Mavericks resizes application windows and moves them around

Same here on 27" iMac with 10.9.4. It was broken, then fixed in 10.9.2 (I believe) and now it's broken again.

Not a fix for the OP, but if you need to move a window that has the titlebar off the screen read on:

I have found that you can move the app window if you position the mouse over the edge to get the horizontal or vertical resize arrows. The trick is to move the mouse horizontally if you have the vertical resize arrows or vertically if you have the horizontal resize arrows. It is a bit tricky, but it works on Mavericks 10.9.x This trick does not work with the diagonal resize arrows. The trick works better if you get the resize arrows the furthest away from the window without turning back into a normal pointer. You can practice this trick on any window, off screen or not.

Also, if you hold down the option button when resizing, the window resizes on both sides. This *does* work with diagonal resizing. Again, this works on all windows, off screen or not. You can try it out now.

While this does not prevent the app window from opening outside of the screen, it does make correcting this issue dead simple. Once you do it a couple of times, any app halfway off the screen is just a mouse movement or two way from being wherever you wish the window to be located.

I had a similar problem of windows opening up off-screen and being unusable (mostly because Mavericks wanted to use the desktop space from an extended display that was no longer plugged in). I'm not sure if any of these will work for the issue everyone's talking about here, but nkocharh and lytsrc came up with some possible fixes:

Click "Window > Zoom" (in the top bar) and the window should fill the screen. You may need to resize the window before clicking back to full screen ➕ , in some cases more than once, to make sure it won't go back to the void.

If you can see just the edge of the window, and if you enable 3-finger dragging ("System Preferences > Trackpad > 3 Finger Drag") you can hold the cursor over the SIDE edge of the window until you get the "<->" double-arrow cursor symbol, and then use 3-finger drag to pull the window into viewable space. Quick note: make sure it's the horizontal double-arrow cursor, the diagonal double-arrow you get by hovering over the bottom corner will just resize the window and keep it firmly planted in the void.

3 finger dragging has nothing to do with the ability to move windows via the resize arrows. Other than it is one of the vectors that is used to perform the cursor "click+drag" function. Any vector used to perform click+drag will work. (External mouse, click down on the trackpad, three finger drag.) The only stipulation no matter the vector used to perform click+drag is you have to initially move the mouse after the click+drag event the opposite way indicated by the arrows (as outlined in my previous post.)

EVERYTHING mentioned above is easily proved by ANYONE just by practicing on any window. Off screen or not. This works with vertical and horizontal resize arrows.

View the resize arrows as a little skateboarder. Slide along a vertical or horizontal window edge = move the window. Slide off the edge (perpendicular movement) = resize.

Sorry, I didn't see your earlier post in the 10 pages of comments (I skimmed a little). Sounds like you had already posted this solution. Glad someone else found this fixes the immediate problem of not being able to see vital windows.

For clarification, you said that a 3-finger-drag has "nothing to do with the ability to move windows" except for the fact that it's one of many "click+drag" functions that allows you to move windows? Am I missing something?

I like the skateboarder analogy, I might use that.

Your quote should have read:

"3 finger dragging has nothing to do with the ability to move windows via the resize arrows. Other than it is one of the vectors that is used to perform the cursor "click+drag" function."

Please try to refrain from quoting me out of context. Thank you!

Explanation:

3 finger dragging is a vector to achieve the click+drag (or whatever it is called... we all know what I am referring to) function. Other vectors are available such as clicking and holding your left mouse button or clicking down on the track pad and holding and the moving your mouse or finger. I.E. WE ALL KNOW HOW TO MOVE CRAP AROUND ON THE SCREEN. hehe 😉

Your instructions make it sound like you can only move windows with this resize trick using 3 finger drag, and it won't work if that feature is disabled.

My point is that if you have 3 finger dragging disabled, just use one of the other vectors that you normally use for the click+drag function.

Again, if you have any doubt, JUST TRY IT YOURSELF.

"Sorry, I didn't see your earlier post in the 10 pages of comments (I skimmed a little). "

Would believe, except my post is the one directly above yours... And you replied directly to me.

I'm not trying to be difficult, I genuinely did not understand what you meant and it seemed like a contradiction. I completely agree (and understand) your further explanation, that's all I was asking for. Thank you. Nonverbal communication can be deceiving, and I mean no offense by this, but your tone is decidedly aggressive.

To clarify the focus of this discussion board, we (myself included) have found a unique problem in Mavericks in which, through no fault of our own, all but the bottom corner of a window is located off-screen. If the top of a window is off the screen, one cannot use the common vector function "click+drag" at the top of the window as many people are probably accustomed to doing, because the cursor cannot go passed the confines of the screen. Therefore, it requires an innovative solution, which you (and I independently) found could be accomplished by three-finger-dragging (3FD) and kudos! It's a great solution that can help many people out of a disconcerting predicament. I hope others found this solution as useful as I did.

So, are there other vectors that can move a window without the user being able to click on anything but the bottom right corner? I think that information could be really useful, especially in this context.

In the meantime, consider this: at no point did I say, or even imply that 3FD is the only way to do this function, nor did I address why using this method works. I didn't imply that it only works in this situation or that it is the only way to move windows... but I'm glad to see you heartily disagreeing with what other people didn't say. And if you are concerned about being misquoted, you could always use proper grammar to avoid confusion–periods end sentences, commas attach subordinate clauses. You could even use an m-dash for emphasis if you want. This is just a suggestion, and if you feel I misquoted you, I am sorry, that wasn't my intent.

OK, thanks for your clarification.

I think we are on the same page now.

Thanks!

Me too. On a 2011 27" iMac.

I am running 10.9.5 on a 2013 iMac and I'm the only user and there's no other screens attached.

Several apps have this problem, but mostly its Word for me. Documents randomly resize their windows, usually with the tops cut off so you can't drag them. Only way to get them 'back' is to close and reopen. There';s clearly a bug, when you going to fix it Apple?

When did this problem start?

What version of Mavericks and Word are you running? (You can check by clicking on " > About this Mac" for your OS version, and "Word > About Word". Both are in the Apple menu bar at the top of your screen).

A solution that others have found useful is to go to "Window" in the Apple bar and click "Zoom Window". It should automatically resize the window you have open and let you access the top of the document. Once you have access to the whole window, you can resize it again however you want.

The newest update has caused a lot of problems with Word (including the whole program randomly shutting down, full system crashes, etc.).

As with the rest ... problem started in 2011 27" iMac i5 with installation of Mavericks. Does not happen to primary user that is automatically logged in on startup, but does happen to second account users when using switching: windows are not resized but are all loaded up into the upper left corner.

Moving windows back is not a problem, grabbing the status bar is sufficient BUT this is not a solution, only a remedy and it is a PIA to do on multiple windows every switch. Any other solution that entails me moving the windows back is NOT a solution. A solution would be to ensure that my windows do not move in the first place.

This is clearly a bug and needs to be fixed.

Same here on MacBookPro11,3 and OS-X 10.9.5

What's going on Apple?? It's getting crappier and crappier...

My issue matches dozens in this thread. MacBookPro11,3 on 10.9.5 with it's inbuilt screen in "More Space" mode and connected via HDMI to a display at 3840*2160 @ 30Hz.

My windows hold their position when the displays sleep automatically or via hot corner for some time. I think they lose their position when Energy Saver executes "turn the display off after", which I had set to one hour.

No serious troubleshooting on my part yet. Just found this thread.