Zed window should remember last window size and position when opening single files

[ksandvik]

Check for existing issues

• Completed

Describe the bug

When opening Zed it should remember previous window size and position when Zed was closed.

To reproduce

1. Open Zed, set expected window size and position.
2. Close Zed.
3. Open Zed again.

Expected behavior

Expected: previous window size/position is honored.
Now: Using same size and location at startup.

Environment

Zed 0.49.1 – /Applications/Zed.app \nmacOS 12.5 \narchitecture x86_64

If applicable, add mockups / screenshots to help explain present your vision of the feature

No response

If applicable, attach your ~/Library/Logs/Zed/Zed.log file to this issue

No response

[mikayla-maki]

Blocks on: https://github.com/zed-industries/feedback/issues/430

[rsms]

+1 — this is going to sound ridiculous, but it's a blocker for adaptation for me as I open a lot of temporary windows in my workflow (currently using Sublime.)

[iamnbutler]

+1 — this is going to sound ridiculous, but it's a blocker for adaptation for me as I open a lot of temporary windows in my workflow (currently using Sublime.)

I don't think it is ridiculous, it is a pain to reset everything up every time.

[jbergstroem]

This and a "recent" file menu (#77) is adding unnecessary friction to getting started with my work. Hard to measure the pain threshold, but its in the back of my mind every time I open Zed.

[benonymus]

An option to "reopen where left off" (last project and files open from before last close) would also be lovely!

[emlynmu]

This was the first thing I noticed when I launched the app. I'm glad to see other people care. The mention of serializable workspaces (#430) makes me worry about it being tied to saving a workspace. I basically only care about the default new window size which I would think would be tied to a new (unsaved) workspace.

[chriskrycho]

I just came here to say the exact same thing as @emlynmu – this should be separate behavior from serializing workspaces. On macOS, whenever you open a new window of an existing (well-behaved) application, it matches the size of the most recent¹ window. It should also open in a new position, offset down-and-to-the-right (with "wrapping" that respects positions of existing windows) behavior.

Here's how it looks with VS Code (it took them years to get to it, but they finally did 😂):

CleanShot.2022-11-17.at.10.06.38-converted.mp4

Footnotes

1. ish, there are subtleties; it's something like "most recent window which actually had focus" or "root window" when you have a hierarchy of windows etc. ↩

[mikayla-maki]

Thanks for the behavioral explanation @chriskrycho! :D

[JosephTLyons]

This should go out with v0.72.0.

[spin0za]

This should go out with v0.72.0.

@JosephTLyons Please take a look again?

[chriskrycho]

I regret to say: This is not quite fixed in 0.72.x, though it took a big step forward: It is fixed when saving workspaces, and appears to remember the position used for a specific folder, but the feature request here is for a muuuuuch more general feature! See e.g. my example above—and note as well that you can trivially reproduce this by just opening any folder and then opening any new window!

[stjepangolemac]

If I close Zed while fullscreen it still won't start in fullscreen mode. It would improve consistency if it would remember the mode across restarts.

[stjepangolemac]

Bump, cc @JosephTLyons

[widersky]

I think it would be ideal if the new editor window had the dimensions of the recently opened project window. Don't like it when a 'clean' window takes up the entire desktop.

[michealp-coder]

This is a problem for me as well (running v0.119.16), and super annoying as well.

I don't have any projects open. When I launch Zed, it's to an empty/blank new file window.

I'll adjust the size and location of the new file window, to my liking. I then close Zed.

When I reopen Zed, the window doesn't have the previous size/location of the window and instead reverts to being max width/height of screen.

CC: @mikayla-maki @JosephTLyons

(Thanks for all the great work on Zed)

[mekedron]

+1, it's crucial. I'm using 32:9 ultra wide monitor + Rectangle for resizing my windows. I know probably using such monitor isn't good for coding, but usually I place all my windows in the center of the screen, and it's fine for me.

When I want to quickly edit some files (e.g. "Open With... -> Zed.app"), every time the editor opens full screen and I need to manually adjust the size of the window.

What's interesting, is that the editor does remember the last position, but particularly for a single file, and it's not possible to remember window size and position for other files that were not open yet.

My Jetbains products and vs code does remember size/position, but zed does not, which is huge blocker.

[ara303]

Reopening windows in the same position that they were in when the applications were quit is a very standard macOS behaviour. (I understand that this behaviour technically is present for projects but not for single files.) Sublime Text does it, TextEdit does it, the built-in Terminal.app does it.

Ghostty doesn't have it (* without a configuration option) and it's just as jarring there as is it with Zed. I would love to adopt Zed as my main IDE but the fact window position isn't saved really jumped out to me as one of the (very few!) things I disliked.

[okamiraner]

True. It seems the issue plagues the greatest modern tools (also Ghostty and Arc) which is ridiculous (despite the fact macOS isn't particularly famous for keeping windows in place).

[ghost]

arc is deprecated and ghostty is brand new so i wouldn't really count on them doing most things right, albeit this issue sounds pretty trivial.

[jplehmann]

I figure this was a platform-dependent issue and potentially a MacOS issue. I was surprised that this doesn't "just work" like with MacVim, etc. Not only does Zed not remember the size and position of the window, but also it opens on the wrong display (2 displays). I'm still not positive my problem is the one mentioned in this thread.

