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Level 1

0 points

Disappearing windows in spaces

Hi
I'm using spaces and i have from time to time (very irregularly) windows that just disappear. the application is still there but the screen is empty. impossible to get them back (I tried a lot of things: from the dock, applekey+tab, try to relaunch teh application, hide the application and try to get it back, put in the dock, etc). actually i only hve to stop the application and restart it; forunately i have the menu so i can save things 🙂

this happens when i enter a space. all the windows in this particular space disappear (not often but at least once or twice a day).

too bad since, having used it under linux for years (i just switched to mac because it's supposed to be unix) i would really miss this feature.

message if apple people are reading: too bad that you cannot assign to a window the property of being present in all spaces. this is working (snce years) in gnome (at least) and is very convenient.

br
Dom

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 8, 2007 12:43 AM

Best reply

Alexander Meier

Level 2

184 points

Posted on Nov 13, 2007 3:27 AM

Hi domix

unfortunately I don't have any idea why your windows do occasionally disappear, but I can answer your 'message if apple people are reading' request:
in the spaces preference pane you can assign specific applications to a specific space... as well as to 'every space' which makes the application present in all spaces.

cheers
alex

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26 replies

msw70

Level 1

6 points

Mar 10, 2008 12:44 PM in response to Evan Dorn

I'm on 10.5.2 and still have the problem.

JLG89

Level 1

104 points

Mar 25, 2008 10:56 AM in response to domix

I've filed a bug report on this, as it's been a problem since day one in Leopard. The only "sure fire" workarounds at this point are to stop & start Spaces, or to reboot the computer.

May 7, 2008 4:06 PM in response to JLG89

What also works for me is to quit the application and launch it again. No need to reboot Mac OS X - that's such a Windows approach to doing things.

So from the discussion, try the following: (a) Hide the show the application, (b) Minimise (Command+M) and see if the window appears in the Dock, (c) Add the application to a specific Space using the Spaces preferences pane, (d) As a last resort, stop and start Spaces

vickench

Level 1

0 points

May 21, 2008 4:10 AM in response to domix

I have the same problem but not only with iTunes but also Skype.

May 28, 2008 1:36 PM in response to domix

So, does anyone know if they've fixed this in 10.5.3?

Ge64

Level 1

35 points

Jun 20, 2008 7:55 AM in response to Evan Dorn

They haven't, how annoying! How long can it take to realize and fix such an annoying thing...

donalwho

Level 1

14 points

Aug 11, 2008 4:42 AM in response to Ge64

Not fixed in 10.5.4 either. Happens on lots of applications especially X-Lite every time it looses network connectivity and pops up an error. After that the application does it's exit stage left trick.
Come on apple.. pathetic.. 4 updates to leopard and still not fixed..

Aug 30, 2008 1:40 PM in response to domix

I'm really trying to calm down. Of course I'm having this problem right now. I have it relatively frequently. Of course this time there's about a half hour of unsaved work in a Flash file, and Flash is nowhere to be seen.

I've tried all the things suggested in this thread. It appears I need to force quit and lose the work. Not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things, but I tell ya it's enough to get my blood pressure up.

If I had a fatal heart attack right now, could my wife sue Apple's Spaces team> Hmm...

Anyway -- Spaces should come with a warning not to use it for work! Heck of a job Steve!

Sep 9, 2008 10:39 PM in response to domix

Im having the same problem as the rest of you, but did any of you notice then the disappearing windows appear floating in "space" when you view all your spaces at once? Maybe that has something to do with how to get them back, but I still haven't figures that out yet...

Sep 16, 2008 6:55 AM in response to domix

Still happening in 10.5.5! I upgraded today hoping it would be fixed, but a few minutes ago it happened again and all of my applications in 4 of my 6 Spaces just disappeared.

I had to open Spaces preferences and restart Spaces for them to come back. So annoying! Come on Apple, I can't believe this is still outstanding from 10.5.0!

Oct 3, 2008 12:36 PM in response to randombyte

Definitely still happening to me with 10.5.5 as well. Glad to hear about some of these workarounds, but they don't work very well when you have a lot of spaces with app assignments. Rather than quitting individual apps or resetting my Spaces preferences, I usually just stop what I'm doing, log out, and log back in.

Would love to see a fix for this soon, I too have been waiting since 10.5.0

Mike

Disappearing windows in spaces