How to Stop macOS From Rearranging Your Spaces (and Restore Them After Restart)
macOS rearranges your Spaces by default and never restores which app was on which desktop after a restart. Here's the one-toggle fix, what it can't do, and how to get full Space restoration after every boot.
How to Stop macOS From Rearranging Your Spaces (and Restore Them After Restart)
You open Mission Control and your Spaces are in a completely different order than yesterday. Space 3 — the one you reserved for email — is now Space 1. Your coding Space is buried at the end. Nothing moved on its own, but macOS quietly reshuffled everything based on what you used most recently.
There is a one-toggle fix for that. But that toggle only solves half the problem: macOS will still forget which app belongs on which Space every time you restart or log out. This guide covers both issues — what causes them, what the native options can and can't do, and how to get reliable restoration.
TL;DR
The immediate fix is System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control → turn OFF "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use." This stops the daily reshuffling during your session. But macOS still won't restore which app lives on which Space after a restart or logout — that requires a workspace manager like ShiftPlus, which captures your Space assignments and rebuilds them on demand.
The one-toggle fix
If your Spaces keep reordering themselves during normal use, one setting is responsible almost every time.
System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control → "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use" — turn it OFF.
This option has been in macOS since Mission Control launched with OS X Mountain Lion in 2012. It's on by default. When enabled, macOS promotes whichever Space you used most recently toward position 1 — so the Space you spent three hours in yesterday becomes Space 1, pushing your carefully ordered desktops aside.
Once you turn it off, your Spaces stay in the order you assigned them. You can rename each desktop by double-clicking its thumbnail in Mission Control, then build a logical sequence — Space 1 for focused work, Space 2 for communication, Space 3 for reference — and it will hold that order through normal use.
That solves the in-session rearrangement. There is a second, harder problem that this toggle does nothing about.
What the toggle does not fix
Disabling "Automatically rearrange Spaces" keeps your order stable while you're working. It has no effect on what happens when you log out or restart.
After a restart, macOS does not restore which app was on which Space. It may reopen some apps if you checked "Reopen windows when logging back in," but those apps land wherever they want — typically Space 1 — regardless of where they lived before. Your communication apps, your coding environment, your reference browser tabs: all collapsed into a single desktop you have to sort back out manually.
This is a structural limitation, not a bug. macOS has never had a "restore Space assignments" feature. The specific gaps:
- App-to-Space assignments are session-only — when you drag an app to Space 3, that placement exists only for the current login session. Log out, and the assignment is gone.
- No per-project Space layouts — macOS has no concept of a saved "context." There's no way to record "my coding setup uses these apps on these Spaces" and switch between that and a separate writing setup.
- Apps pile onto Space 1 after restart — Space 1 is the default landing zone, and macOS keeps no record of where each app is supposed to go.
For the full breakdown of what "Reopen windows when logging back in" actually does and where it falls short, see our detailed guide on reopening apps and windows after a Mac restart.
If you restart frequently — due to macOS updates, software installs, or end-of-day habits — you'll rebuild your Space assignments manually every morning regardless of what the toggle says.
Native partial workarounds
These are the tools macOS provides to reduce the problem. None of them fully solve app-to-Space restoration, but each is worth understanding before reaching for a third-party tool.
| Workaround | Keeps Space order | Restores app→Space mapping | Survives restart | Per-project setups |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turn off "Auto-rearrange Spaces" | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Assign app to Desktop (Dock → Options) | Partial | Partial | Partial | ❌ |
| Stage Manager | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| "Reopen windows when logging back in" | ❌ | ❌ | Partial | ❌ |
Assign an app to a specific Desktop: Right-click an app's Dock icon → Options → Assign To → This Desktop. This tells macOS to open that app on the current Space going forward. The limitation: this is one global setting per app — you can't tell Safari "open on Space 2 for writing and Space 4 for research." The assignment also doesn't reliably survive logouts on all app and macOS version combinations.
