How to prevent Mac from changing the order of Desktops/Spaces

Question

You may have encountered a situation in which Mac changes the order of desktops based on some events like alerts on a program or a web page in browser.

How could I disable this logical change?

Note: I'm using El Capitan, but I had this problem since Mavericks.

score 810 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 27 '23 at 16:21

810

General Solution

System Settings/Preferences > Search for "Spaces" > Uncheck Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use

Newer MacOS Ventura (v13)

System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Scroll down to Mission Control section > Uncheck Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use

Older macOS (v12 and older)

System Preferences > Mission Control
Uncheck Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use.

This will fix the order of all your regular Spaces - but not Fullscreen spaces, which always go to the right of existing numbered Spaces.

From comments: Note this cannot fix the Mac confusing which external screen is which. That's not user-controlled at all, & seems to occur mainly [though not always] when the external screens are identical.

Late note:
This echoes the behaviour of Cmd/Tab or equivalent in most operating systems, so could be considered a 'sensible' default.
_{just to save this attracting even more comments on why it was a good/bad choice of default.}

edited Jun 27 '23 at 16:21

tilde

103

answered Nov 05 '15 at 06:56

Tetsujin

115,663

11

Seems I've never looked for it precisely. It's the first options in the list. thank you. – Reyraa Nov 05 '15 at 07:17
170

I cannot imagine why anyone would want that to be the default. Thanks for the solution. – Nathan Beach Oct 12 '16 at 12:05
This does not work for me. I have two extra monitors, and about 25% of the time after waking the Mac up from sleep, they flip Spaces. Super annoying. This has been a problem from Mavericks to now (MacOS). – jazzdrive3 May 16 '17 at 19:55
3

@NathanBeach it helps users that don't understand spaces, so it helps users who need it to be the default setting. :) – Florian Wendelborn Jun 25 '17 at 21:00
It does it even if I turn off 'Displays have separate Spaces' – jazzdrive3 Jan 09 '18 at 16:44
37

Wow. I had thought my computer was glitching for about a year now. – Seph Reed Dec 14 '18 at 18:26
25

thank you thank you thank you thank you. 5 years with mac and I never thought about finding a solution for this crap. – Rotem Dec 03 '19 at 09:23
14

The MOST BUGGIEST feature I've ever seen. – Vincent Jan 08 '20 at 04:11
2

This auto-rearranging has been happening for me recently (macOS 10.15), even with this unchecked. Anyone else having this problem and/or know how to fix it? – caleb Jul 08 '20 at 18:08
3

Please don't ask new questions in comments. No-one will ever see it down here other than the poster of the answer. If you have a new question, please ask it by clicking the Ask Question button. Include a link to this question if it helps provide context. – Tetsujin Jul 08 '20 at 18:10
4

All this lost years!! – maddin2code Apr 15 '21 at 07:53
Apple "helping" you – ahnbizcad Jul 08 '21 at 19:00
@ahnbizcad - by making it echo the behaviour of [modifier]/Tab in almost all operating systems... – Tetsujin Jul 08 '21 at 19:05
1

You'r a genius. Sometimes is really hate apple for stuff like this. – Jan Wiesemann Jun 23 '22 at 08:32
Just one word. THANKS. This behaviour was bothering me for a couple of months now. Did not know this existed – NME New Media Entertainment May 31 '23 at 19:46
I wish I could upvote this twice; I find this answer every time I have to set up a new Mac. – Alexander Nied Jan 26 '24 at 15:13

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 22 '23 at 21:36

You can also use the terminal to change the setting.

To disable rearrangement:

defaults write com.apple.dock "mru-spaces" -bool "false" && killall Dock

To enable rearrangement:

defaults write com.apple.dock "mru-spaces" -bool "true" && killall Dock

How to prevent Mac from changing the order of Desktops/Spaces

2 Answers2

General Solution

Newer MacOS Ventura (v13)

Older macOS (v12 and older)

Linked

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