Add, remove and reorder desktops on a Mac

Q: How do you add a desktop?

Open Mission Control: press ⌃↑, press the Mission Control key, or swipe up with three or four fingers. Move the pointer to the top of the screen so the Spaces bar expands. Click + at the right end of the bar. The new desktop is added at the end. If Displays have separate Spaces is on, each display has its own bar and its own + button.

Q: Why do my desktops keep changing order?

Because Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use is on by default. macOS moves the desktop you use most toward the front, so "Desktop 2" holds different windows from day to day. Turn it off in System Settings > Desktop & Dock, under Mission Control, or in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.dock mru-spaces -bool false && killall Dock More settings like this are in Mission Control settings worth changing.

All three happen in Mission Control. Open it, move the pointer to the Spaces bar at the top, then click + to add a desktop, click the X on a desktop to close it, or drag desktops to change their order. Here are the steps, and how to stop macOS from changing the order behind your back.

How do you add a desktop?

Open Mission Control: press ⌃↑, press the Mission Control key, or swipe up with three or four fingers.
Move the pointer to the top of the screen so the Spaces bar expands.
Click + at the right end of the bar.

The new desktop is added at the end. If Displays have separate Spaces is on, each display has its own bar and its own + button.

How do you remove a desktop?

In Mission Control, hold the pointer over a desktop in the Spaces bar and click the X in its corner, or hold ⌥ to show the X on every desktop at once. Windows on that desktop are not closed; macOS moves them to another desktop. You can't remove the last desktop on a display, and full-screen apps leave their Space when you exit full screen.

How do you reorder desktops?

Drag a desktop left or right in the Spaces bar. Its windows go with it.

Why do my desktops keep changing order?

Because Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use is on by default. macOS moves the desktop you use most toward the front, so "Desktop 2" holds different windows from day to day. Turn it off in System Settings > Desktop & Dock, under Mission Control, or in Terminal:

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

More settings like this are in Mission Control settings worth changing.

Is there a faster way?

Spacepal's direct version can add a desktop or remove the current one from its menu bar menu, or with spacepal://add-desktop and spacepal://remove-desktop from scripts, Raycast or an AI agent. It does this by driving Mission Control, so Mission Control opens for a moment. The Mac App Store version can't add or remove desktops.

Spacepal can't change the real order of desktops, because macOS doesn't allow that without turning off System Integrity Protection. What it does is keep each Space's name, note and rules attached to the Space itself, so they stay right when the order changes, and let you arrange Spaces in your own order in its overview.

When you remove a desktop, its Spacepal name and settings go with it. To bring back a whole setup, including the number of desktops, save it as a profile in Settings > Profiles; in the direct version, applying the profile also adds desktops if you have fewer than it needs.

Written by Dan Bayer, developer of Spacepal. Last updated 2026-11-06.