WormaDock FAQ

Permissions

Nothing is requested on its own. The welcome walkthrough and Settings > Permissions show each permission with an Allow button; macOS prompts only when you press one. The Dock works without any of them; each one turns on more of it.

Accessibility

Badges, window previews, window commands and minimized windows in the Dock read and move other apps' windows through Accessibility. Without it, the Dock still works; those features stay off. Bouncing and running dots don't need it.

Screen Recording

Window preview thumbnails are captured through Screen Recording. WormaDock asks once, when you press Request Access in Settings > Permissions. macOS may apply a new grant only after WormaDock is quit and opened again.

Full Disk Access

The Trash icon follows the Trash filling and emptying only with Full Disk Access. Without it the icon shows an empty Trash.

Asked when needed

macOS asks the first time you use each one.

Calendars: the Next Meeting widget shows your next calendar event.
Location: the Weather widget shows the forecast for where you are.
Notifications: the Timer widget tells you when a timer ends.
Automation (Finder): WormaDock asks Finder to empty the Trash and to move or copy files dropped on a folder in the Dock.

Trial

How does the trial work?

30 days of every Pro feature, free, no card. Start it from Settings > WormaDock Pro, from the welcome walkthrough, or from any Pro row in Settings. One trial per Mac. When it ends, Pro features turn off and your setup is kept; it comes back with a key.

What does starting the trial send?

Exactly one thing: a one-way hash (SHA-256) of this Mac's hardware ID, sent to wormadocktrial.worma.dev. The server stores that hash with the start date, so each Mac gets one trial, and answers with signed start and end dates. That hash and the date are all the trial server keeps: no name, email or serial number. The server runs on Cloudflare Workers, whose request logs, IP address included, expire within 7 days. WormaDock shows this in an alert before it sends anything; Cancel sends nothing.

While the trial runs, WormaDock confirms the dates with the server once at launch. The hash can't be turned back into your hardware ID.

Does the trial nag?

No. One notice when 3 days are left, one when it ends, both inside Settings.

License

How do I activate?

Your key is in the email from Polar and in the Polar customer portal. Settings > WormaDock Pro > Enter License Key. Activating sends the key, this Mac's model name (for example Mac15,3) and a one-way hash of its hardware ID to Polar, which sells the license. The hash ties the activation to this Mac. Nothing else.

How many Macs?

One key activates up to 3 Macs. Polar counts activations; WormaDock frees this Mac's slot before it activates a key again, so entering a key twice doesn't cost a slot.

Moving to a new Mac

On the old Mac: Settings > WormaDock Pro > Deactivate This Mac. That frees one of the 3 activations. Then activate on the new Mac with the same key. If the old Mac is gone, open an issue on GitHub and the activation is freed by hand; don't post your key.

Does it need the internet?

Only to activate and to check the key: once when WormaDock launches, then about once a week while it runs. Pro stays on for 30 days without a successful check, then pauses until WormaDock can reach Polar again. Nothing is lost while it is paused.

Refunds

30 days from purchase, no questions. Polar is the merchant of record and handles the refund; ask through the Polar customer portal or the receipt email. A refund revokes the key; WormaDock notices at its next check and goes back to Free with your setup kept.

Getting Apple's Dock back

What does WormaDock change?

While WormaDock runs, Apple's Dock stays running but hidden: WormaDock turns on its autohide with a very long reveal delay, turns off its launch animation and attention bounce, and sets its position, minimize effect and size to match WormaDock's. Your original values are saved first and put back when you quit WormaDock. If WormaDock crashes or is force-quit, a small guard process puts them back.

Why did my minimized windows come back when I quit?

If you changed the pinned items, WormaDock writes them to Apple's Dock when it quits and restarts Apple's Dock so it shows them. macOS brings minimized windows back when the Dock restarts. Quitting without a change to the pins leaves them minimized.

After a power cut or kernel panic

Nothing ran to restore, so Apple's Dock comes back hidden. Three ways out, from easiest to most manual:

Open WormaDock, then quit it from its menu (right-click an empty part of the Dock > Quit WormaDock). Quitting restores every saved value.
Press Command Option D. That is Apple's shortcut for Dock hiding and brings the Dock back at once. The long reveal delay, the launch animation and the attention bounce stay as WormaDock set them until it runs again or you use Terminal. The delay matters only if you later turn on automatic hiding in System Settings: the Dock would then never reveal. Before you do, open WormaDock once and quit it, or run defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay followed by killall Dock.
Terminal, with WormaDock still installed. This restores the saved copy exactly, without opening the app:
```
/Applications/WormaDock.app/Contents/MacOS/WormaDock -restoreAppleDock
```

Terminal, when WormaDock is gone

WormaDock changes seven Dock settings. The saved originals are in WormaDock's own preferences; keys missing there were unset before:

defaults read com.wormadev.WormaDock appleDockOriginals

Put back the four hiding keys. These lines restore Apple's defaults; change false or true if the saved copy shows otherwise:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool false
defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay
defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool true
defaults delete com.apple.dock no-bouncing

Position, minimize effect and size were set to your WormaDock settings. Put back the values the saved copy shows; for a key it lacks, run defaults delete com.apple.dock <key> instead:

defaults write com.apple.dock orientation <bottom, left or right>
defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect <genie or scale>
defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -float <number>

Then restart Apple's Dock so it reads the new values. Minimized windows come back to the desktop:

killall Dock

The saved copy can stay: WormaDock reads it again the next time it runs.

Live Dock icons from other apps

A few apps draw their own Dock icon through a plug-in that runs inside the Dock. WormaDock loads only Apple's plug-ins, so those apps show their normal icon instead. Badges, bounces and running dots work for every app.

Two things can't be read from outside the Dock: an icon an app sets while it runs, and the extra menu items an app adds to its own Dock menu. WormaDock shows the app's icon from disk and Apple's standard menu.

Intel Macs

Not supported. WormaDock requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later on Apple silicon. Every value in it comes from the Dock on current macOS, and the build is Apple silicon only.

Uninstall

Quit WormaDock (right-click an empty part of the Dock > Quit WormaDock). Apple's Dock comes back with its settings, and the items you pinned in WormaDock are written to it.
Drag WormaDock from Applications to the Trash. If Open at Login still lists it, remove it under System Settings > General > Login Items.

Homebrew: brew uninstall --cask wormadock quits it first; add --zap to remove the files below.

Left behind unless you remove them:

~/Library/Application Support/WormaDockNative: your setup and cached website icons
~/Library/Preferences/com.wormadev.WormaDock.plist: window positions and the saved Apple Dock values
~/Library/Caches/com.wormadev.WormaDock and ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.wormadev.WormaDock
Keychain items named com.wormadev.WormaDockNative.license: your license key and trial token. Deactivate This Mac before uninstalling to free the activation.