Full screen and Spaces guide

Full screen apps lost after restart or reconnect.

Your full screen video, editor, or chat app comes back as a small window, on the wrong Space, or on the laptop screen. Here is why and how to get it back in one click.

macOS treats every full screen window as its own Space. Restart the Mac, let it sleep long enough to drop an external display, or switch a monitor input, and those Spaces get collapsed or moved to another display. Apps return windowed, on Desktop 1, or on the built-in screen. SnapState 2.7.2 saves the whole setup and restores it: apps go back to the Space they were saved on, full screen windows return to full screen, and every window lands on the right monitor, including monitors arranged higher or lower than the main one.

Watch the 40 second demo.

Why does macOS lose full screen apps?

Restart. Apps quit, so their full screen Spaces disappear. Reopen windows at login is best effort.
Monitor disconnect. Sleep, a dock, or a KVM drops the display, and macOS moves its Spaces to the remaining screen. See windows move to one screen after sleep.
Spaces reordering. "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use" shuffles desktops. Turning it off in Desktop & Dock helps, and is worth doing either way. See the Mission Control Spaces fix.

How do you restore full screen apps and Spaces?

Set up your Spaces and full screen apps. Put each app on the desktop Space you want, and put the apps you keep in full screen (a video, an editor, a chat app) into full screen on the monitor you want them on.
Save a SnapState workspace. Capture the setup from the SnapState menu bar. The workspace records which Space each app was on, which windows were full screen, the monitor layout, window frames, and all open tabs in supported browsers.
Restart, sleep, or unplug as usual. Nothing needs to stay running in a special mode. The workspace is stored on your Mac.
Restore the workspace. Click the workspace in the menu bar or press its Control-Command shortcut. SnapState relaunches missing apps, sends each app back to its saved Space, and returns full screen windows to full screen.
Arm a display trigger if a monitor comes back late. If an external display reconnects after login or wake, a display connect or matching layout trigger can run the restore for you once the monitor is back.

For desktop Spaces without full screen windows, see restoring windows across multiple desktops. For a plain restart, see Mac windows reset after restart.

What else does a restore bring back?

Window positions and sizes on every display, the apps to relaunch, the monitor layout, and all open tabs in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and Chromium once Automation permission is granted. Firefox is not supported. After a restore, each window is placed once and then left alone, so switching Spaces or moving windows yourself does not make them jump.

What else should you know?

Why do full screen apps come back as normal windows after a restart?

A full screen window lives on its own Space. When the app quits at restart, that Space is gone. Reopen windows when logging back in is best effort, and many apps return windowed, on the main display, or on Desktop 1.

Why do full screen apps move to another monitor when I reconnect a display?

When a monitor disconnects, macOS moves its Spaces, including full screen Spaces, to the remaining display. Reconnecting the monitor does not reliably move them back.

Does SnapState restore full screen windows?

Yes, since 2.7.2. Windows that were full screen when you saved the workspace return to full screen on restore, and apps go back to the Space they were saved on.

Can one app have windows on several Spaces?

macOS moves an app together with its windows, so an app with windows saved on several Spaces cannot be split between them in one restore. SnapState places it on its saved Space; windows on other Spaces are placed when you switch to them.

Do I need to turn off "Displays have separate Spaces"?

No. Leave the Mission Control setting the way you like it. Saving the workspace with your normal setting is enough.

What does it cost?

$9.99 once, for up to three Macs, with a 14-day refund. macOS 15.7 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel.

Get SnapState for $9.99One-time purchase · up to three Macs · 14-day refund