Tired of some note suddenly taking over your screen just because you moved your mouse to the wrong place? You’ve tried ignoring the pop-ups, but they keep coming back? Find out here how to stop Quick Notes from popping up unwanted on your Mac for good.
First, Successfully Unsuccessful
The Fall 1974 issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published a case study executed to perfection. The peer reviewer went to unusual lengths praising it: “I have studied this manuscript carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw”.
Wait… what? Why would the x-rays and lemon juice? The reviewer was checking for hidden text, of course — a potentially grave error in a paper titled The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of “writer’s block”.
Is your Mac successfully channeling that paper every time you move your mouse in the wrong place and trigger Quick Note? Let’s see if we can’t find a cure for that:
How to Stop Quick Notes from Popping Up Unwanted on a Mac
Disable Hot Corners to Prevent the Mouse from Triggering “Quick Note”
Time needed: 2 minutes
To prevent Quick Notes from popping up (e.e., from the lower right corner) on a Mac using macOS:
- Open System Settings on your Mac.
Here’s how: Select the Apple logo in the menu bar, for example, then choose System Settings… from the menu.
- Go to the Desktop & Dock category.
- Click Hot Corners….
Here’s where: The button is at the very bottom.
- Select – (no action) for the bottom right screen corner.
Other corners: The bottom right is the default for Quick Note, but the action can be assigned to any corner.
Other actions: Choose any other action but Quick Note, of course, to trigger that when you move the mouse cursor to that corner.
- Click Done.
Their word: Apple include information on Hot Corners in the Mac User Guide.
Showed your Mac the cold corner?
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Disable the Quick Note Keyboard Shortcut on a Mac
To disable the system-wide keyboard shortcut for bring up Quick Note on macOS:
- Open System Settings; see above.
- Go to the Keyboard category.
- Click Keyboard Shortcuts….
- Open the Mission Control category.
- Turn off Quick Note.
Default: The default keyboard shortcut for adding a quick note is Globe Q.
Other shortcut: You can also double-click the existing shortcut to pick your own alternative key combination for quick notes, of course. - Click Done.
How to Stop Quick Notes from Popping Up Unwanted on a Mac: FAQ
Do I lose existing quick notes when the shortcuts are disabled?
No.
You can still access all your quick notes in the Quick Notes folder in Apple Notes.
Can I still create new quick notes with the Quick Note shortcuts disabled?
Yes.
You can always open the Quick Notes folder in Notes and create a new note in it or use the Quick Note control in Control Center.
(Tested with macOS Tahoe 26.2; first published February 2026)