Stage Manager: Introduced in macOS Ventura, Stage Manager uses a different window-grouping model that conflicts with Space-based workflows. If you're experiencing rearrangement problems, turning Stage Manager off (System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Stage Manager) can eliminate a source of unexpected shuffling — but it's a fix for a different issue, not Space ordering per se.
"Reopen windows when logging back in": This checkbox appears at logout and restart. It tells macOS to relaunch the apps that were running. The apps come back, but they open on Space 1, not on their previous desktops. Better than a blank screen; not a solution to the assignment problem.
Full restoration with ShiftPlus
For users who want their Spaces to come back exactly as configured — the right app on the right desktop, every time — the native options fall short.
ShiftPlus is a native macOS workspace manager that captures which Space each app is assigned to and rebuilds those assignments on demand. You arrange your Spaces once — coding on Space 2, communication on Space 3, writing on Space 4 — capture the workspace, and restore it with a single hotkey any time: after a restart, after a macOS update, or when switching between projects.
What a ShiftPlus workspace captures:
- Space assignments — which app lives on which virtual desktop, rebuilt in order on restore.
- Window arrangements — Left Half, Right Half, Fullscreen, Center, and eight other logical positions. Positions are stored as intent rather than raw pixels, so a layout captured on a 4K external monitor restores sensibly on a 13-inch MacBook.
- Browser profiles — Chrome with your work Google account, Safari with personal tabs, each restored to the right profile automatically.
- Terminal environment variables — per-workspace env injection into 15+ terminal emulators.
- App state — which apps are open and which file or URL they had loaded.
When you restore, ShiftPlus opens each app and moves its windows to the recorded Space. Your order is preserved because ShiftPlus rebuilds the layout explicitly — it doesn't depend on macOS remembering anything across sessions.
One important technical detail: on macOS 15 Sequoia, restoring apps to specific Spaces uses private SkyLight APIs that require System Integrity Protection (SIP) to be disabled. ShiftPlus is transparent about this because it matters: if you're not comfortable disabling SIP, the Space-assignment restoration step won't function on Sequoia. Every other ShiftPlus feature — window arrangements, browser profiles, app launching, Quick Links, environment variables — works fully without that requirement.
Because ShiftPlus relies on these private APIs, it's distributed outside the Mac App Store as a direct download with EdDSA-signed Sparkle auto-updates.
For a full walkthrough, see how to restore your macOS workspace automatically and our roundup of the best macOS workspace managers in 2026.
FAQ
Why does macOS rearrange my Spaces?
The culprit is "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use," which is enabled by default. After a day of work, the Space you used most recently gets promoted to position 1, cascading every other desktop into a new order. Turn it off at System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control and your Spaces will hold whatever order you assigned them.
Does macOS restore Spaces after a restart?
No. macOS does not track which app was on which Space across logouts or restarts. The "Reopen windows when logging back in" checkbox relaunches your apps, but they all open on Space 1 rather than returning to their original desktops. Space assignments in macOS are session-only. A workspace manager like ShiftPlus captures those assignments and restores them on next launch.
Can I assign an app to always open on a specific Space?
Partially. Right-clicking an app's Dock icon → Options → Assign To → This Desktop sets a global preference for that app to open on the current Space. The limitation: it's one setting per app — you can't have different Space assignments for different projects — and the assignment may not survive logouts consistently across macOS versions. For per-project setups, a tool that saves named workspace profiles is more reliable.
How does ShiftPlus restore apps to the right Space?
When you capture a workspace, ShiftPlus records which Space each app is assigned to. On restore, it opens each app and moves its windows to the recorded Space using macOS system APIs. On macOS 15 Sequoia, this step uses private SkyLight APIs and requires SIP to be disabled — ShiftPlus states this requirement upfront so you can make an informed choice. On macOS 14 Sonoma and earlier, Spaces restoration works without that restriction.
The short version
If your Spaces keep rearranging during normal use: System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control → turn off "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use." One toggle, immediate fix.
If you also want your app-to-Space assignments to survive restarts and support multiple project layouts: that's what a workspace manager is for. ShiftPlus captures your setup once and rebuilds it on demand — after restarts, after macOS updates, when switching between projects.