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How to stop mission control from automatically rearrange spaces?

Hi,


Firstly, have you turned off "Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use" in the mission control preference pane? => YES that is OFF.


Let's take the following screenshot as example. When I open Slack, it stays on the right side of Desktop. Then, after a while using the Macbook, navigating around, switching apps, working, watching Youtube, chatting on Slack, etc, Slack just randomly moves to the left side of Desktop. This is annoying to me.

My question: How can I stop the Desktops and fullscreen apps from automatically randomly rearranging the order?


I just want it to stay the same order everything I swipe up. This issue happens with my 2019 Macbook, but never happens with my old mid-2015 Macbook.


Thank you


MacBook Pro 16", macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 2, 2020 3:59 PM

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Posted on Mar 2, 2020 4:54 PM

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Mar 2, 2020 5:24 PM in response to hungnguyen1234

Apologies, my friend. I did indeed overlook your very first line. I'll be going to bed early this evening. 🙂


It's obvious that Spaces is not working properly.


Have you rebooted into safe mode to see if the drive repair and cache clearing that the OS does will solve the problem?

Use safe mode to isolate issues - Apple Support


What Safe mode does:

  • Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
  • Loads only required kernel extensions
  • Prevents startup items and login items from opening automatically
  • Disables user-installed fonts 
  • Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


Restarting in Safe mode can often eliminate a problem or help identify the cause.


You can verify that you have started in Safe mode by clicking Apple menu  > About This Mac > System Report. Then find >Software< in the left column and look at >Boot Mode: Safe vs Normal< in the right pane.



Secondly, if you can, find and delete the preferences file for Mission Control, then reboot your MacBook. If I knew where that file lived I would say, but I do not.


A third option might be to delete all of your current spaces. Then reboot the machine and add fresh spaces and see if that works.


Run Disk Utility First Aid against your startup drive. See if it finds anything that it thinks it needs to repair.


If none of these things works to eliminate the problem, you might run a scan for malware, but that's not really high on my radar at all.


It may be a simple case of miscellaneous software corruption. A reinstall of macOS might be what's needed. But try these other things before you consider that option. And definitely make a backup of your stuff before you do much else.


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How to stop mission control from automatically rearrange spaces?

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