Swipe and Mission Control stop working

Question

Swipe and Mission Control stop working

Twice this month, for no apparent reason, both Magic Mouse Swipe to reach my various Spaces (screens) and Mission Control do not work. Even clicking directly on the Mission Control app in the Applications folder does nothing. I even have a hot corner for seeing all my Desktops, and that stops working too, even thought the other 3 hot corners work fine.

Of course I can do a Restart, but that's pretty un-ergonomic just to swipe through my Spaces again (which I depend on in my workflow.)

Posted on Oct 28, 2022 2:32 PM

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Answer 1

ShannonM1

Community Specialist

Oct 31, 2022 12:01 PM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Undertstood

It will be hard to troubleshoot given it's an intermittent issue, but another step to take when it is occurring is to test the behavior in an alternate user. Here's how to set that up: Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

Like the prior steps such as safe mode, trying the swipe and the spaces in these alternate users and formats will help narrow down where the issue truly lies. Once you've gotten the opportunity to tell if this is specific to your user account or another, we'd recommend that you contact Apple Support. This way you can establish a case to track this.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities!

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Answer 2

Lissy_12

Community Specialist

Oct 31, 2022 10:58 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Rhythm Earthsong,

Thank you for clarifying. Let's isolate this issue further. Next, let's see if the issue also occurs in safe mode by follow these steps:

How to use safe mode on your Mac

Once in safe mode: Work in multiple spaces on Mac

Thank you!

Have a great day.

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Answer 3

Oct 31, 2022 8:54 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Hello Rhythm Earthsong,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities! It sounds like you need help withHot Corners not working. We completely understand why you'd reach out, and are happy to help.

If you try the following steps, do they help?

Change the hot corner of "Start Screen Saver" to "Disable Screen Saver" and click [ OK ]

Then roll over the hot corner (of course nothing happens)

Click back into [Hot Corners...] options, change it back to "Start Screen Saver" and click [ OK ]

Screen Saver should activate as expected :-)

This article may help as well: Use hot corners on Mac - Apple Support

Please have a look and let us know if this helps!

Cheers!

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Answer 4

Oct 31, 2022 9:43 AM in response to merlinapple

Not reading my post attentively, merlin. I'm having no trouble with hot corners. Read it again.

What stops working is two-fingered swiping between desktops (Spaces.) And Mission Control not opening when double-clicked directly in the Applications folder.

Activating Mission Control through a hot corner was an ancillary 'last resort.'

The question is: Why does two-fingered swiping between desktops stop working, and why won't Mission Control open when selected in Apps?

As I said above, doing a Restart instantly restores functionality of both mouse swipe and opening Mission Control. But I want to know why they stop for no reason, and don't want to have to do Restarts when it happens.

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Answer 5

Oct 31, 2022 11:48 AM in response to Lissy_12

Thanks Lissy,

I doubt going into Safe Mode will help. The non working 2-finger swipe has only occurred twice, with many months in between, and it has never occurred immediately after startup. Both times it occurred after I had been on my Mac Studio for days or even weeks without a recent startup. I basically never shut down, just let the screen go to sleep and wake it up next morning. It happens out of nowhere, and I have almost zero active startup items , beyond the normal System ones.

Since it may take a long time before it happens again, I don't really want to be operating my Mac in Safe Mode for what could be months till the next occurrence.

And unclear why the second link, Work in multiple spaces on Mac. Obviously, I already know how to set up and delete additional desktop spaces, as I have been swiping between 5-6 of them for a long time, and that page is just an explanation page, not anything diagnostic.

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Swipe and Mission Control stop working

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