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I would very much like to disable the sliding animation that occurs when switching desktops via ctrl+→/← or ctrl+[number] in Lion. This was previously accomplished in previous versions with this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-swoosh-animation-off -bool YES && killall Dock

This new animation is even more slow than in Snow Leopard - nearly 1 second to switch - a real productivity killer.

Any help greatly appreciated!

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For me, it's not so much the time, more that to be my most productive I switch desktops like a a crazy man, I find this new animation is making me feel sick... no need for the background and ALL desktop icons to move every time is there. will post back here if I find a solution. – user8235 Jul 23 '11 at 11:05
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I agree with Rob, the animation creates the same feeling as being seasick. Just a way to make it faster or even remove that small bit of easing at the end would be good. – Ryan Bigg Jul 25 '11 at 5:43
This is probably a situation where the problem is simply still too new. Over the course of time, I expect there to be numerous articles about this sort of thing and integration into the various "preference-changing" apps like Onyx. You may just have to wait a little while. – Chris Pratt Jul 25 '11 at 15:28
@Rob background, icons, and menubar: the latter could just fade in in place, and slide up when reaching a fullscreen app space. – Lloeki Jul 29 '11 at 8:55
I added a small bounty in the hopes for someone to put in some effort of actually trying to find a method to do this, simple google fu just won't cut it. – tstm Aug 16 '11 at 12:43
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7 Answers

up vote 17 down vote
+25

I dug deep into the app using GDB but the results were disappointing. I don't think there is a way to do this currently. Here's what I learned:

First you can change the speed of switching into Mission Control (still called Expose in the prefs). To do that just enter this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -int 0; killall Dock

And to go back to defaults run this command:

defaults delete com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration; killall Dock

Secondly there's a reference in the binary to fps-spaceswitch (frames per second spaceswitch). I messed with this for a while and also tried variations on this such as spaceswitch-animation-duration without luck.

Unfortunately (at least as of 10.7.1) there does not appear to be a way to change any settings related to this animation.

I filled a bug for this with Apple. The Radar number is 10073864. I would encourage you to also file the report at https://bugreport.apple.com/. Note in your description that it is a duplicate of the above bug report number to help the support staff categorize and prioritize this bug.

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Instead of using an -int you can actually use a -float and set it to fractions. I set mine to 0.20, it is not nearly as jarring as setting it to 0 whereby it just flashes into place and sort of leaves an animation. – X-Istence Sep 9 '11 at 7:36
Were you able to find anything that handled the Command-M - motion blur effect in Mission Control? I just stumbled on that - it might be causing unintentional grief if some people have accidentally enabled that <ahem> fine </ahem and clears throat again loudly for effect> piece of work. – bmike♦ Sep 13 '11 at 20:34
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up vote 16 down vote

I've just noticed that doing ctrl+[number] is noticeably faster than ctrl+→/← .

It's still animated but it does complete the animation in about half the time. I'm not sure if that helps but I'll throw that out there.

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up vote 2 down vote

I noticed that it is possible to control the speed of the space-change animation when you use the Swipe gesture in OS X Lion. You can make the spaces change as fast, if not faster, than they did in Snow Leopard by doing a quick three-finger or four-finger swipe to the left or the right. Of course, it's definitely something to get accostomed to if you've always used ⌘+→/←.

This did get me thinking. Since it seems that changing spaces via arrow keys, number keys, and gestures all perform the same type of animation, there is likely a single system command that all three of these actions map to. Additionally, since they all perform the animation at a different speed, there must be a parameter that controls the animation speed. I'm not an OS X developer, so hopefully someone else with a better knowledge of the underlying functionality of OS X would be able to determine what system commands are actually running when the user performs a certain action.

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up vote 1 down vote

TotalSpaces has an option to disable the animation for changing spaces (but not for toggling full screen).

It's still still in beta and a bit glitchy though:

  • There's still a small delay when changing spaces
  • The whole screen moves a few pixels horizontally when changing spaces
  • I've set up shortcuts for activating apps in Alfred, but they don't always change to a space with open windows for that app
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This app sure is promising - I hope more people find it and help shake out the remaining bugs. It's a really nice power user tool and solves a hole in window management if you come from other WM to Mac. – bmike♦ 6 hours ago
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up vote -2 down vote

This article describes how to get rid of the New Window animations and the Mail Reply animations:

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-undo-a-lot-of-lions-little-changes-using-terminal/

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Thank you - these help a lot. Especially that silly animation on replying to an email - what a royal waste of time that is. Still trying to get rid of those animations when changing spaces though! – Rob J Jul 28 '11 at 19:11
hcix, welcome to Ask Different. You may notice that (as of this writing) votes on this answer mark it unhelpful (-2). Please do not answer questions on this, or any Stack Exchange site with merely a link. Sites go away or change addresses, articles disappear, etc., so it is much more helpful if you would include/quote the key details from the link into your answer. Attribution is key, and citing your sources (including links to support your answer) is great, but by no means should it be your only post content. – Jason Salaz♦ Sep 11 '11 at 3:27
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up vote -2 down vote

Have you tried John Siracusa's trick?

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO
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Yes - that fix gets rid of the animation when creating a new window. – Rob J Jul 29 '11 at 22:21
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up vote -5 down vote

Those are not animation .. its called Space ..

Just goto system preference > mission control > uncheck "when switching an application, switch to a space with open windows for applications"

but there are some applications which goto a new space when you activate full screen, like Aperture 3. Do let me know if you find out how to disable it.

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He's not trying to disable the feature, he's trying to remove the animation accompanying it. – Jeremy Banks Jul 22 '11 at 8:30
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