Full-screen Split View broken: Scrivener won’t share the screen 50/50 (macOS 27.0.1, Scrivener 3.5.2)

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
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Versions: Scrivener 3.5.2 (17487), direct download. macOS 27.0.1 (26A434). 2560×1440 display.

What happens: When I put Scrivener in full-screen Split View with another app, Scrivener takes about 85% of the screen. The other app is squeezed to a sliver or pushed partly off screen. Dragging the divider shrinks only the other app. Scrivener never gets smaller. Outside full screen, Fill & Arrange ▸ Left & Right also gives Scrivener about three quarters of the screen instead of half. This used to work.

To reproduce:

  1. Open any project. I tested two of my projects.

  2. Hover over the green button. Choose Tile Window to Left of Screen.

  3. Pick any other app for the right side.

  4. Drag the divider toward Scrivener.

Expected: Scrivener and the other app share the screen 50/50, and the divider resizes both. Mail, Chrome, and every other app I use do this.

Already ruled out: Each of these alone changed nothing:

  • Hiding the binder

  • Hiding the inspector

  • Hiding the toolbar

  • Hiding the format bar

  • Turning off Page View

  • Having only one project open

As a normal window, Scrivener resizes down to about 400 px by hand, so its minimum width is not the limit.

Why it matters: Scrivener full screen on one side, with research and other apps on the other side, is a core part of my writing workflow. This bug removes it. Resizable windows and third-party window managers are not an acceptable workaround. I need native full-screen Split View to work as it did before, as it does in most Mac OS apps.

Happy to provide screenshots, if needed.

Related reports: Split View on macOS 26 not working, Odd display bugs in 26.3.1 (Scriv 3.5.2)

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Confirmed that this is now entirely broken for me under 27.0.1 -

Scrivener refuses to resize if sharing a “split” with any other application

I managed to get a split with Apple Notes in a very broken state after trying a few times: Notes became “blurred out” and refused to come back. Escaping out of full-screen split, Scrivener jumped to desktop, notes kind of… filled the screen, but the menu bars were missing and the UI was very broken. Had to force Notes back to desktop mode through keyboard. The reason I mention that is it feels like Apple UI issues rather than Scrivener specifically.

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Yes, I’ve had that exact thing happen as well.

Tested with a few different apps, and the Scrivener + App full screen split view, then remove Scrivener from full screen leaves the other app in a weird sort of “full screen but not” behavior. Dragging the split view divider made it even worse, with the other appp becoming a narrow sliver that—somehow—ended up relocating outside the viewport/screen, and would return only when Mission Control was engaged. Had to force quit the other app + restart to get its window to return to the screen.

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