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You are here: Home / Tips and Tricks / How To Turn Off Split Screen In Mail

How To Turn Off Split Screen In Mail

Last updated on September 5, 2019 By Serhat Kurt 20 Comments

Do you want to write emails in full-screen mode? If you use Mail full screen, you will be able to write, read and access your inbox at the same time. Also you may find bigger screens better than split screens and this may affect the way you work. However you may also want to disable this feature for various reasons.

Full screens means that any app or window (e.g., the Mail app) occupies the whole computer screen.

By default, you Mac will open a split screen view when you are in full screen. This means that, for example, when you click to compose a message, your screen will automatically split (see the images below). You can disable this. You can also change that new message window will slide up from the bottom of your screen. This short article explains how you can disable the split view mode in the macOS Mail app.

See also: Mac Mail App Opens Itself Randomly, Fix

Mac Mail Split View

Split Screen

Mac Full Screen

Not Split Screen

Steps:

1-Open the Mail app on your Mac by clicking the Mail icon. You can also open Spotlight and search for it.

2-In the Mail app, click, Mail and then Preferences (or you can press the Command and , buttons together)

Mail app preferences

3-Click the General tab

Mail General Preferences

4- And now deselect “Prefer opening messages in split view when in full screen.” box

Mac Split View

Now you are done. There is no OK or Save button. Just close the window. If you want to enable the Split View feature, just recheck this box.

See also: Mail app won’t open?

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks

Comments

  1. Hall says

    August 29, 2020 at 2:09 am

    This might work, but no promises.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/7d81ak/solution_for_those_who_have_the_mail_app_randomly/

    Reply
  2. Catherine says

    August 11, 2020 at 12:41 am

    This split screen issue is driving me nuts. I can’t even find a solution for it in settings. Argh!

    Reply
  3. Marin says

    August 10, 2020 at 11:28 am

    Not just that it keeps happening, but it happens for no reason at all. Like, no mail was received, but it still split screen.

    Really annoying thing

    Reply
  4. David Adams says

    July 12, 2020 at 7:10 am

    This kept happening, usually after an hour or so, with mojave OS on my MacBook Air. It’s still happening with updating to Catalina 10.15.5. At no time have I ever checked the box allowing a split-screen email facility. It happens about an hour into movies ibeing watched in full-screen. It’s not triggered by the arrival of new mail. Once it happens, it keeps happening until I exit mail. Then it spontaneously re-appears, sometime a half-hour later, sometimes befor that, and when I look at my mail preferences, the box requesting split screen for mail arrivals is still unchecked.

    Reply
  5. Dorothy Dozier says

    July 3, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    Me too, with Mojave 10.14.6. I never selected “Prefer opening messages in split view…” and out of the blue two nights ago, messages started opening in their own individual windows.
    Please HELP!

    Reply
  6. Pat Craft says

    June 30, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    Please help! I HATE the split screen when I open my e-mails! PLEASE fix it! Ready to through this thing out the window! Why don’t you fix it when so many people have complained for so long? Doesn’t speak well of your company!

    Reply
  7. Marcia Grossman says

    June 25, 2020 at 7:47 pm

    I can’t turn off the split screen. Please help.

    Reply
  8. Lee says

    June 2, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    FYI, to all. I called Apple support over a year ago and they couldn’t solve this problem then either. The tech said he’d log it as a bug. Obviously it doesn’t have any priority in their bug-fix queue because its still going on. For me, the problem comes and goes for weeks at a time without explanation (regardless of the status of the split-screen toggle being on or off). Every time there’s a new release of Mac OS I hope its been fixed, but no luck… its driving my crazy as I write this..

    Reply
  9. Diana says

    May 13, 2020 at 7:04 am

    I have the same issue with Catalina version 10.15.4 (19E287).
    The option is disabled, but the email is still opening over my videos, in split screen.
    I’ll disable the email app 🙁

    Reply
  10. Bob says

    May 2, 2020 at 11:42 am

    I’ve disabled useless feature to split the screen when new email comes in, it seemed like working OK for e few months, till one day it came back, even if it still was disabled. This is really annoying. Please fix it ASAP!

    Reply
  11. Mariann says

    February 21, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    I can’t turn off the splitscreen in mail despite deselecting it. I’ve tried several times and even restarted. I don’t like that it removes the unread dot when I am scrolling looking for a specific email. Arg. Please fix or tell me how. The deselect splitscreen does not work.

    Reply
  12. Stefan says

    February 20, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    Same here. Doesn’t work.

    Reply
  13. Bente Flem says

    February 20, 2020 at 11:08 am

    I have the same problem. Mail pops up 4 – 5 times in a day at random. So annoying.

    Reply
  14. Russell G says

    February 2, 2020 at 12:45 am

    I have same issue with Catalina. Have disabled split screen in settings but to no avail. It kind of startles you when in the middle of doing something important mail pops up. Went with Mac because to many problems with Windows. Is Apple trying to drive people away. FIX THIS NOW.

    Reply
  15. Cadence War says

    December 14, 2019 at 3:36 am

    I have also tried this and the app still slit screens every time I get a new email. This is extremely aggravating. I mean who in their right mind would program such a function for any app. Apple needs to fix this ASAP. I have loved my MAC until this past update and now I am so frustrated with being interrupted when I am working by the mail app, I am wondering if it would be best to go back to PC.

    Reply
  16. Colin Allen says

    November 26, 2019 at 10:06 am

    I’m having a similar problem with mail on my IPad. When I try to expand the mail the screen converts itself to a split screen. It is possible to swipe right to loose it but I can’t then expand the message.
    It is getting to the point where frustration is creeping in

    Reply
    • Jane bohlen says

      January 1, 2020 at 5:11 pm

      I’m having a problem with my iPad as well. When I open an email to read it, it appears tp the right of my screen in a narrow strip. Makes it annoying to read. I can swipe it away but it happens again when I read an ad or email.

      Reply
  17. Abe Box says

    November 13, 2019 at 8:05 am

    Confirmed that this doesn’t work as described on my iMac running Mojave! Ugh!

    Reply
  18. Simone says

    October 7, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    I’ve done this, and my mail still continues to open in split screen when I don’t want it to. I’ll be watching a show or doing work in chrome on full screen and it’ll just open by itself. It’s so annoying, and I fixed this setting and it still does it.

    Reply
    • PA says

      November 24, 2019 at 7:05 pm

      The only way I could figure out how to stop this was by quitting my mail app. THat way it wont pop up in split screen mode at all.

      Reply

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