In mountain lion you could assign an application to a particular space or all spaces. This option no longer seems to be available in Mavericks. The problem is that mavericks remembers the old settings. Is there a way to change the old settings?
MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2008), OS X Mavericks (10.9)
I have fixed the problem.
Under your login goto /library/preferences, find and delete all the spaces.plist files (I had 3). Also find and delete the dock.plist file.
I also did a restart just to make sure.
The option to assign an application to a desktop and screen is now available through the dock again.
I have fixed the problem.
Under your login goto /library/preferences, find and delete all the spaces.plist files (I had 3). Also find and delete the dock.plist file.
I also did a restart just to make sure.
The option to assign an application to a desktop and screen is now available through the dock again.
This solution confused me because I followed these steps and whenever I right clicked an app on the dock and chose Options, it did not show the option to assign the app to a space. I had to open Mission Control and add a third desktop, even though I am only using two displays, before I finally got the option to assign an app to a particular desktop. This seems like a bug. If I am using two displays, with my laptop screen being Desktop 1 and my external monitor being Desktop 2, I should not have to add a 3rd desktop just to see the option to assign an app to a particular desktop.
Sorry for the confusion. My issue was that I was not getting the option in the Dock at all, and I needed to change the settings I had set under Mountain Lion.
However there is a difference in functionality that I hope is fixed. You can now only assign an application to one screen or the other. I would like to assign an application to a particular desktop within a particular screen similar to what was available under OSX 10.8.
Thanks! This did the trick for me. I was only getting the option to have a particular app in Display 1 or 2. Once I deleted the p list files I was able to pick from different spaces. (Although, on Mavericks, the default is to now have each display have its own spaces--rather than paired spaces as it was in the past.)
It doesn't work properly. On a new MBP, so a clean installation of OS X 10.9, I have assigned Safari to Space 12, but if I close Safari and restart it then it reopens in Space 2.
Apple have some work to do.
With 10.9 the ability to permatly assign a program to a particular space is gone, you can now only assign to screen 1 or screen 2 etc.
Athough multi screen support is a lot better, it's not yet perfect. The ability to assign a program permatly to a space ( or Desktop as its now called) on screen 1 or screen 2 would certainly make it that much closer.
The options to assign an application to a particular space are still there when you RMB Click on the Application'sicon in the Dock.
Fixed my issue by unchecking System Preferences > Mission Control > Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use.
I agree with Glen Buikstra. It is possible to assign an app to a particular display (ok) but NOT to assign an app to a particular desktop WITHIN a display. There is not such an option and while I tried manually, every time I restart the mac the apps have often switched desktop.
This is annoying. You still have to do all the work of assigning apps to desktop again and again. waste of time. Would it be difficult to add the option?
Do you have "System Preferences > Mission Control > Automatically rearrange Spaces" unchecked?
Can you get it to work with a single display?
Hi cklunar,
I am running Mavericks 10.9.1 on a iMac 2013. The second display is a iMac 2010 in target display mode.
I have Automatically rearrange Spaces unchecked
Ok, I have to say that while I was preparing the answer I played with the two monitors even more and this is now what I understand:
- suppose I have 3 desktops on each monitor: Display 1 (Desktop 1-3), Display 2 (Desktop 4-6).
- I am working on Display 1/Desktop 1, and the app is also on Display 1/Desktop 1 and I right click on the dock icon then I won't see the option of assigning to a desktop, only to a display (see screenshot). For instance I am typing in Chrome, which is in Display 1/Desktop 1. The same would be true if I was in Display 2/Desktop 4 while Display 1 is on Desktop 1. This is why I was getting it wrong.
- I am working on Display 1/Desktop 2, and the app is still on Display 1/Desktop 1 and I right click I will now see the option of assigning to a desktop (see screenshot). The same would be true if I was in Display 2/Desktop 4 while Display 1 is on Desktop 2.
- Some things are odd. For instance, I have iTunes on Display 2/desktop 6 but I would only have the choice of assigning it to Display 2/ Desktop 5 (see screenshot)
I hope it makes sense, and I hope it is useful to others. I am relatively new to OS X.
Mario
I can't get it o work on Mavericks. I tried with all the possibile combinations of the Mission Control settings, maybe there is some other setting involved.
Please report here if you find a solution.
Regarding to this tutorial by Apple, this feature shoul always work
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14155
It's obviously not the case, so I hope they're gonna fix it in next releases.
@mariofromnewtown Can you print out a screen of yours general and mission control options?
It's pretty cool what's you're getting there.
Here it is
!
Assigning applications to spaces under Mavericks
