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Mavericks resizes application windows and moves them around

This problem has started since I installed Mavericks. Typically I have Firefox and Outlook loaded most of the time, occasionally other applications such as Spotify. My wife also has an account on the iMac, so she logs in, leaving me logged in. When I switch back to my account, the applications have resized themselves to odd small sizes, and Outlook is sometimes half-way off-screen and can't be moved (if I drag it back on-screen it just snaps back to the off-screen position).


I have found a way to prevent this, and this is to ensure my wife minimises the applications first. Strangely none of her applications (Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes) move or resize.


Certainly a bug that's arrived with Mavericks, so Apple if you're reading this please fix it.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 2, 2013 3:25 AM

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156 replies

Jan 4, 2014 8:15 AM in response to jarchca

Hi jarchca,

I´m not quite sure if this is the appropriate procedure to delete those cache files. I THINK they will only be deleted when you choose ONE specific user DURING the SafeMode Boot process, i. e., they will be deleted immediately upon logging in to that one specific user.

So, please try the following: perform SafeMode Boot once again and then simply choose your wife´s account.

I think this might provide some very valuable info for all of us...

Regards, Matthias

Jan 4, 2014 8:54 AM in response to MatthiasGermany

Ok, here is what I did:


  1. reboot mac into safe mode (red indicator at top right of screen confirms this)
  2. logged into wife's non-admin account
  3. rebooted system back to normal mode
  4. logged into wife's non-admin account
  5. started outlook 2011 for her profile
  6. everything looks fine (normal Outlook window size, it is resizeable, etc).
  7. forced mac to sleep mode, waiting for disk to spin down
  8. awakened from sleep mode, logged back into wife's account
  9. everything looks fine (as per #6)
  10. switched user to me (admin account) and logged in
  11. switched back to my wife's account, and everything looks good (per #6)
  12. switched back to my account, started outlook 2011 with my profile; everything looks fine
  13. switched back to my wife's account, looks fine
  14. switched back to my account, and Outlook window returned to stuck frozen in upper left corner, not-resizable
  15. switched back to my wife's account, and same thing now occurs for her account as in #14 (ugh)

Jan 4, 2014 10:02 AM in response to jarchca

Okay, this seems weird now...

Perhaps you would want to repair permissions as corrupted file permission very often are the case for such weird behavior.

And perhaps you would want to do a very "deep" and thorough cleanup of your Mac. Please also see JohnMacDonald´s post on the previous page.

I suggest you try and use Onyx: http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php

Onyx is a very safe and proven app for these tasks. And, best of all, it´s free.

Install it, run it, and then just use the "Automation" tab. Here you should check almost everything except "Verifying" (this was already done after startup of the app), "Appearance of folder´s content" - please be very cautious here. If you check this item, your complete desktop order will be erased. Not the desktop itself but your individual positioning of icons which will be placed in random order in the right corner of your desktop.

Okay, back to unchecking items: You should not check "Spotlight Index" (unless you WANT it to be deleted and rebuilt), "Mail´s mailboxes", and "Web browser cache and history" (unless, again, you want this to be erased).

You might also think about unchecking "Automatically saved versions of the documents".

Then click "Execute".

And be patient, please. It might take about 30 minutes for one cycle, especially when you choose "Repair Permissions". As Onyx closes ALL other apps you will not be able to use your Mac during Onyx´ work.

I do not know if you have to do this separately for each user account.

Here again we will have to try...

Best of luck, Matthias

Jan 4, 2014 10:43 AM in response to MatthiasGermany

Yeah, wierd, and again, this wierdness only started after upgrading to Mavericks. I have been keeping my wife's iMac well updated since it was purchased back in 2008.


The easiest thing for me (and I am sure similar users experiencing this headache) - have it all fixed in an update from Apple! Yeah, I know I am stating the obvious...


MatthiasGermany, I may or may not do the suggestions above (but thanks for your suggestions ); I'll read up on this tool, and figure out if it is worth hassling with or not. This problem does not seem to me to be a permissions problem, as why would the problem come and go as I described in my earlier post? But anyway, much thanks for your kind efforts to try and help!


One thing I found on the GMAIL issue (not synching in Apple MAIL app and separate from the main topic in this thread), I now keep both Outlook 2011 and MAIL running at the same time and all of the time. This way I can see when (or if) MAIL drifts out of sync (both of course are setup to use IMAP services).


Thanks - John

Jan 4, 2014 11:51 AM in response to jarchca

You are welcome, John!

I still think you might give Onyx a try. During my years with Apple I encountered a lot of weird problems many of which had an easy solution. And Onyx always helped me a lot.

Of course Apple should address this serious issue but as long as they don´t we may still try helping ourselves.

I can only hope that Apple will thoroughly investigate this discussion and they will stop publishing buggy OSes one fine day 😊

I mean: why DO we use Macs in the first place?

Regards, Matthias

Jan 7, 2014 10:55 AM in response to CamberleyDaz

Apple Developer Relations06-Jan-2014 11:59 PM


Engineering has determined that your bug report is a duplicate of another issue and will be closed.


The open or closed status of the original bug report your issue was duplicated to appears in the yellow

"Duplicate of XXXXXXXX" section of the bug reporter user interface.


This section appears near the top of the right column's bug detail view just under the bug number, title,

state, product and rank.

Example: 13556600 User interface anomaly in OS X State: Duplicate

Product: OS X Rank: 3 - Medium

--------------------------------------------------------------- Duplicate of 10535951 (Open) ---------------------------------------------------------------

Mavericks resizes application windows and moves them around

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