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Multiferroics, where (anti-) ferromagnetic, ferroelectric and ferroelastic order parameters coexist^,,,,, enable manipulation of magnetic ordering by an electric field through switching of the electric polarization^,,,. It has been shown that realization of magnetoelectric coupling in a single-phase multiferroic such as BiFeO₃ requires ferroelastic (71^∘, 109^∘) rather than ferroelectric (180^∘) domain switching. However, the control of such ferroelastic switching in a single-phase system has been a significant challenge as elastic interactions tend to destabilize small switched volumes, resulting in subsequent ferroelastic back-switching at zero electric field, and thus the disappearance of non-volatile information storage^,. Guided by our phase-field simulations, here we report an approach to stabilize ferroelastic switching by eliminating the stress-induced instability responsible for back-switching using isolated monodomain BiFeO₃ …