macOS Full Screen – Add/Browse windows open in a separate Space

Anki Help
1

Hi,

Since updating to Anki 26.09.2 on macOS 27, secondary windows such as Add and Browse open in a separate macOS Space when Anki is in Full Screen.

For example:

  • Anki main window is in Full Screen → press A → the Add window opens in another Space.
  • The same happens with Browse.
  • If Anki is not in Full Screen, the windows open normally in the same Space.

This makes it difficult to keep my main Anki window, Add and Browse open simultaneously, and use Anki in an ergonomic way.

I temporarily downgraded to 26.08.1, which does not fix the problem.

I there a way to fix this ?

Anki: 26.09.2
macOS: 27

Thanks!

2

Please go through the Troubleshooting Checklist – especially #2 safe mode and #7 reset window sizes.

[I don’t understand what you mean by “in a separate macOS Space” – but if that’s normal macOS-specific terminology, I’m sure it will make sense to someone else.] Thanks for explaining, @BenJamesBen!

3

(In the macOS graphical UI, “Spaces” are desktops where windows appear. By default there is only one desktop, but it is possible to have multiple desktops to better organize and arrange windows.)

@Louska, you said that this problem started since you updated to Anki 26.09.2 and macOS Golden Gate 27. Was the behavior different on previous versions? If so, what was the different behavior, and what Anki versions and what macOS versions was the different behavior present on?

However, I suspect that you might be seeing the current expected behavior. It seems that when the Anki Decks window is full-screen and the Browse or Add windows are opened, they also are created as full-screen windows. And, macOS seems to create every full-screen window as it’s own separate Space.

Screenshot 2026-09-20 at 1.11.14 PM
Screenshot 2026-09-20 at 1.11.14 PM1217×605 299 KB

In the above screenshot, I started the Anki app in the “Desktop 1” Space, made it full-screen, and then pressed the Browse and Add buttons to create those windows. You can see that there are 5 separate Spaces:

  1. “Desktop 1”,
  2. the full-screen Decks window for my “Testing4” profile,
  3. the full-screen Add window,
  4. the full-screen Browse window, and
  5. “Desktop 2” (another Space that I had previously set up).