The short version: if keyboard shortcuts still work but dragging a window to the edge does nothing, Rectangle has permission and the drag gesture is the only broken part. Check that snap areas are enabled in Rectangle’s settings, then turn off «Drag windows to screen edges to tile» in System Settings → Desktop & Dock. On Sequoia, that second one is the answer far more often than the first.
Confirm what still works
Press Control + Option + Left Arrow. If the window snaps to the left half, everything about Rectangle’s permissions and installation is fine, and you can ignore every guide that tells you to reinstall or reset Accessibility. Only the drag gesture is broken, and the list of things that break a drag gesture is short.
If that shortcut does nothing either, you have a different problem. Snap areas and shortcuts both dead means Rectangle isn’t receiving events at all, which is the Accessibility permission repair.
Cause 1: the setting is off
Snap areas are a toggle, and they can be off for reasons that have nothing to do with a bug. A settings reset turns them back to their default state. Importing a configuration from another Mac carries whatever that machine had. And people switch them off deliberately during a period of accidental triggering, then forget entirely.
Open Rectangle from the menu bar, go into settings, and look for the option covering windows dragged to screen edges. If it’s off, that’s the whole story. Turn it on and drag a window to the left edge to confirm.
Cause 2: macOS is taking the gesture first
This is the dominant cause since Sequoia, and it produces the most confusing version of the symptom, because windows do snap. They just snap wrong, or into a shape you didn’t configure, or with a highlight that doesn’t look like Rectangle’s.
Apple added native window tiling with its own drag-to-edge behavior, enabled by default. Two systems now listen for the same gesture on the same pixels, and macOS is holding the gesture closer to the source. Go to System Settings → Desktop & Dock, find the option about dragging windows to screen edges to tile, and switch it off. Rectangle picks the gesture back up immediately, with no relaunch needed.
Worth knowing that this is a real either-or rather than a bug to work around. If you’d rather keep Apple’s tiling and use Rectangle only through the keyboard, that’s a coherent setup, and our comparison of Rectangle and native tiling lays out what each side actually gives you.
Cause 3: the edge never registers
Sometimes the feature is on, nothing is competing for the gesture, and the drag still does nothing. In that case the pointer isn’t reaching the trigger zone.
Push the pointer all the way into the edge and pause for a moment before releasing. A fast flick often stops a few pixels short, which is easy to do on a high-resolution display where those pixels are physically tiny. Slow the movement down and you’ll usually see the highlight appear.
Multi-monitor setups add their own version of this. Where two displays meet, the pointer crosses to the neighbouring screen instead of stopping at an edge, so there’s nothing to trigger. Only the outer edges of your arrangement behave like true edges. Rearranging displays in System Settings → Displays changes which edges are usable, and it’s worth checking the layout there matches how the monitors physically sit on your desk.
After connecting a monitor, changing resolution, or rearranging displays, quit Rectangle and reopen it. It recalculates screen geometry on launch, and a stale calculation from a previous arrangement is a reliable way to lose zones on a display you just plugged in.
Zones that fire when you don’t want them
The opposite complaint is common enough to belong here. Corner zones sit where people naturally drag a window while repositioning it, so they trigger by accident, and the window jumps to a quarter you never asked for.
You don’t have to switch snap areas off wholesale to stop that. Rectangle’s snap area configuration treats each zone independently, so you can leave a corner unassigned while keeping the edges live. Half a minute of configuration, and the accidental quarter-window stops happening.
Portrait displays are the other case where the defaults deserve a second look. Zone geometry follows the rotated screen, so the top and bottom zones become the large, easy targets and the side edges get narrow. Reassigning actions to match how you actually use a vertical monitor makes more difference than any setting on this page.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Rectangle snap areas stop working after upgrading to Sequoia?
macOS Sequoia introduced its own drag-to-edge window tiling, and it’s enabled by default. Both features listen for the same gesture, so the system version frequently wins. Turning off the native option in System Settings → Desktop & Dock returns the gesture to Rectangle.
My keyboard shortcuts work but dragging to the edge does nothing. Why?
That combination rules out a permission problem, because Rectangle clearly still moves windows. The cause is either the snap areas setting being switched off, or another feature intercepting the drag gesture before Rectangle sees it.
Do snap areas work on an external or portrait monitor?
Yes, on both. Rectangle calculates zones per display, so each monitor has its own set of edges and corners. Rotated displays are supported, though the zone layout follows the rotated geometry rather than the physical orientation of the panel.
Can I turn off individual snap zones instead of all of them?
Yes. Rectangle’s snap area configuration lets you assign an action to each zone independently, or leave a zone unassigned so nothing happens when a window is dragged there. Corner zones are the ones people most often disable after triggering them by accident.
