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:
- Navigate to %appdata%\WhatsApp folder and open settings.json file located here in text editor.
- Change “isFullScreen” setting value from true to false and restart WhatsApp app.
Just writing this down to have a record of the fix 🙂
185 Comments
YOU ARE AMAZING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank You Very Much Really computer science is great thing.
Thank you very much!!!!
I agree, my taskbar is back, even microsoft couldn’t find it in my computer.
Thank you very much!!!! 😊😊😊
you rock!!!! it did the trick!!
This still does the job. Thanks a lot !!
nice suggesting, thanks Man and have a Good New Year !
Thank you very mach!
C:\Users\”Your name”\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp\settings.json
THANK YOU!!! WORKS GREAT!
I cannot find this folder?? help :=)
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?
I have the same problem. That folder does not exist.
just search the same ( %appdata%\WhatsApp ) in search bar it will open the folder directly
%appdata%\WhatsApp – seems that in my Win10 this path doesn’t exist.
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
Great! Found it. Tx
Thank you very much. You have been helpful.
Joachim Brindeau It works, thank you
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!
Bro, you legend thanks so much for clarifying that.
hell yes. cheers dude!!
very good fix thnks
Thank you!
I was searching but had not found the path yet.
it worked for me too. thanks!
Joachim, thanks. I know you wrote your response over a year ago but it still works in Win 11.
So this… Navigate to %appdata%\WhatsApp folder and open settings.json file located here in text editor. Change “isFullScreen” setting value from true to false and restart WhatsApp app.
Plus your answer, fixed this the problem, at least for me, of not being able to move Whatsapp from one monitor to the other.
Thanks a million.
John
thanks buddy. This true path for me!
type this on the bottom left near start
%appdata%\WhatsApp
open the settings.json (in notepad)
find the “isFullScreen” and change the true to *FALSE*
after changing true to False, what will gonna do next? I did it, then save after.. nothings happened, screen still in full view.
Same thing happened, I tried making the change with the app closed, saved the file, and then opened Whatsapp, and it worked.
I did it and works, you have to close WhatsApp first. then make the changes and save. I put false for “isMaximized” too
Try changing “height”:900 or similar
Muito obrigado!!!
Many thanks Mike and pia!
This path worked for me.
%appdata%\WhatsApp
Nice fix. Thanks! It worked.
thanks a lot , that works for me perfectly !!
You can search in %appdata%\WhatsApp folder for settings.json like this: https://prnt.sc/w3bkce
user\*name*\AppData\Roaming\settings.json
You should be knighted for this!
Megastar
You are the Best! Mike.
Look in “roaming”
Thank you for this idea!
thank you ……………………………..
THANKS!!!
Really stupid thing, even reinstall WhatsApp didn’t help!
But this trick works! 👍
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.?
This works perfectly!!! Thank you!!!!
thank you so much
Hi, do you the solution for Macbook? Thanks in advance
Thanks Bro!
I was also tolerating this issue since few days. Really annoying and stupid thing from WhatsApp.. even reinstalling WhatsApp didn’t help!
Your tip is really helpful.
Worked. thank you!
Thank you very much. This was very helpful!
I did it, but didn’t work
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.
Show, muito obrigado,funcionou….Valeu
Thank you very much, this one works like charm.
Thank you to you too Mikhail.
MUCH THANKSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!
WORKED !
Surprisingly it works. I have no idea how it become full screen. Now its normal again. Thank youuuu!
THANKS. WORKED!
so cool, perfectly worked
thanks a lot man
THANK YOU!!!!
Works perfect.
Thank you , it was a lifesaver , that screen was driving me insane
Thank you so much!!!
This helped a lot
Works perfectly! <3
Thanks a bunch. You solved my problem completely.
Thank you!!!!!!
Just launch the App and press F11.
I found that hitting F11 when the WhatsApp window is highlighted did the trick.
This works for me!
AMAZING!!!!!
I was getting frustrated with changing the “coding” lol
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.
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
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.
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 🙂
Thanks mate, you the best!
Thanks. Worked. How did it happen in the first place?
really great.. thanks a lot… you are amazing..
Thank you, it is really works well and helpfully.
Works great, thank you so much !!!
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
This was making me crazy because i could not move the whatsapp window to my second monitor. Thank u 4 the fix
Thanks that did it for me
YES!
Super simple, thanks for the fix!
Many, many thanx 😉
you are the best. It was so annoying!
You are the best. It was so annoying and driving me crazy!
So happy to come across this post, thanks.
That’s made me crazy for a few days!! IT WORKS!!! You are genius!!
Thank you!!
Thank you for this. Ridiculous bug now fixed and can get on with my day
Thank you for taking the time to share the solution!
It works!
thx! 🙂
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.
thanks solved my problem
Thanks ! This is very helpful
Thanks, even as on 04 December, this fix works like a charm and I changed the “true” to false in wordpad! Kudos!
What worked for me was to just press F11. I could then move and resize the window again.
Thank you very much!!
