Why is there a Dashboard Space in Sonoma? How to erase it?

Tplobo wrote:

Hi all,

I am working on macOS 14.4.1 and I am having an issue with the Desktop Spaces feature.

Calling

defaults read com.apple.spaces.plist

gives me a list of all current spaces, which reports the existence of a phantom Space that cannot be seen nor interacted with. The ID of that Space leads me to the following:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/4ed1554c-c2b1-4d19-843e-20fd36c953c9

which shows that space 23 is associated with the Dashboard feature, that does not exist in Sonoma!

I have tried to:

- restart the computer,

- forcefully disable the dashboard with

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

killall Dock

Neither attempt erased the phantom Space, which creates conflicts in my setup.

Is there a command to restart the Spaces feature, to completely erase all spaces and check if this removes this phantom Space? Otherwise, any alternative suggestions?

Thank you,

Maybe if you state what kind of problem you are having with Spaces would be insightful...

ref: See open windows and spaces in Mission Control on Mac

Dashboard has been replaced...ref: Dashboard Widgets - Apple Community

Dashboard would be associated with Widgets

Add and customize widgets on Mac

Tplobo wrote:

The issues I am having are that this phantom space prevents any software that reads the Spaces state, to save it, from working correctly (e.g. DisplayMaid, Workspaces). In particular, I am now developing a Hammerspoon module to do just that, to

set it precisely to my liking: https://github.com/tplobo/restore-spaces.

Listing the spaces to cycle through them always reports this phantom space, and since it cannot be identified as the "non-existing" one (up until the time it breaks one of the Lua commands that manage spaces), I am unable to continue development.

Sorry I have nothing to add here.

from your reference above:

Tplobo wrote:

Thanks for the reply IdrisSeabright. To answer both:

The issues I am having are that this phantom space prevents any software that reads the Spaces state, to save it, from working correctly (e.g. DisplayMaid, Workspaces). In particular, I am now developing a Hammerspoon module to do just that, to set it precisely to my liking: https://github.com/tplobo/restore-spaces. Listing the spaces to cycle through them always reports this phantom space, and since it cannot be identified as the "non-existing" one (up until the time it breaks one of the Lua commands that manage spaces), I am unable to continue development.

Fair enough. I will leave you in leroydouglas's capable hands. As this seems to be, in part, a development question, you may want to consider also posting in the Developer forums. You might get some additional perspectives.

Best of luck.

What is your goal in removing this "phantom space" (that may or may not exist)? What problems is it causing?

If the problem is some apps are befuddled by it, have you contacted the developers to let them know they should be ignoring that entry?

Tplobo wrote:

Thanks for the reply @IdrisSeabright, the suggestion of the Developer Forum is a good idea, I'll try there next.

Best of luck!