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I upgraded to Mavericks last week. I have a secondary monitor, and I use Spaces. Since the upgrade, I have a frequent problem where windows will get stuck partially exposed in the top left corner of the screen, under the finder bar. I can drag it to the right, but it automatically snaps back into the upper left.

The close, minimize, and zoom buttons are all off-screen. If the window is on my right monitor (which is the main display), the missing corner doesn't show up on my left monitor.

If I zoom (maximize) the window using a keyboard shortcut or the Window menu in the Finder bar, the window simply disappears off of my screen, seeming to slide upward, even though I have no spaces or displays "above" the one I'm working in.

Stuck Window

If I go to Mission Control (Ctrl + Up), then the window appears there as partially out of the space.

Stuck Window in Mission Control

This has happened to three separate applications so far (Chrome, Outlook, and Remote Desktop), so I'm pretty sure it's not application-specific.

If I quit the application (sometimes I have to force quit), the problem goes away, but it keeps happening. It seems to occur when I switch to the application after working in another.

jonnybot
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  • I have the same problem, and I've found that after a window disappears sometimes it will come back if I ctrl+click its dock icon and use the Options menu to move it to a different desktop. – Matt Oct 29 '13 at 13:54
  • @grgarside Nope, this is a 21.5-inch LCD display on a Mid 2010 iMac. My secondary monitor is a Dell LCD. – jonnybot Oct 29 '13 at 14:26
  • @Matt I did try moving the windows to different desktops, and that never quite cut it, though I didn't use that exact path (Ctrl+click, options). I've heard other people report that fixing the issue for them as well. – jonnybot Oct 29 '13 at 14:28
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    Have you filed a RADAR or submitted a a bug report through apple's consumer-facing feedback system? – Brooks Oct 30 '13 at 14:34
  • I submitted a bug report via the feedback page. http://www.apple.com/feedback/

    I tried using the RADAR site, but got an error telling me to try emailing them the bug report. :P

     – jonnybot Oct 30 '13 at 16:01
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    I'm having the same problem, and I've narrowed it down to when I send my Mac to the log in screen (I use it as a lock screen at work). It's usually the foremost application which is affected, when I log in again it'll be scrunched up top left, as you've found, but going to the log-in screen and back again will 'un stick' it. - Is there anywhere I should be sending this info in conjunction with what you've done? – JP. Oct 31 '13 at 10:59
  • @JP So, I have noticed that it happened after I used the log-in screen. I haven't had a chance to try using the login screen to unstick it yet, though.

    I am reasonably sure that the problem has occurred without my going to the login screen, but I can't vouch for that with absolute metaphysical certainty. I'll keep an eye on it, see if it happens in another scenario.

     – jonnybot Oct 31 '13 at 15:06
  • It keeps happening to me too, right after I log back in after I "locked screen" via Alfred. I do this a lot and I see this bug many times through a day. Main victims are Alfred itself (keyboard shortcut just unfocuses current window), Little Snitch, Adium.. and few times Chrome. Doesn't seem to be related to "current window before lock action" at all... – Dalibor Filus Nov 12 '13 at 16:08
  • Just a note to say that not only is this also happening to me (exact same situation, after sending work Mac to login screen as "screen lock"), but sometimes instead of getting stuck in the corner, the windows vanish completely. They're not in any spaces, not visible anywhere in mission control, even though they still appear in the Window menu. – Mark Reed Nov 15 '13 at 20:53
  • Also happening here on a Late 2007 Mac Mini... – mbmcavoy Nov 15 '13 at 21:07
  • Affected on 27" imac as well.. hope there will be a fix soon – Cmag Dec 02 '13 at 20:45
  • @mbmcavoy How come you have Mavericks on Late 2007 Mini? I thought our Early 2009 Mini was the worst to run it. Anyways, have this on two macs, pretty much like JP put it. OS X 10.9.1 – akauppi Feb 09 '14 at 17:46
  • This happens to me too although I don't use a second monitor. – bassim Feb 24 '14 at 17:30
  • @akauppi My comment was in error, it's a Late 2009 Mac Mini. Typo or brain fart - Doh! – mbmcavoy Feb 26 '14 at 20:07

1 Answers1

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There is a way to get the windows back to normal without quitting the app, but it's not ideal.

If you move the dock, the applications will move back into place, the easiest way is to click the  and go to dock, then change the position, then repeat to put it back to where you had it originally.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23766770#23766770

ianbarker
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  • returning to the login screen, in my experience, does not work at all. – ianbarker Dec 05 '13 at 11:35
  • have they fixed this issue in the 10.9.1 update? – ianbarker Dec 19 '13 at 10:16
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    they have not fixed it in the 10.9.1 update, I just had it happen after updating. – derekaug Dec 20 '13 at 15:18
  • @derekaug yeah, I've noticed that as well. This update seems to have broken scrolling in some apps as well, it often doesn't work and I have to quit and re-open the app for it to work again, particularly annoying when it's finder. – ianbarker Dec 23 '13 at 11:05
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    Another mitigation strategy suggested on the discussion @ianbarker linked to is this AppleScript: http://snipplr.com/view/8645/gather-windows/ – Pierre-Luc Paour Jan 13 '14 at 15:07
  • I got a new mac. I didn't transfer my profile across to it but just created a user and re-downloaded all my applications and copied all the important files. So far I haven't had this issue on the new computer, which leads me to think that it might be an issue caused by numerous updates and different versions of osx being installed. The old mac was from 2010 so it had had Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion before Mavericks. – ianbarker Feb 06 '14 at 15:43
  • One hacky way I've solved it for now is to just disconnect my 2nd monitor and then reconnect it. Sucks, but it works. – Tim S Dec 21 '14 at 21:40