⌘` not working on your Mac? Fixes to try

⌘` switches between the windows of the app in front, the one named in the menu bar. It never goes to another app (that's ⌘Tab), and with only one window open it has nowhere to go. If neither of those explains it, work down this list.

Check the shortcut

⌘` is a macOS system shortcut, so it can be turned off or given other keys like any other. Apple's guide to macOS keyboard shortcuts has the steps:

1. Open Keyboard Shortcuts

   Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click Keyboard in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down), then click Keyboard Shortcuts.

2. Select Keyboard

   Click Keyboard in the list of categories and find Move focus to next window. Its checkbox must be selected.

3. Read the keys

   The keys shown next to it are the ones that work. If they aren't the ones you press, press those instead, or double-click them and record the keys you want. Quit and reopen the apps you're using for a change to take effect.

If a warning icon appears next to the shortcut, Apple's guide to shortcuts that don't work says another app is already using it; see another app took the shortcut. Restore Defaults, at the bottom-left of Keyboard Shortcuts, puts this shortcut back to its original keys, along with every other shortcut you've changed.

Check your keyboard layout

Apple's list of Mac keyboard shortcuts says the second key of ⌘` varies by keyboard; it's generally the key above Tab, left of 1. Not on every keyboard: on a British one the key above Tab types §, and the backtick is next to the left Shift (checked with the British layout in macOS 26.2). On other layouts the key can type a different character altogether, and Apple also notes that shortcuts can vary with the language and keyboard layout you use.

• Read the keys in Keyboard Shortcuts, as above. That's what your Mac expects, whatever the key is labeled.
• Check the input source. Open the Input menu in the menu bar and make sure the layout is the one you meant; Apple's guide for when your Mac doesn't respond to key presses lists the same check. The Keyboard Viewer, in the same menu, shows what each key types.
• Record keys you can reach. If the keys shown are awkward on your keyboard, double-click them and give Move focus to next window a new combination.

Where ` sits on US, British, German, French and other layouts: the backtick key on a Mac.

The other window is minimized or on another Space

Apple describes ⌘` as cycling through the windows in the current app, but doesn't say whether that includes windows in the Dock or on other desktops. If ⌘` runs but never reaches the window you want, check these places:

• The Dock. ⌘M or the yellow button sends a window to the Dock. Click it there to bring it back. If Minimize windows into application icon is on in Desktop & Dock settings, it's inside the app's icon instead.
• Another desktop. Apple's guide to spaces says that when you work in a space, only the windows in that space are shown. Press ⌃← or ⌃→, or swipe left or right with three or four fingers, to move between them.

To see every window of the app at once, press ⌃↓ for App Exposé, or Control-click the app's icon in the Dock and choose Show All Windows, as Apple's guide to seeing all your open windows explains. Then click the one you want.

Full screen

A full-screen app sits in a space of its own: Mission Control shows it as a thumbnail in the Spaces bar along the top, next to your desktops. So a full-screen window is on another Space as far as the rule above goes, whether it's the one you want or the one you're in.

• Go to it: swipe left or right with three or four fingers, or press ⌃↑ for Mission Control and click its thumbnail.
• Take it out of full screen: press ⌃⌘F, or hold the pointer over the green button and choose Exit Full Screen, as in Apple's guide to apps in full screen.

The app uses ⌘` for something else

Every app can have its own shortcuts, and Apple notes that an app's shortcut can clash with a macOS one. If ⌘` works in other apps but not in this one, look through this app's menus for ⌘`. Apple suggests the same: the app menus show the shortcuts that actually apply. Then pick one of these:

• Give the app's command other keys with App Shortcuts: in Keyboard Shortcuts, select App Shortcuts, click the Add button, choose the app, type the menu command exactly as it appears, press new keys and click Done. Apple's guide to shortcuts for apps covers submenus and the ellipsis.
• Move the macOS shortcut to keys the app doesn't use, in Keyboard › Move focus to next window.
• Update the app. Apple's first suggestion when a shortcut is missing in an app is to make sure you have its latest version.

Another app took the shortcut

Some window switchers use ⌘` themselves, in every app. Contexts offers ⌘` for the front app's windows, rcmd's ⌘` cycles an app's windows across Spaces, and Flick takes ⌘` in its ⌘Tab mode (below). While one of them has ⌘`, the keys do what that app says, not what macOS says.

1. Quit the likely app

   Choose its name in the menu bar, then Quit, or use its menu bar icon. For an app with no menu, select it in Activity Monitor, click the Stop button and choose Quit (Apple's steps). Then try ⌘` again.

2. Not sure which one? Log in without login items

   Log out, then hold ⇧ while you click Log In and let go when the Dock appears. Apple's guide to login items says this stops them opening. If ⌘` works now, one of them has it: they're listed in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions (Login Items in macOS 14).

3. Change it in that app

   Give the app's window shortcut other keys in its own settings, or turn that feature off, and ⌘` goes back to macOS.

The same hunt works for any shortcut: how to find a keyboard shortcut conflict on a Mac.

With Flick

In ⌘Tab mode, Flick turns off macOS's ⌘Tab, ⇧⌘Tab and ⌘` while it runs, and gives you its own ⌘`: a list of the front app's windows on every desktop, full-screen and minimized ones included. A quick tap flips to the app's previous window; hold ⌘ and tap ` to move down the list. It's on by default. In the free version, the list shows the app's windows that are among your 5 most recent windows.

That makes Flick one more thing to check. With Switch between the front app's windows turned off in ⌘Tab mode, ⌘` does nothing at all while Flick runs. Turn the switch on in Flick's Settings › Shortcuts, switch Flick to ⌥Tab, or quit Flick, and you have a working ⌘` again. In the default ⌥Tab mode, Flick leaves ⌘` to macOS; its own version is ⌥`, off until you turn it on.

If another app holds the key Flick wants, Flick says so in its menu bar menu and at the top of Settings › Shortcuts, as “⌘` is in use by another app”. Every case is in ⌘` or ⌥` does nothing in Flick.

See the front app's windows in Flick