd

Requires a restart to take full effect.

Re-Enable Disk Eject Warning

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.DiskArbitration.diskarbitrationd.plist \
  DADisableEjectNotification
sudo pkill diskarbitrationd

Finder

Show Hidden Files

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES
killall Finder

Show File Extensions

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleShowAllExtensions -bool YES
killall Finder

Show Full Path in Title Bar

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
killall Finder

Keyboard & Input

Faster Key Repeat

Make held keys repeat faster — useful for Vim-style navigation:

# Shorter delay before repeat starts (default: 25)
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 15

# Faster repeat rate (default: 6)
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 2

Requires a logout to take effect.

Disable Press-and-Hold for Accented Characters

If you prefer key repeat over the accent character picker:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool NO

Requires a logout to take effect.

Screenshots

Change Screenshot Location

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location -string "$HOME/Screenshots"
mkdir -p "$HOME/Screenshots"
killall SystemUIServer

Change Screenshot Format

# Options: png, jpg, pdf, tiff, gif
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type -string "png"
killall SystemUIServer

Reverting Changes

Any defaults write can be undone with defaults delete:

# Revert a specific key
defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay

# Read the current value of a key
defaults read com.apple.dock autohide-delay

If you are unsure what a tweak does, read the current value first with defaults read before changing it.

Resources

🔗

macOS Defaults macos-defaults.com

A comprehensive list of macOS defaults commands with explanations and screenshots

🔗

Mathias Bynens .macos Script github.com

The most popular collection of macOS defaults tweaks