Ventura no longer remembers window size and location when booting up

Question

Level 1

98 points

Ventura no longer remembers window size and location when booting up

Until approx. June 2025 Ventura, on startup, faithfully opened windows with the same size and location as when MacOS was shutdown.

Then all that stopped after a minor "security" update to MacOS.

I have reset size and location, and "open at login" etc. many times. MacOS just has no memory of window config. anymore.

Any idea if this was a newly introduced bug even though Ventura is no longer supported, or some form of .plist corruption?

iMac 27″ 5K

Posted on Aug 31, 2025 9:55 PM

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

rodm7 Author

Level 1

98 points

Sep 2, 2025 6:16 AM in response to BDAqua

Sooo in creating a new admin account I noticed that the "Reopen windows when logging back in" was not ticked for the logout dialogue of my main account. I always keep it ticked but I know sometimes it has changed on a MacOS update in the past. Just hadn't noticed :(

Ticked it and window config. is retained again across restarts now.

OK wonderful. Always aim to have this ticked but thought its ONLY purpose was to open previously opened windows next login - which was happening anyway with "Reopen windows when logging back in" NOT ticked. Just with the wrong windows config.

So a little confused here - "Reopen windows when logging back in" has a dual purpose - one hidden?

Anyway thx for the suggestions!!

[Edited by Moderator]

Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

251,975 points

Aug 31, 2025 11:18 PM in response to rodm7

Try deleting…

com.apple.finder.plist

&

com.apple.desktop.plist

from your home folder & restarting.

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

251,975 points

Sep 1, 2025 7:44 PM in response to rodm7

Yes they should be.

Make a new admin account, log out & into the new account, does it work there?

Answer 4

BobHarris

Level 9

58,829 points

Sep 1, 2025 7:27 AM in response to rodm7

For me this problem went away in Sequoia 15.4 or 15.5. Current release is 15.6.1

While it was misbehaving, I used Moom (paid app) which I already owned for switching monitor setups between home, work and coffee shops.

Before that I had used Stay (paid app) which provides a similar service.

Answer 5

rodm7 Author

Level 1

98 points

Sep 1, 2025 6:00 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks BDAqua and Bob

I'll try killing the .plists first

Yeah Bob, I remember many many MacOS versions ago I used paid apps to retain configs. Hadn't had a problem until a few months ago.

It seems that even when Ventura became no longer supported minor security updates to MacOS AND updates to my new iPhone cause things to go wrong in MacOS, and between the Mac and the iPhone.

Sigh!

Apple trying to tell me to buy a new Mac but I can't as they won't run Bootcamp Windows which I need.

Thanks guys for the replies