Workspace not saving on Mac

[edson]

I organize my workspace, placing some tool palettes where I want them and switching some off. When I reopen SketchUp the ones I have switched off reappear all over the place. What can I do to keep my workspace looking the same at startup as it looked when I closed SketchUp?

I tried to get answers from SketchUp’s AI Assistant, but they were vague and not conclusive…

I am on macOS Sequoia, SketchUp 26.1.170.

Thanks in advance.

[bmike]

Did you save a drawing / file before you quit?

If yes, then there probably is a preferences file that is corrupt.

@colin or maybe @eric-s would know what to delete or that needs fixing.

[edson]

Yes, I did. The palettes return no matter what I do.

[ateliernab]

usually, it means you haven’t installed sketchup in the application folder, often that it is launched from the disk image.

like this

SketchUp 2026 is not located in Application folder after installation on Mac

this means you haven’t installed sketchup. what you’re seeing is the disk image you downloaded and opened. see the “sketchup 2026” folder ? drag it on to the “applications” shortcut. then eject it and delete the disk image. [Capture d’écran 2026-01-09 à 12.30.21] this is what the disk image looks like when you’re not looking at it in list mode : [Capture d’écran 2026-01-09 à 12.31.55] until you do that, yes sketchup will launch, but from the disk image, meaning it won’t save some of…

even if you’ve installed it correctly, if you’ve added the one from the disk image in the dock, that’s the one that will launch

if you’ve copied it in another place instead of the application folder well… I’m actually not sure of the effect. never tried.

[edson]

I am afraid this is not the case. I installed SketchUp correctly, in the Applications folder, and dragged it from there to the Dock. Thus there has to be another answer to my problem. Thanks, anyway.

[endlessfix]

@edson

them and switching some off. When I reopen SketchUp the ones I have switched off reappear all over the place.

When you say “tool pallets” are you talking about ones from extensions you have added to SketchUp? As opposed to native tool pallets? If so this is a common problem occurring with some extensions and is unfortunately not solvable by the user or by SketchUp. Each extension has the power to record and save it’s own to tool pallet visibility state, this is not a SketchUp code function. The well written extensions record their visibility state and will relaunch in a fresh SketchUp opening in the same state it closed in. Some extensions fail to record the toolbar state and default to “on” every time you open SketchUp. The solution if this is the case is to disable that extension.

I have some extensions I use that won’t save the toolbar state but I like their function, for these I keep them enabled but gather all the tool pallets in the center of the screen where I can close them quickly each time I open SketchUp.

[edson]

Sorry, I meant palettes, not “pallets”. I did not know about the fact that some extensions do no not save the toolbar state. This is probably what is causing my problems. Thanks!

[ateliernab]

another thing that might come into play is the safe zones in mac os.
if you have the dock visible, then on each side are safe zones.

here is a safe zone, below firefox, left of the dock.

also, outside your screen :

here you can see the limit between my 2 screens, and that my firefox window (right) is poking too far.

when you launch an app, it’s not allowed to put stuff into the safe zones. but when using the app, you can manually put stuff there.

meaning that if you have some toolbars or panels that are a bit outside of the screen area or too low next to the dock, on the next launch they’ll be moved. in my case, they tend to be moved to the other screen.