diff --git a/GLMakie/src/screen.jl b/GLMakie/src/screen.jl
index bd01bbdedc3..16a0add2396 100644
--- a/GLMakie/src/screen.jl
+++ b/GLMakie/src/screen.jl
@@ -343,7 +343,8 @@ function singleton_screen(debugging::Bool)
     if !isempty(SINGLETON_SCREEN)
         @debug("reusing singleton screen")
         screen = SINGLETON_SCREEN[1]
-        close(screen; reuse=false)
+        stop_renderloop!(screen; close_after_renderloop=false)
+        empty!(screen)
     else
         @debug("new singleton screen")
         # reuse=false, because we "manually" re-use the singleton screen!
@@ -885,8 +886,6 @@ function stop_renderloop!(screen::Screen; close_after_renderloop=screen.close_af
     c = screen.close_after_renderloop
     screen.close_after_renderloop = close_after_renderloop
     screen.stop_renderloop = true
-    screen.close_after_renderloop = c
-
     # stop_renderloop! may be called inside renderloop as part of close
     # in which case we should not wait for the task to finish (deadlock)
     if Base.current_task() != screen.rendertask
@@ -895,6 +894,7 @@ function stop_renderloop!(screen::Screen; close_after_renderloop=screen.close_af
         screen.rendertask = nothing
     end
     # else, we can't do that much in the rendertask itself
+    screen.close_after_renderloop = c
     return
 end