You upgraded to macOS 27 Golden Gate, reached for the keyboard shortcut you have used for years to jump straight to Desktop 1 or Desktop 2, and nothing happened. This is a very common post-upgrade report, and in almost every case it is not Golden Gate silently breaking the feature. It is one of three separate, well-documented behaviors colliding at once.

Two different shortcuts, two different problems

macOS actually offers two distinct ways to move between desktops with the keyboard, and they fail for different reasons:

  • Control + Left Arrow / Right Arrow moves one desktop at a time, left or right, relative to where you currently are.
  • Control + a number (Control+1, Control+2, and so on) jumps straight to a specific numbered desktop, regardless of where you currently are.

If your shortcut is the numbered kind, which is what most people mean by "switch to desktop 1 and 2," the fix below is almost always about enabling it correctly and understanding how the numbers are assigned, not about a macOS 27 bug.

Step 1: confirm the shortcut is actually turned on

Control+1 through Control+9 are off by default on every version of macOS, including Golden Gate. Apple ships the shortcuts pre-assigned but unchecked, which means a clean install, a new Mac, or even some system updates can leave them disabled without that being a regression at all.

  1. Open System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts.
  2. Select Mission Control in the sidebar.
  3. Expand the Mission Control group and look for rows named Switch to Desktop 1, Switch to Desktop 2, and so on, one row per desktop you currently have.
  4. Tick the checkbox for each one you want to use.

If you only see "Switch to Desktop 1" and "Switch to Desktop 2" but not higher numbers, that is expected: macOS only shows a numbered shortcut for desktops that currently exist. Add a third desktop in Mission Control first if you need Control+3.

Step 2: the number probably does not mean what you think

This is the most common source of "it used to work and now it doesn't" reports, and it has nothing to do with the macOS 27 update specifically. By default, macOS automatically reorders your desktops based on which one you used most recently. That means Desktop 2 today may not be the same Space that was Desktop 2 last week, even though you never manually moved anything.

If your shortcut is technically working but landing you somewhere unexpected, this reshuffling is almost always why.

Step 3: stop macOS from reshuffling your desktops

  1. Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock.
  2. Scroll to the Mission Control section.
  3. Turn off "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use."

With this off, Desktop 2 stays Desktop 2 until you manually drag it to a different position in Mission Control's Spaces bar. This single setting resolves most "the shortcut takes me to the wrong desktop" complaints.

Step 4: a third-party tool may be the real cause

If you use a window manager, trackpad gesture tool, or automation utility such as Mac Mouse Fix, BetterTouchTool, or a similar app to trigger Spaces switching, check that tool specifically before assuming macOS itself is at fault. Several of these tools worked by simulating trackpad swipe gestures through undocumented input event fields, and developers have confirmed that macOS 27 no longer reads those fields. Anything that opened Mission Control or switched Spaces that way stopped working the moment you upgraded, while normal clicking, scrolling, and the Mac's own built-in keyboard shortcuts kept working unaffected.

If your shortcut goes through a third-party remapping tool rather than System Settings directly, check that tool's own changelog or support page for a macOS 27 compatibility note before troubleshooting further on the macOS side.

Step 5: if Control+Arrow is what broke

For the "move one desktop at a time" shortcut rather than the numbered jump:

  1. System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Mission Control.
  2. Confirm "Move left a space" and "Move right a space" are both checked.
  3. If you only have one desktop, Control+Arrow does nothing because there is nowhere to move to. Add a second desktop in Mission Control and test again.
  4. Check for a conflicting global shortcut. Some apps and utilities claim Control+Arrow for their own purposes; a conflict silently wins over the system shortcut without any warning.

If it is still broken after all of this

  • Toggle the checkbox off and back on in Keyboard Shortcuts for the specific shortcut that is misbehaving. This clears a surprisingly common stuck state after an OS upgrade.
  • Restart the Dock process, which also governs Mission Control and Spaces: 
    killall Dock
    This is safe and does not close your open windows.
  • Check for a genuine Mission Control bug. Golden Gate shipped with real, unrelated Mission Control issues around full-screen app switching. See our Mission Control fix guide and the macOS 27 known bugs tracker if your symptom involves full-screen apps specifically rather than a plain keyboard shortcut doing nothing.

A few more questions

Do I need to re-enable these shortcuts after every macOS update? No. A point update like 27.0.1 normally preserves your Keyboard Shortcuts settings. You only need to redo this after a clean install, migrating to a new Mac, or if you specifically reset keyboard preferences.

Can I use letters or function keys instead of numbers? Yes. Click the shortcut field for any "Switch to Desktop" row in Keyboard Shortcuts and press whatever key combination you want to reassign it, as long as it does not conflict with another system shortcut.

Why does Mission Control show a different number of desktops than my shortcuts list? The Keyboard Shortcuts pane only lists a numbered row for desktops that currently exist. Add or remove desktops in Mission Control, then reopen Keyboard Shortcuts to see the list update.

The short version

  • Numbered desktop shortcuts (Control+1, Control+2) are off by default on every macOS version and must be enabled in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Mission Control.
  • macOS reorders desktops by recent use by default, which makes the numbers drift over time. Turn this off in Desktop & Dock settings to keep them stable.
  • Third-party gesture and automation tools that simulated trackpad swipes stopped working in macOS 27 because the technique they relied on was closed off. Check that tool, not macOS, if you use one.
  • Toggling the shortcut's checkbox off and on, or restarting the Dock, clears most lingering stuck states.