How to move a window to another desktop on a Mac

Both ways use the pointer: Apple's guides for macOS 14 Sonoma through macOS 27 don't list a keyboard shortcut that moves a window to another desktop. If you want an app to open on the same desktop every time, assign it from the Dock instead. Apple's guides call desktops spaces; the two words mean the same thing.

In Mission Control

This is the most reliable way, because you can see where the window is going. It's the method Apple's guide to working in multiple spaces describes first.

1. Go to the window's desktop

   Mission Control moves windows from the desktop you're on, so start where the window is. Press ⌃← or ⌃→ until you see it.

2. Open Mission Control

   Press ⌃↑ or the Mission Control key, or swipe up on the trackpad. The windows on this desktop spread out, and your other desktops appear as thumbnails in the Spaces bar along the top.

3. Drag the window up

   Drag the window to the top of the screen and drop it on the desktop you want in the Spaces bar.

Need a desktop that doesn't exist yet? Click the Add button in the Spaces bar first, then drag the window onto the new one; you can have up to 16. Drop a window on a full-screen app's thumbnail instead, and the two share the screen in Split View.

With two displays and Displays have separate Spaces turned on, each display has its own desktops, and Mission Control on the second display shows only that display's windows and spaces. More on the Spaces bar in how to use Mission Control.

Drag to the edge of the screen

Apple's guide describes a quicker way that skips Mission Control: drag the window by its title bar to the edge of the screen. After a moment, the window moves to the next space, and you go with it.

1. Drag the window to the edge

   Drag it by its title bar to the left edge to move it to the desktop on the left, or the right edge for the one on the right.

2. Hold it there

   Keep holding the window against the edge. After a moment, macOS moves to the next desktop with the window.

3. Let go

   Drop the window once you're on the desktop you want.

If another display sits beyond that edge, the window crosses onto that display instead, as with any drag between displays. Use an outer edge, or Mission Control.

Assign an app to a desktop

If an app should always live on one desktop, say Mail on the first and a chat app on the third, assign it instead of moving its windows each time. You need two or more desktops for this.

1. Go to the desktop

   Switch to the desktop you want the app on.

2. Open the app's Dock menu

   Control-click the app's icon in the Dock and choose Options. If the app isn't in the Dock, open it first so its icon appears.

3. Choose This Desktop

   Under Assign To, choose This Desktop. From then on, the app opens on this desktop.

The other choices: All Desktops puts the app in every space, handy for a music player or notes you want everywhere; Desktop on Display and a number opens it in the current space on that display; None goes back to opening it wherever you are. Opening an assigned app can take you to its desktop, which looks like your Mac switching desktops by itself: why your Mac keeps switching desktops covers that and the other settings that cause it.

From the keyboard

There's no built-in shortcut for this. Apple's guides for macOS 14 through 27 don't document one, and on macOS 26 Tahoe the Mission Control shortcuts in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts are for going to a desktop, not for sending a window there. What the keyboard can do:

• ⌃⌘F puts the front app in full screen, in apps that support it, which gives its window a space of its own; press it again to leave (Mac keyboard shortcuts).
• ⌃↑ opens Mission Control, so only the drag itself needs the pointer.
• ⌃← and ⌃→, or ⌃1 and up once you turn them on, take you to the window after you've moved it: how to switch desktops.

Window switchers work the other way round: Flick, the one we make, takes you to a window on any desktop without moving it (how Flick handles desktops).

Full-screen windows

A window in full screen, or a pair in Split View, is a space of its own, so there's no desktop to drag it onto. Leave full screen first: hold the pointer over the green button in the window's top-left corner and choose Exit Full Screen, or press ⌃⌘F. In Mission Control, a full-screen app's thumbnail has an Exit button when you hold the pointer over it. Then move the window as above, and go full screen again if you like.

To pair a window with an app that's already in full screen, open Mission Control and drag the window onto that app's thumbnail; the two then share the screen in Split View. On your other displays, Split View needs Displays have separate Spaces turned on. The green button's menu changed in macOS 15: it reads Enter Full Screen on macOS 14, and Full Screen › Entire Screen from macOS 15 on.