App Exposé: see every window of one app on a Mac

App Exposé is Mission Control for a single app. Mission Control shows the windows of every app on your desktop; App Exposé shows only one app's, which helps when an app has several windows with similar names, such as a stack of Preview documents or browser windows. Apple's guides for macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27 describe it the same way.

Open it

Those keys are from Apple's list of Mac keyboard shortcuts. There are four more ways in:

• Trackpad: swipe down with three or four fingers, if App Exposé is turned on in Trackpad settings (see below). Swipe up to go back.
• The Dock: Control-click the app's icon, or click and hold it, and choose Show All Windows. On a trackpad with Force Touch, you can Force click the icon instead (Apple's Force Click guide).
• A hot corner: in System Settings › Desktop & Dock, click Hot Corners… and set a corner to Application Windows.
• A mouse button: in System Settings › Desktop & Dock, click Shortcuts…. Depending on your mouse, Application windows has a second pop-up menu for a mouse button.

Click a window to bring it to the front and leave App Exposé.

What it shows

The open windows of one app, spread out so you can see each one and pick it by what's in it. Which app depends on how you opened it:

• ⌃↓, the swipe, a hot corner or a mouse button use the front app, the one whose name is in the menu bar.
• The Dock uses the app whose icon you chose, so you can see an app's windows without switching to it first.

To see every app's windows at once, use Mission Control (⌃↑) instead. With Group windows by application turned on in Desktop & Dock settings, under Mission Control, Apple says Mission Control organizes the windows by app.

For every way to bring back a window you minimized, see restore a minimized window.

Move between apps

Once App Exposé is open, press Tab to browse the windows of your other apps. Apple's “What's it called on my Mac?” guide gives this tip with Show All Windows in the Dock. Click a window to go to it.

To go straight to one particular app's windows, you don't need to browse:

• Leave App Exposé, switch to the app with ⌘Tab, then press ⌃↓.
• Or choose Show All Windows from that app's icon in the Dock.

Turn on the gesture

Apple's Mission Control guide says the swipe down works only if App Exposé is turned on in Trackpad settings. To check it:

1. Open Trackpad settings

   Choose Apple menu › System Settings, then click Trackpad in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.

2. Click More Gestures

   It's next to Point & Click and Scroll & Zoom.

3. Choose a gesture for App Exposé

   Click the pop-up menu next to App Exposé and choose Swipe Down with Three Fingers or Swipe Down with Four Fingers.

Mission Control, on the same page, sets the swipe up. Apple's list of Multi-Touch gestures notes that some versions of macOS use three fingers where others use four, so go by what your settings show.

The Magic Mouse has no App Exposé gesture in that list. With a mouse, use ⌃↓, the Dock, a hot corner or a mouse button.

App Exposé isn't working

• ⌃↓ does nothing. Open System Settings › Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts…, and choose Mission Control. Make sure Application windows is selected and check its keys. A warning icon next to it means another shortcut uses the same keys; Apple's fix is to double-click one and press new keys. See keyboard shortcut conflicts for more.
• The swipe does nothing. Check that App Exposé isn't set to Off in Trackpad › More Gestures, and use the number of fingers it shows. If you can't find Trackpad settings at all, Apple notes they appear only on a Mac with a built-in trackpad or while a wireless trackpad is connected.
• Force click on the Dock does nothing. It needs a trackpad with Force Touch and Force Click and haptic feedback turned on in Trackpad › Point & Click. Apple trackpads without Force Touch have a mechanical click instead; Control-click and Show All Windows work on any trackpad or mouse.
• It shows the wrong app's windows. ⌃↓ and the swipe use the app named in the menu bar. If you clicked the desktop, that's Finder. Use the Dock icon of the app you want instead.

App Exposé shares its settings with Mission Control. If none of the above helps, Mission Control not working goes through the rest, ending with logging out and restarting.

With Flick

Flick is a window switcher, and its front app's windows are a list version of App Exposé. It shows every window of the app you're in by name, under a header such as “Safari · 4 windows”, most recent first, with windows on other desktops, in full screen and minimized ones included.

With Flick's ⌘Tab trigger, it's on ⌘` from the start and replaces the macOS ⌘` while Flick runs. With the default ⌥Tab trigger, it's ⌥`, off until you turn on Switch between the front app's windows in Flick's Settings › Shortcuts › Front App's Windows, because on many keyboard layouts ⌥` types accents. Tap the keys to flip to the app's previous window, or hold the modifier and tap ` to move down the list, type to search just that app's windows, and let go to switch. Turn it on and learn the keys.

It shows no previews, so App Exposé is still the way to tell windows apart by what's in them. Flick doesn't change ⌃↓ or the gestures, so you can use both. In the free version, the list shows the app's windows that are among your 5 most recent; a license unlocks every window. Flick vs Mission Control compares them side by side.

See the front app's windows in Flick