how do I disable automatic window resizing in Sequoia

Disable the Tiling options in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Windows.

Me too! I hate this. I work on an iMac all day and am now wasting time to resize windows when I only intended to relocate them. This should be automatically off.

Thanks so much. I HATE HATE HATE the way windows expand to fill the screen when I drag to the top. This was a huge UI fail on Apple's part. Maybe the worst thing they did in usability since the mouse where you couldn't orient it because it was a round puck.

Thanks for confirming, @d.s.cobb! That's exactly the faulty behavior I had reported via Apple Feedback.

Here, it's a Mac Mini M2 Pro with a Dell UltraSharp 40" monitor (U4021QW). And that turned out to be the problem.

As suggested by Dell, I had installed Dell's DDPM software, and allowed it to open automatically on startup. That software has a feature called EasyArrange which allows, among other things, window tiling just like in Sequoia. I've never used it, though, and wasn't aware it was seemingly turned on (maybe it wasn't). For more than a year, it hasn't caused any issues.

Now that changed when updating to Sequoia. Don't ask me how this is possible, but the new macOS window tiling feature seems to have enabled the DDPM EasyArrange feature, with no way of disabling it.

From there on, fixing the issue was easy: Quit DDPM, and the nasty behavior immediately goes away. Go to Settings, Login Items & Extensions, Open at Login, and remove DDPM, so that it doesn't load on startup. Problem solved. This also explains why most people in this thread didn't encounter the problem the way I did.

If you don't use a Dell monitor, it might be your monitor vendor's software that macOS Sequoia plays fancy tricks with. Good luck sorting it out! (I'll post an addendum on Apple Feedback so they're aware of this problem.)

None of the suggestions resolved this issue for me. I am using two monitors - one laptop display and one 30" display. Windows move and stack (and don't tile) fine on the laptop display. However, any window that's dragged to the larger display causes two transparent boxes appear delineating the left and right halves of the screen - one outlined by yellow and one outlined by green. When I release the mouse over either of these boxes, the window being moved is resized to 1/2 the screen and tiled into that side of the display. I have ALL the tiling options disabled. This behavior started with Sequoia betas and still manifests in the GA release.

Although turning off each and every one of the new "Tiling" functions in system preferences diminishes the effect - it does NOT remove it altogether. There is SOMETHING, some elusive "gesture" that normal Mac users do dragging windows here and there - that still causes the window to "maximize" (not to "Full screen" mode - just take the whole size of your current screen), which drives me nuts.

Old Mac users like myself (since 1987) are pretty strict with where their windows should be and what size they are. I find myself cursing again and again, trying in vain to maintain my "work bench" so I can see things I need together, drag things from one window to another quickly etc.

This is - again - Apple crumbling down on us. The Mac really "gets in your way" nowadays. Zillion authentications, Zillion "no, you can't do that", Lots of functionality REMOVED from apple Apps, in favor of more and more cluttered eye-candy visual effects that help NOTHING with your work and fun.

Even the "Focus" feature (presumably made to help user stay in Focus) takes all your focus for itself!!! what huge configuration strain and things just "happen" all the time while you're trying to work.

This issue with Windows is just the last straw.

It's time some decent engineers left Apple to write a new operating system-- for the rest of us.

Disabling the tiling option has no effect and tiling continues regardless.

Tried disabling it, but still run into the same issue. I even disabled the other options just in case, but nothing. I am using the OS 24A335.

GAWD, that's an annoying default setting! Geez!

I must have a different version than everyone else. I just move the window slightly and the tile outline goes away and I can place the window anywhere. Does it not work like that for you?

Apple always defaults new toys to On.

I can assure you, based on 40 years in the Operating System business, that anytime an OS release breaks layered SW that uses supported public APIs, its developers would consider it a bug.

Without apps, an OS along is useless to anyone except programmers, so OS developers work VERY HARD to maintain backward compatibility, while ALSO releasing new features. If they need to break compatibility, they deprecate said API and announce an end-of-life release after which apps are no longer guaranteed to work. It is exactly these values that make Apple and MacOS beloved in the developer world.

Wouldn’t that be nice if it was true. I am not the only one here reporting the issue. I rarely get the marquee. It just resizes. The whole 48”. I have tried always moving down first just to be sure it isn’t resizing as a result of hitting the top. Nope. Doesn’t help.

PatriceW999 wrote:

I'm looking at a variety of settings - which one will make the automatic sizing to full screen when I drag a window to the top of the screen?

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/37a0e05e-9f43-4638-aff7-c8f32623f7b2

Tile by dragging windows to screen edges.

You can just choose to not use the suggestion. When the outline appears indicating which tile it is going to drop into, just move the window a little and the Tile will go away.