WhatsApp Desktop Windows – app window cannot be resized

94 Replies

I’ve recently run into issue on my Windows 10 machine with WhatsApp Desktop app – it was keep running in maximized window mode without possibility to resize window/make it smaller. I was ignoring/tolerating that for quite some time, next looked for a setting in app GUI which could have trigger this (there is none) and checked if my app is of the latest version (it is). So it was time to google a bit to find a solution which I’ll just share below.

In case you cannot minimize your WhatsApp Windows app window and it keep running in maximized mode, you should do the following to get back an ability to perform window resize:

  1. Navigate to %appdata%\WhatsApp folder and open settings.json file located here in text editor.
  2. Change “isFullScreen” setting value from true to false and restart WhatsApp app.

Just writing this down to have a record of the fix šŸ™‚

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94 thoughts on “WhatsApp Desktop Windows – app window cannot be resized”

    1. Mikhail Post author

      What happens if you go to Run menu (Win + R) and paste this text without quotes: “%appdata%\WhatsApp”? Are you getting Windows cannot find path error?

      Reply ↓
      3. Joachim Brindeau

        Hello,
        I searched for whatsapp in %appdata% folder and finally fixed it.
        I found mine here:
        C:\Users\Brind\AppData\Local\Packages\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm\LocalCache\Roaming\WhatsApp

        I think it’s because we installed via windows store !
        Hope that helps

        Reply ↓
        4. Tom Hibbard

          I had downloaded from Windows Store and this worked for me – thanks! For those who aren’t reading the whole thread, you’ll have to download notepad or notepad++ from the store to open the json file if you don’t have a programme to do this. To get it to work first time, exit the app before you make the change and then remember to save your changes before exiting!

          Reply ↓
    2. pia

      type this on the bottom left near start
      %appdata%\WhatsApp

      open the settings.json (in notepad)

      find the ā€œisFullScreenā€ and change the true to *FALSE*

      Reply ↓
      1. cardamaR

        after changing true to False, what will gonna do next? I did it, then save after.. nothings happened, screen still in full view.

        Reply ↓
        1. J

          Same thing happened, I tried making the change with the app closed, saved the file, and then opened Whatsapp, and it worked.

          Reply ↓
        2. Mario

          I did it and works, you have to close WhatsApp first. then make the changes and save. I put false for “isMaximized” too

          Reply ↓
  5. Renu

    Hello, and THANK YOU for offering to help. I am trying this but it’s not working. Am i supposed to save the settings somehow.?

    Reply ↓
  9. Abdulrahman

    Thanks Bro!
    I was also tolerating this issue since few days. Really annoying and stupid thing from WhatsApp.. even reinstalling WhatsApp didnā€™t help!
    Your tip is really helpful.

    Reply ↓
    1. israel shapiro

      You can solve this by doing the following:
      Close Whatsapp and open the following file with notepad: “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp\settings.json”
      (allow hidden files to be shown).
      Open the “settings.json” file with Notepad

      Change “isFullScreen”:true to “isFullScreen”:false
      When you now start Whatsapp it seems still maximized, but you can resize it again after moving the window with the mouse.

      Reply ↓
  24. K Chanda

    Pressing the function key is faster. The app merely saves states in %appdata%\WhatsApp so that if it were in full screen it will open in full screen.

    Reply ↓
    1. Peter Selig

      Hello, K Chanda,

      Thank you for your message here.

      Can you please explain which Function Key needs to be pressed, to “unlock” the WhatsApp window from running full-screen mode?

      Kind regards,
      Peter Selig

      Reply ↓
    2. israel shapiro

      You can solve this by doing the following:
      Close Whatsapp and open the following file with notepad: “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp\settings.json”
      (allow hidden files to be shown).
      Open the “settings.json” file with Notepad

      Change “isFullScreen”:true to “isFullScreen”:false
      When you now start Whatsapp it seems still maximized, but you can resize it again after moving the window with the mouse.

      Reply ↓
  25. Daniel Leo G

    Thanks!! Really Works!!
    Steps:
    Copy %appdata%\WhatsApp
    Press Window Key + R
    Inside the run bar, Ctrl + V
    Enter
    Inside Whatsapp folder, right click on setting file, open with Notepad
    Look for this,
    “windowState”:{“isMaximized”:false,”isFullScreen”:false,
    Any words you see “true” change it to false
    Click file on top tab, save.
    Restart whatsapp
    Try dragging the whatsapp window now and resize it manually
    Sorry for the lengthy explanation šŸ™‚

    Reply ↓
  30. Peter Selig

    Dear Mike,

    Thank you for posting this article. I was experiencing this fault on my Dell laptop computer, running Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit version, for about a month. Your instructions worked to correct this fault, so that I am now able to manually resize the WhatsApp window to any dimensions I want.

    Kind regards,
    Peter Selig

    Reply ↓
  31. WAN Dz

    This was making me crazy because i could not move the whatsapp window to my second monitor. Thank u 4 the fix

    Reply ↓
  42. Loeki

    It works greaattt…. But had to change alse “isMaximized” to true. Maybe just type the opposite of each “isMaximized” and “isFullscreen”.

    Thank you so much, you save my days.

    Reply ↓
  45. Warm

    Thanks, even as on 04 December, this fix works like a charm and I changed the “true” to false in wordpad! Kudos!

    Reply ↓
  49. Ori

    Thank you all!! Setting the FullSize and Maximzie to False both, didn’t help, but adding the change to a (smaller than full screen) height and weight did. Thanks šŸ™‚

    Reply ↓
  51. kashif Hussain

    I was quite annoyed with this as sometime I wanted to drag docs or copy/paste to other document.
    I am very surprised that why WhatsApp team hasn’t looked at this issue and there are no settings to modify this.

    This trick works.
    Thanks,

    Reply ↓
  52. San

    Fantastic! Thank you! The full screen mode was driving me c-r-a-z-y, needing to change screens every time I wanted to switch between languages… Many thanks for taking the time to share the solution.

    Reply ↓
  55. Pablo

    Gracias, funciono.
    C:\Users\tu usuario\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp
    Estaba en
    isFullScreen”:true
    Lo deje en
    isFullScreen”:false

    Y solucionado….perdi varios minutos e incomodidades por eso.

    Reply ↓
  64. John Night

    Hello everyone!
    In my particular case the settings.json located on the path %AppData%/Roaming/WhatsApp/settings.json NOT this %AppData%/LOCAL/WhatsApp/settings.json
    And if you delete the folder %AppData%/Roaming/WhatsApp/ and reinstall the application it’ll help resolve the problem.

    Reply ↓
  71. Sangtai

    Thank you so much!! You are the best!!. Long term problem I had with Whatsapp, was solved by your instruction.

    Reply ↓

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