Skip to Content (Press Enter)
Blog

Disable the Spaces Animation in macOS Sierra

I use Spaces in macOS a lot, however, repeatedly moving between spaces makes me feel a bit nauseous.
Stephen Meehan.
Stephen Meehan July 2017
Table of Contents
Screenshot of settings window in macOS Sierra.

Hey, this post is pretty old. I've recently created a new version of this post, it's called How to reduce motion effects in macOS Ventura. Check it out.

The motion is probably exaggerated because I use an UltraWide Monitor.

Opening Terminal

I’ve been meaning to look into finding a way to disable it for some time - but was hesitant, as I was sure it’d involve messing around with Terminal.

A quick Google search revealed a potential solution from osxdaily.com, it required opening up Terminal (as expected) but unfortunately this solution no longer works in macOS Sierra.

Reduce motion

A few more searches led me to a post on StackExchange. I found out there’s a toggle to ‘Reduce motion’ in System Preferences.

  1. Open System Preferences

  2. Select Accessibility

  3. Select the fourth option - Display

  4. Check ‘Reduce Motion’

The ‘Reduce motion’ feature replaces the annoying sliding animation when switching between Spaces with a much more appealing fade. A nice tweak to macOS.

Stephen Meehan.
Stephen Meehan
I'm a Manchester-based web designer and developer, and the founder of D3 Creative since 2005. My expertise includes collaborating with in-house marketing teams to redesign corporate websites.
.

Get a measurably better website

Your online presence matters, increase engagement, lower bounce rates, and improve conversions.

Our Redesign Process