Where did my window go? Find a lost window on a Mac

A window that disappears is almost never gone: macOS has put it somewhere you aren't looking. Work down the list from the top; the order is a suggestion, not a ranking of how often each one happens. The checks apply to macOS 14 Sonoma through macOS 27; where a setting's name changed, each name is given.

Minimized to the Dock

⌘M or the yellow button at the top left of a window sends it to the Dock, and ⌥⌘M does it to every window of the app at once. A double-click on a title bar can minimize too, if Desktop & Dock settings say so.

• Look at the end of the Dock, near the Trash: each minimized window has a thumbnail there. If Minimize windows into application icon is on in System Settings › Desktop & Dock, it's inside the app's icon instead; Control-click the icon to see its windows.
• Get it back by clicking it, or by choosing it in the app's Window menu, where minimized windows carry a diamond (◆). ⌘Tab won't do it: it brings the app forward and leaves the window in the Dock.
• If windows vanish when you double-click a title bar, change the setting: Double-click a window's title bar to on macOS 14 and 15, Window title bar double-click action on macOS 26 and 27.

Every keyboard route back is in how to restore a minimized window.

The app is hidden

⌘H hides every window of the front app, and ⌥⌘H hides every app except the one you're in. ⌥-clicking the current app's Dock icon hides it as you switch away. Hidden windows don't go to the Dock: the app's icon looks the same as before.

Click the app's Dock icon or switch to it with ⌘Tab, and its windows come back where they were. To bring back every hidden app at once, choose Show All from the menu named after the app you're in. Minimize vs hide explains the difference.

On another desktop or in full screen

If you use more than one desktop, Apple's guide to spaces is plain about it: you see only the windows on the one you're in. An app in full screen, or a pair in Split View, has a space of its own, so its window vanishes from your desktop the moment it goes full screen.

• Look: press ⌃↑ for Mission Control. Your other desktops and full-screen apps are thumbnails along the top; click one to go there. Or press ⌃← and ⌃→ to step through them.
• Jump: switch to the app with ⌘Tab. With When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application on in Desktop & Dock settings, as it is unless you changed it, macOS takes you to a desktop with the app's windows.
• Windows move when desktops go: deleting a desktop moves its windows to another one, and an app assigned to a desktop from its Dock menu (Options › Assign To) opens there.

On another display

With more than one display, the window may be on the one you aren't looking at, including a TV or an iPad used as a second display. Displays settings, under Arrange, shows every display your Mac is using. With Displays have separate Spaces on, Mission Control opened on a display shows only that display's windows, so check each one.

To bring the window over, drag it, or choose Window › Move to in apps that have it: how to move a window to another display has the details.

Off screen

After you unplug a display or change resolution, a window can end up partly or wholly past the edge of the screen. Make it the active window by choosing it in its app's Window menu, then:

More fixes, including the display arrangement and reopening an app without its old windows, are in how to get back a window that's off screen.

Click wallpaper to reveal desktop

If every window slid out of view the moment you clicked the desktop, this is the setting. Since macOS 14 Sonoma, clicking an empty part of the wallpaper can move all windows out of the way to show your desktop items and widgets. Click the wallpaper again and they come back.

To stop it, open System Settings › Desktop & Dock, find the setting under Desktop & Stage Manager, and choose the Stage Manager option, so clicks on the wallpaper move windows only while Stage Manager is on. Its name depends on your version:

The other ways to move windows aside on purpose, and bring them back, are in how to show the desktop.

Stage Manager is on

Stage Manager keeps the app you're using in the middle of the screen and moves the apps you used recently into a strip along the left side (Organize your desktop with Stage Manager). Switch apps and the previous one's windows leave the middle, which can look like they vanished.

• No strip on the left? Show recent apps in Stage Manager is off. Move the pointer to the left edge of the screen to show it.
• Only one of an app's windows shows? Show windows from an application is set to One at a Time. Click the app on the left again to bring its next window, or choose All at Once.
• Turn it off: click Control Center in the menu bar, then Stage Manager.

How it arranges windows, and its other settings, are in Stage Manager on a Mac.

Still gone

• Check the app is running. With Show indicators for open applications on in Desktop & Dock settings, a running app has a dot under its Dock icon. No dot means it quit or crashed; open it again, and if it reopens its windows, yours may come back with them.
• Bring them all forward. Choose Window › Bring All to Front, which brings every window of the app to the front where it is.
• It may be closed. ⌘W closes a window but leaves the app running, so a running app isn't proof the window is still open. In apps that work with documents, File › Open Recent reopens it.
• The app isn't responding. If its windows won't come forward and the pointer spins, press ⌥⌘Esc to force quit it, then open it again. Unsaved changes may be lost.

With Flick

Flick, the window switcher we make, answers “where did it go?” in the list itself. Hold ⌥ and tap Tab, and every window has a row, wherever it is. A small icon at the end of the row says when it's Minimized, Full Screen, in a hidden app (App Hidden) or on Another Desktop. Pick it and let go, and Flick restores it from the Dock, shows its app or takes you to its desktop, then brings it forward.

Don't remember the title? Type part of it, the app's name, or the name of the file or folder the window shows, in apps that report one. To see which window you've selected, set Show where the selected window is to Outline in Flick's Settings › Appearance: the window gets an outline on whichever display it's on while the panel is open. It can't outline a window that isn't on screen, but picking one that's off screen makes it the active window, so Window › Center, or Window › Zoom on macOS 14, then brings it back.

The free version lists your 5 most recent windows, so a window you haven't used for a while may be beyond it; a license lists every window. The outline and its options are in how the window locator works.

How Flick brings back minimized and hidden windows