How to Increase or Decrease Launchpad Icons Size in macOS?

Your Mac will have a Launchpad icon on the dock (unless you have removed it) or you can press F4 to open the Launchpad. You can use the Launchpad app to quickly view and open any installed applications on your Mac. However, the problem is that you have no option to rearrange the icons like increase or decrease the size, which will essentially adjust the rows and columns. So in this article let us explain how to increase or decrease Launchpad icon size for better viewing as per your convenient.

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Default Launchpad View

Below is the default Launchpad view on a 13 inch MacBook Pro.

By default, the Launchpad shows the icons in 5×7 format. This means, Mac will arrange icons on the Launchpad in five rows and seven columns containing 35 icons on single window. You can group more icons in a folder on the first screen or navigate to the next screen for viewing the app list. This is the settings on MacBook Pro and the number of rows and columns may change on your Mac depending upon the model and screen size.

Increase the Icons Size

Let us assume you want to increase the icons size for better visibility. This means the number of rows / columns should be less. For example, you want to have the icons in 4×4 format, so that Mac can show total 16 icons in single screen

• Press ‘command + spacebar’ to open Spotlight Search.
• Type ‘terminal’ and open ‘Terminal’ app.
• Copy and paste the below command and hit enter.

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 4
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 4;killall Dock

• You can see the dock will disappear and appear again. Click on the Launchpad to see the app icons are reset into 4×4 format.

Decrease Icons Size

In the above command, the rows and columns are set as four and four. You can simply increase the numbers to reduce the icons size. Let us make it 7×6 size using the below commands in Terminal.

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 7
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 6;killall Dock

Relaunch the Launchpad to see the icons are changed now.

Effect on Folders

The icons size on the Launchpad will affect both the individual apps as well as the apps inside folders. The number of rows and columns you set will also affect the row and columns inside the folders. So ensure to check the convenient of viewing bigger folders like ‘Others’. If there are too many apps inside a folder compared to the size you have set then Mac will create additional folders to accommodate the app icons.

Setting it Back

Finally you can set the icons back to original size using the below command.

defaults delete com.apple.dock springboard-rows
defaults delete com.apple.dock springboard-columns;killall Dock

Now that you can see, the icons are back to the original size but scattered throughout the Launchpad. You can manually drag them to arrange or use the below command in Terminal to set them back. Remember that this command also will remove any custom folders if you have created. So use this only if you have not created any folder otherwise you need to arrange manually.

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;killall Dock