Rectangle Full Screen Stuck on macOS Tahoe? Fix It by Symptom

Research note: I found no confirmed Rectangle mac-specific “full screen stuck” bug on Tahoe, so the article doesn’t claim one. It treats “stuck” as a cluster of real, separable symptoms. Items marked need a check on a Tahoe 26.x machine before publishing.

Quick answer: “Full screen stuck” is usually one of three problems. The window is in macOS’s native full-screen Space, which Rectangle app doesn’t resize . Rectangle’s own Maximize is being mistaken for full screen. Or Rectangle has lost its Accessibility permission. Exit native full screen with Control-Command-F, then re-test Rectangle’s Maximize shortcut.

You press Control-Option-Return, and nothing happens. Or the window fills the screen and you can’t get your Dock, menu bar, or other windows back. Both get reported as “full screen stuck,” and the fixes are different.

Tahoe has made this worse by changing how windows behave. People have reported windows resizing themselves to full screen after being moved, and the Liquid Glass corner radius pushes much of the resize hit area outside the visible window. None of that is Rectangle’s doing, but it makes every window problem feel related. So start by working out which problem you actually have. apple ? mjtsai ?

Step 1: Which kind of “stuck” is it? What you see Most likely cause Jump to Menu bar and Dock hidden, window has its own Space (swipe shows it) macOS native full screen Section A Window fills the screen but the menu bar and Dock are visible Rectangle’s Maximize, or macOS tiling “Fill” Section B Rectangle shortcuts do nothing in any app Accessibility permission or shortcut conflict Section C Window snaps or resizes on its own when you drag or minimize Rectangle snapping and macOS tiling both active Section D Rectangle works, but not on a second display Spaces and display settings Section E A. The window is in native macOS full screen

The green button, Control-Command-F, and “Enter Full Screen” all do the same thing. They move the window into its own Space. This is a different mechanism from Rectangle’s Maximize, which just resizes the window on the current desktop.

Rectangle works by resizing and moving windows through the macOS Accessibility API, and macOS doesn’t let a window in a full-screen Space be resized that way . Rectangle shortcuts can look dead on a full-screen window for that reason alone.

To get out:

Press Control-Command-F. This works in most apps. If the app ignores it, move the pointer to the top edge of the screen so the menu bar drops down, then click the green button, or use View ? Exit Full Screen. If you can’t reach either, swipe to the Desktop Space with a three- or four-finger swipe, or open Mission Control and click the Desktop thumbnail. You can then close or restore the full-screen window from there. Some apps, such as video players, browsers in presentation mode, and slide software, use their own full-screen mode. Press Esc or use the app’s menu.

Once the window is back on a regular desktop, Rectangle will work on it again.

If you want “big, but not native full screen,” use Rectangle’s Maximize (default Control-Option-Return) instead of the green button. You keep the menu bar, Dock, and Cmd-Tab behavior, and there’s no Space to get stranded in.

B. It’s Maximize, not full screen

Rectangle’s Maximize fills the visible screen area, so the menu bar and Dock stay put. Core Rectangle windows are never in a separate Space, so this isn’t stuck. It’s working as designed.

To undo it, press Restore (default Control-Option-Delete), or drag the window away from the edge.

Two things are worth knowing:

Rectangle keeps the window’s previous size so Restore works. If you’ve resized the window since maximizing, Restore goes back to the last size Rectangle recorded, which may not match your memory. Rectangle has a separate Almost Maximize action that leaves a margin. It’s useful if full-width windows feel suffocating. A long-standing GitHub report notes that Rectangle’s maximize can leave a sliver of the window behind it visible. If that’s what you see, it’s a known edge case rather than something you’ve misconfigured. github ?

If the window fills the screen but you didn’t use Rectangle, check macOS’s own tiling. Open System Settings ? Desktop & Dock and look at the tiling options, such as dragging windows to the screen edges or the menu bar to tile or fill . Apple’s “Fill” works like Maximize, so the two can be confused.

C. Rectangle shortcuts do nothing anywhere

This is the classic post-update failure. Work through it in order, and test after each step.

Lock and unlock your Mac, then restart. It sounds too simple, but it fixes a surprising number of post-update permission glitches. Check Accessibility permission. Open System Settings ? Privacy & Security ? Accessibility. Rectangle must be listed and switched on. If it’s already on and nothing works, toggle it off and on, or remove it with the minus button and re-add it. Reset the permission cleanly. Quit Rectangle, then run this in Terminal: ? tccutil reset All com.knollsoft.Rectangle

Relaunch Rectangle and grant access again. The project’s own troubleshooting notes suggest this reset, and also advise making sure no other window manager is running. github ?

4. Look for a shortcut conflict. The same notes recommend trying a different shortcut or running an action from the menu item to tell a conflict from a permissions failure. If the menu item works but the shortcut doesn’t, something else owns that key combination. Also check System Settings ? Keyboard ? keyboard shortcuts. github ?

5. Use “Ignore app” for a single misbehaving app. If shortcuts fail only in one app, Rectangle’s “Ignore app” option un-registers its shortcuts while that app is frontmost, so the app can use its own. github ?

6. Test with a fresh user account. If it works there, the problem is something in your main account, not Rectangle itself.

D. Windows snap or resize on their own

On Tahoe this is more often a clash between two snapping systems than a Rectangle fault. macOS has had drag-to-tile since Sequoia, and Rectangle has had drag-to-snap for much longer. If both are active, you can get odd results, such as a footprint appearing twice or a window landing somewhere you didn’t aim.

One Apple Community user reported that a background window snaps to the right half of the screen when the front window is minimized. They have Rectangle installed, but say it happened before they installed it. That’s a useful reminder that not every odd snap comes from your window manager. Reproduce the behavior with Rectangle quit before you blame it. apple ?

To isolate the cause:

Quit Rectangle from its menu bar icon and try to reproduce the problem. If it still happens, it’s macOS. Turn off the relevant tiling options in System Settings ? Desktop & Dock. If it stops, relaunch Rectangle and, in Preferences ? Settings, uncheck Snap windows by dragging. Use only the keyboard shortcuts for a day and see if the problem returns. Pick one system for drag-snapping and disable the other. Keep Rectangle’s keyboard shortcuts either way. macOS has no equivalent set as complete.