How to turn off Mission Control on a Mac, or stop it opening by accident

There is no off switch, but four settings cover every way it opens: the swipe, the shortcut, hot corners and dragging a window to the top. Here are all four.

Guide · Updated 16 October 2026

Can I turn off Mission Control on a Mac?

Not as a single setting, but you can turn off every way it opens. There are four.

  1. The swipe. System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures: set Mission Control to off.
  2. The shortcut. System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control: untick Mission Control.
  3. Hot corners. Desktop & Dock, Hot Corners: set any corner showing Mission Control to the dash. On our Mac the bottom right corner opened it.
  4. Dragging a window to the top. Desktop & Dock: turn off Drag windows to top of screen to enter Mission Control.

Why does Mission Control open when I move the mouse to a corner?

A hot corner is set to it. Change it in Desktop & Dock, Hot Corners, or hold a modifier key while setting a corner so it only works with that key held. See hot corners.

If it will not open at all, see Mission Control not working.

Checked on 16 October 2026 on a MacBook Air (M1) running macOS 27.0.1, by reading its settings and the labels in System Settings. Nothing was changed. Hot corners on this Mac were App Windows (top left), Quick Note (top right), Desktop (bottom left) and Mission Control (bottom right).

Questions

How do I disable Mission Control on Mac?

Turn off its trackpad gesture, untick its keyboard shortcut, clear any hot corner set to it, and turn off Drag windows to top of screen to enter Mission Control.

Why does Mission Control keep popping up?

Usually a hot corner or dragging a window to the top of the screen. Both can be turned off in Desktop & Dock.

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