Disappearing (sliding off) open windows

Thought I had got all the kinks worked out, and for the past week my iMac with Mavericks has been working brilliantly. Then all of a sudden yesterday afternoon without my doing anything (that I know of) my desktop and open application has started sliding off sight again.

To better explain - I can see a specific desktop picture behind Mail which I have open, then I click on finder in the dock and Mail and the current desktop image slide off to the left and disappear while a new wallpaper with finder appears in its place. That would indicate to me that there was second view or monitor connected, but I have no second monitor and disconnected the TV which was what was giving me my initial problem. What happened?

I need to correct this, as I drag a lot of stuff/images from the finder window directly into my email message, and now that's gone bye bye. I know it's a setting, but what, since I touched narda, rien, & zip.

Has to be a setting and probably very easy to fix, so please and thank you, help.

Sounds as though you are swiping between desktop spaces.

Open mission control (the icon is likely on your dock near Finder) or swipe up with three or four fingers if you have a trackpad or press F3 if you have a post 2011 keyboard.

Along the top are different desktops. I'd guess one of them is the one you're looking for

No trackpad I checked Mission Control, This is what I am seeing there. Not seeing anything related to desktops? Sorry if I sound a bit daft.

That's Mission Control in System Preferences panel.

You need to launch the Mission Control Application. For info Spaces/desktops in this instance are one in the same. Each 'Space' is a virtual desktop that can have different wallpaper and applications assigned to it.

If you don't have a mission control icon on the dock you can find it in the Applications folder or search for it using Spotlight (magnifying glass top right near the clock)

As well as mission control you can navigate between spaces/desktops by holding control and using the left and right cursor keys.

Do you have a Magic Mouse?

The first thing I did when the problem started was to launch Mission Control and have a look, and what I see in the Mission Control window is what I attached in my last response. I had a dreadful time initially with Mavericks, until I got rid of Google Drive and then also realised the the computer was "hiding" applications because I had a VGA cable attached to my TV. Having removed this, the hiding stopped and things had been fine. No sliding anywhere and back to normal behaviour.

I cannot seem to find any source to show if there are multiple spaces being used, and that appears to be the problem.

No magic mouse (yet but all of my work is done in SketchUp and Photoshop. I have been using the commands utilising Cmd or Control and the arrow keys to autofold objects in Sketchup, but did not think that would affect the actual computer, just the function in SketchUp. I actually used them this morning when the problem began. I even quit SketchUp to see if that was causing the problem, but it continued.

I need to use those commands in SketchUp with my modelling, so sure hope it's not that.

It's never great when application and Operating system shortcuts clash. But they can often be changed.

When you launch the application this is what you'll see (well similar).

I've highlighted the Mission Control Icon and where Spaces/desktops appear

OK - I started messing around again with the Cmd/arrow combo and it "appears" that my applications are now collected in the one space without the sliding. In other words, I can now open finder and mail and have them both appear in the same space with no sliding off. It does concern me though, about what is going to happen when I have to use those commands again in SU.

I will have to experiment and see. Rather annoying though.

These haven't changed in Mavericks but you can change/disable them.

System Preferences - Keyboard - Keyboard Shortcuts - Mission Control

Finding Mission Control was not a problem. I have been using a Mac for around five years and while not a guru by any stretch of the imagination, do know my way around ye olde computer fairly well. What I did, was to delete the second desktop that was showing up in Mission Control, and will have to monitor those SU keyboard commands as said, and see how they affect the operating system and its features.

Very kind of you to spend so much time helping out, and at least I am stable for now. Remains to see what happens down the road. Still... these posts I think, generally help someone else who has a similar problem but did not connect it to an application issue. Ta ever so much.
Yes - location Miami - family origins - Northumberland. Been asked the question before by someone from the UK lending a hand. So you might or might not have been wondering. Thanks again.

Didn't mean to 'teach you to suck eggs'

Northumberland, just like Miami in the rain

Ha Ha (so much more fun than LOL) So true. Thank you indeed for all of your help, and I am actually going to attempt to duplicate the problem so that I can be sure of how to fix it quickly the next time it happens, as I am sure it will, since I will have to use the same commands in SketchUp over and over.

My daughter was telling me, that when she has her Mac laptop on, and tries to use her Apple TV remote, that the computer goes nuts as well, so I guess there will always be conflicts. Oh well... sigh... keeps the little grey cells active I imagine. Such a pity though that they can't all just get along.

All the best to you, from not so sunny Miami this morning. But Beckham's here!

On her MacBook get your daughter to go to:

System Preferences - Security & Privacy - (may need to click the padlock and enter her password to activate the Advanced button) - click the advanced button Tick the 'Disable remote control infrared receiver'

Thank you - I am going to send that info to her right now.

OK, so a few years later and OS X 10.10.5

I have the same or similar issue

I have a 4 monitor system, and I have never used Virtual desktops, but somehow, as can be seen in the first two screen grabs I have accidentally created over 160 Virtual desktops...now all deleted

Today iPhoto 'disappeared' off screen.

I can find it and jump to it with CMD TAB, to its menu bar appears at the top of the screen, but the Window refuses to appear.
I can go to the dock and right click the iPhoto icon and choose "Show All Windows" It slides into view, with the Mission Control style out of focus background. But as soon as I click the iPhoto window, it slides off screen again.
It appears "of screen' and not on any Desktop if I use the F3 ' mission Control ' button...but I just can't pull it back to the main screen.
I do not want to close the app and re-open, as I am in the middle of some stuff that I do not want to risk loosing.

Yo can see iPhoto in the remain g screen grabs, outlined in blue.

As you can see the iPhoto window never appears on the mini desktop 'icons'

How the **** do I get it back on to a desktop?






Screen grab of two desktops


Screen grab of three desktops