UPDATE: I figured out the behavior and a workaround. If you only open Zed in "single file" mode or without a project, it won't remember those window changes. But as soon as you open a project, and manipulate its location/etc, it will store those settings. They are remembered even if you just open Zed in "new window" mode. That's good enough for me.

[atomgomba]

I'm using Ubuntu and Zed always opens maximized. This is very frustrating since this is a very performant editor and opens very quickly, I'm trying to use it to make quick changes to some files or take notes in markdown on demand, but it occupies the whole screen and disrupts my workflow

[NicoAdrian]

What's the status on this issue ? It's been years... Overall Zed is an excellent editor but frankly this bug is kinda annoying.

[ylluminate]

This and the other issue of not keeping contents on re-open has simply made me give up on Zed. It's just not viable ergonomically. What a shame, but it is what it is.

[ardabro]

Just switched from 0.204.3, where maximization state was preserved correctly, to 0.206.6 (new stable), and the problem appeared. On the next start, the window is slightly smaller and shifted to the bottom right. Debian Bookworm, Cinnamon.

[spin0za]

I was excited about the Windows beta release. And this issue is getting me uninstall it. Ridiculous it's not fixed after 3 years.

[ara303]

Bit of an overreaction. I mean, at least the issue is on their radar even if it's not yet resolved...? :)

[spin0za]

Sure, I'll try it again after it's finally fixed 10 years later?

[arigit]

Linux / ubuntu 25.04, installed via flatpak. Very annoying that even the window size is not remembered across app restarts.
Workaround (not so nice): gnome extension: Smart Auto Move. It let's you save any size/position you want and will resize/reposition a second after the tiny zed window first opens.

[dlundell-cissi]

On Windows, restoring last position and size is expected. Looks promising but I will have to wait until this is resolved.

[Shadoware]

I intalled Zed today 10/24/2025 and it updated after installing.
I'm using windows 10 and Zed don't remember window size and position here too. Very annoying.

[woptiv]

Hope they fix it. I am already loving this editor.

[spin0za]

This thread should be pinned.

[fomrat]

Maddening.

[franciskafyi]

Hi everyone! First off, I want to recognize that us not supporting restoring window size and position when opening single files or when not opening any files/project is annoying to say the least.

I do want to clarify what we do support (or at least should support and if we don't, please file an issue or pile on to the existing one I just opened, if you're on Linux: #43952).

What we do support today across platforms (except for the Linux bug above):

1. Open Zed.
2. Open a Project (critical step).
3. Set expected window size and position.
4. Close Zed.
5. Open Zed again.
6. Zed remembers my window size and position.

I would love to understand some of you all's workflows when it relates to:

• opening a single file in Zed
• not opening a project in Zed

We want to implement this for you but it's not trivial and having a better understanding of your workflows will help me prioritize this internally.

Thank you so much in advance!

[spin0za]

Open a Project (critical step)

Why is this necessary? Why make it different behavior when opening a single file?

[atomgomba]

I'm on Linux and my workflow is typing zed <path> in the terminal, where path is either a path to a directory or a file. Very often when I start zed the current working directory is my home.

[NicoAdrian]

I use zed as a simple editor, just like sublime text or windows note. I don't open a project and never will.

[fomrat]

I'm running zed on Windows. I rarely "Open a Project (critical step)"; rather, I edit scripts (PowerShell) and single files (C#). When I open zed, or open a file with zed via file association, or Open With, I invariably get a zed window that is positioned half off-screen. As I commented earlier, this is "maddening" :-)

An insistence that the "normal" way to open zed is to open a project context is ignoring usability in favour of a misfounded sense of "purity".

[ConradIrwin]

I think there are a few things here:

• Single-files should "just work", but it seems like that code is buggy. The relevant condition is here:

  zed/crates/workspace/src/workspace.rs

  Line 5486 in 3d58738

  match self.serialize_workspace_location(cx) {

  which look right to me, but clearly there's something up.
• This isn't working on Wayland (this is a known bug with Wayland, they don't support letting applications resize their own windows – which is a little ridiculous...)
• If there are no projects open, we don't currently have a place to store the window position. We could somewhat reasonably persist these to the KV_STORE database. If someone wanted to take a pass at that I think it'd be a little more fiddly than the single-file version, but hopefully not too much more than Claude can help with.

[franciskafyi]

We'd love help on "fixing":

Single-files should "just work", but it seems like that code is buggy. The relevant condition is here zed/crates/workspace/src/workspace.rs which look right to me, but clearly there's something up.

And adding support for:

If there are no projects open, we don't currently have a place to store the window position. We could somewhat reasonably persist these to the KV_STORE database. If someone wanted to take a pass at that I think it'd be a little more fiddly than the single-file version, but hopefully not too much more than Claude can help with.

@ConradIrwin will pair with you, he promised me 😄

[mchisolm0]

@franciskafyi I would be happy to work on this 😁 When I get PR(s), do I just reference this discussion or is/are there issue(s) for the "fixing" and the "adding support"?

I am sure I will need to pair at some point, but I will start working on it.