Lanes / Guides / Stop Spaces from rearranging

What is actually happening

macOS ships with a setting called Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use. When it is on, the system silently reorders your Spaces by moving recently used ones to the front.

For casual users with two or three desktops, this can feel helpful. For anyone with four or more, it breaks every number-based shortcut because the Space-to-number mapping changes underneath you.

The fix, step by step

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click Desktop & Dock in the left sidebar.
3. Scroll down to the Mission Control section.
4. Uncheck Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use.
5. Close System Settings. The change takes effect immediately.

How to verify it stuck

Open Mission Control, note the order of your Spaces, switch between two apps on different Spaces, then open Mission Control again. The order should be unchanged.

Does this affect anything else?

No. The setting only controls automatic reordering. You can still:

• Manually reorder Spaces by dragging thumbnails in Mission Control.
• Create new Spaces with the plus button.
• Delete Spaces from Mission Control.
• Switch between Spaces with any shortcut, gesture, or click.

Why Lanes flags this for you

This is the common reason a Spaces utility seems to stop working. Lanes Setup Health checks Accessibility, auto-rearrange, and Space reader access, then shows the fix before you have to remember which macOS panel changed.

Bonus: enable per-desktop shortcuts while you are there

In System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts, enable the Switch to Desktop N shortcuts too. They are off by default and make Space switching dramatically faster.