Thanks! Just happened to me and was driving me crazy!
It workedlike charm.
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 🙂
worked for me. many thanks!
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,
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.
Thanks! Just GET IT SORTED was driving me crazy!
You are the best!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!
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.
Awesome, TNX, that’s great !!!
Thank you so much for solving this! Worked!
This worked! Thank you!
great fix! Awesome
Thanks – works fine!!!!
Yes, i can do it. Thank you!
GENIUS! Thx! great help indeed
cmd+w fixes it, the traffic light buttons reappear
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.
Legend! Thank you!
You are awesome
It works like a charm. Problem solved!
You absolute LEGEND
i am soooo chuffed. never thought I would be able to fix it, but I did. Thank you so much !
You ma man are a life saver! Thanks!!
Thank you so much!! You are the best!!. Long term problem I had with Whatsapp, was solved by your instruction.
Great fix! Was driving me crazy
Thank you!!! Fixed =)
Thank you for the WAfull screen fix! Was really getting me down. 🙂
Thank you.
Amazing fix.
I’ve been struggling with this for the longest time.
Thanks bro, I usually never comment like this but you deserve a thumbs up!
You make internet great again, thanks
Thanks, that has allowed me to move the app to my second monitor where it belongs. Surprised that WhatsApp haven’t fixed this bug yet.
Thanks, it worked.
Thank you for the fix! The issue showed up out of nowhere this week and this helped!
THANK YOU ALL for your little snippets
I have been annoyed with the full screen for a long time because I have dual screen and it was always on the wrong screen and getting in the way
Thanks so much.. it worked for me… SO thankful
Thanks everyone!
Hello from Brazil!!
Its great!
Funcionouuuuu!!!!
This is really good. It easy and works. Thanks much!!!
Really thanks, it was very helpful
THANK YOU!!!! It was pain in my back 😉
It was very helpful
This worked to me. Thank you!
Thanks. That helped me alot.
Really thanks, it was very helpful
Thank you, thank you, thank you
It has been an irritation for so long!!
I know it has been more than 1 year.
But, I must say you are a Genius!
I have been suffering for many months now!!!!!
Thank you so much!
Thank You, It Works
Thank you!
very helpful!
You are amazing.
It worked. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you….I had similar issue with an old app and voila it had a similar settings file on appdata. Thanks again
Thanks!!!! I’ve been looking for the solution so long
Nice! Very helpful, thanks
YOUR AMAZINNG DUDE!!!
Thank You so much!
It worked. You’re amazing.
Finally found the fix.
Same as above except for some, it can be in a different folder.
Found mine here C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp\settings.json
It works! This is the trick to solve the problem. TQVM.
It was really so frustrating & annoying. So Google brought me here.
I found the file in AppData\Roaming folder.
GOD BLESS YOU!!
Its so convenient now. I LOVE THIS NEW REZIED WHATSAPP. SO Clean.
C:\Users\{USER}\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp
windows 10 path.. just replace your user
It is work. Many thanks.
Thanks Very helpful
🙂
Lots of smart people in the world… thank you 👍🏾👍🏾
Ohh goddd, THANK YOU A LOTTT, mann i was freakin out with that bug))
this was literally the first google page i found and it saved me))
Thank you very much!!!
Thanks for the tip. It was driving me up the wall!
Works perfect !! Thank you mate.
Hey.
Thanks, the solution works.
The problem is that if I restart the computer then again the software gets stuck on full screen, and again the registry needs to be edited.
No fixed solution?
Thank you for your fix. It still works. I am just wondering why on earth I should mess around this question in 2022 ? If I wanted to open whatsapp always in fullscreen I should be the one to go and setup the json file and not the other way around ? any dev should default his app toward the most functionalities !? not restricting it by default !?
Man, you are fantastic. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. It works on windows 11.
I had to take the time to say THANK YOU! your awesome!
Thank you so much….
Thanks a million! Even I managed to find and reset it!!!
Legend ! Many thanks.
What a life saver! Thanks. This annoyed the hell out of me and I was living with it.
MANY MANY MANY THANK
FROM BRAZIL
Many thanks, it worked!
From Singapore
Many, many thanks for this!!! I had to change two settings after I found the file and opened it in Notepad. They are now:
isMaximized”:false,”isFullScreen”:false
And WhatsApp is working well, again. MANY THANKS!
Thank you so much, it worked instantly!
thanks alot pro.
i did right click to properties > restore (back to previous version)
In my case, the settings.json is in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\WhatsApp
thanks, it worked.
Brilliant – thank you!
Works. Thank you!
You are my hero!!!
Thank you Took me a while but it worked! Good day mate!
I love you!!! I have been fighting this trouble for almost a month
appreciate ! and all the best in New Year
Thanks mate. Appreciate you sharing!
Cheers
Absolutely splendid! It was such a big pain for all this time and now I can resize Desktop WhatsApp. Thank you so so much for putting this up.
just Amazing, taskbar is back
I’m constantly trying to save it but it couldn’t…please help