How to move a window to another display on a Mac

Everything here is built into macOS and works on macOS 14 Sonoma through macOS 27; where a menu changed between versions, the note says so. It assumes your displays extend your desktop. If both screens show the same thing, they're mirrored and there's nowhere to move a window to: see Arrange your displays.

Drag it across

Apple's instruction for moving any window is the plain one: drag it by its title bar to where you want it (Move and arrange app windows). Another display is just further away.

1. Hold the title bar

   Press and hold on the strip across the top of the window. In apps with a toolbar there instead, such as Safari, use an empty part of the toolbar. Apple notes that some windows can't be moved.

2. Drag toward the other display

   Keep dragging past the edge of the screen. The pointer crosses to the other display, and the window comes with it. Which edge leads there is set by the arrangement in Displays settings, not by where the monitors sit on your desk.

3. Let go when it's all the way over

   With Displays have separate Spaces on, which is the default, a window shows on one display at a time, so don't leave it hanging over the edge.

Drag to an outer edge instead, one with no display beyond it, and macOS moves the window to the next desktop rather than the next display, if you have more than one: that's how to move a window to another desktop. Once the window is on the new screen, on macOS 15 and later, Window › Fill (Fn⌃F) makes it fill that display and Window › Center (Fn⌃C) centers it there; window tiling on a Mac has the other layouts.

Use the Window menu

Apple documents a menu command for this in its guide to using an iPad as a second display: in the app, choose Window › Move to (Use your iPad as a second display). Its support article adds another route: hold the pointer over the green button at the top left of the window and choose the option to move it (Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac). On macOS 14 the commands read Move to iPad and Move Window Back to Mac.

With a second display connected by cable, many apps offer the same command for it in the Window menu. Apple's guides describe it only for an iPad, so if an app doesn't have one, drag the window instead.

From the keyboard

Apple's list of Mac keyboard shortcuts has no key that moves a window to another display. Two documented tools get you there without the pointer:

• Reach the menu: press ⌃F2 (or Fn⌃F2) to move focus to the menu bar, press → until Window is highlighted, then Return. Type the start of the command's name to jump to it, and press Return.
• Give it a shortcut: create an app shortcut for the command, as below. Apple's guide to keyboard shortcuts for apps describes the steps on every version.

1. Open App Shortcuts

   Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts, then select App Shortcuts and click the Add button.

2. Pick the apps and the command

   Choose All Applications in the Application menu. In Menu title, type the command exactly as it appears in the Window menu. If it sits in a submenu, type the path with -> between the names.

3. Press your keys

   Click the Keyboard shortcut field, press a combination no other command uses, such as ⌃⌥⌘→, and click Done. Apple notes that a shortcut already taken by another command won't work.

Full screen on another display

An app in full screen takes over the display its window is on, in a space of its own. To watch a video or work full screen on your external display, move the window there first, then make it full screen:

To move an app that's already full screen, take it out first with ⌃⌘F or the green button's Exit Full Screen, move the window, and go full screen again. With Displays have separate Spaces on, your other display carries on with its own desktop meanwhile. Apple's Split View guide adds that two apps side by side on your other displays need that setting turned on.

Where new windows open

macOS has no system-wide setting for which display new windows open on: each app places its own, though you can tie an app to a display. Many apps reopen the windows you had open when you last quit them (Prevent apps and windows from reopening), usually where they were. What you can control:

• Give an app a display. Control-click its icon in the Dock, choose Options, then under Assign To choose Desktop on Display and a number. Apple says the app then opens in the current space on that display (Work in multiple spaces). Assign To appears once you're using two or more spaces.
• Quit with windows where you want them. In apps that reopen their windows, put them on the right display before you press ⌘Q.
• Start fresh. If an app keeps opening a window on a display that's off or gone, hold ⇧ while you open it: Apple says the app then forgets the windows it had open, without changing any settings. A window stranded past the edge has its own fixes in getting back a window that's off screen.

If it's the ⌘Tab app switcher, not a window, that shows up on the screen you aren't looking at, that's a separate question; for Flick's own panel, see which display Flick opens on.

Displays have separate Spaces

This setting, in System Settings › Desktop & Dock under Mission Control, decides whether each display has desktops of its own (Desktop & Dock settings). It changes how moving a window behaves:

• On: a window you move to the other display joins the desktop that display is showing. Mission Control opened on that display shows only its windows and spaces, and full screen works per display. Apple's guides for macOS 15 and later add that the Dock is available on every display.
• Off: your displays share one set of desktops, so a window can sit across both screens, but Split View on your other displays and Stage Manager stop working.

Changing it takes effect after you log out and back in. The full picture is in Displays have separate Spaces, explained.

Arrange your displays

Windows cross where your displays meet in Displays settings. If dragging right doesn't reach the monitor on your right, the arrangement doesn't match your desk.

1. Open Displays settings

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

2. Click Arrange

   It appears only while an external display is connected (Displays settings).

3. Drag the displays into place

   Put each display where it sits on your desk, at the same height. Here you can also move the menu bar to another display to make it your main one.

If the screens mirror each other, click the external display's name in Displays settings and use the Use as menu to extend your desktop instead (Extend or mirror your desktop); ⌘ with Brightness Down also turns mirroring on or off. If a display you connected doesn't appear at all, hold ⌥ in Displays settings and click Detect Displays (Connect an external display).

With Flick

Flick, the window switcher we make, doesn't move windows between displays. It keeps one list for all of them: hold ⌥ and tap Tab, and the windows on every display and every desktop are there. Pick one and let go, and it comes to the front on the display where it is.

Two settings help with several screens. Move pointer to the window after switching, in Flick's Settings › General under Multiple displays, sends the pointer to the middle of the window you picked when it's on a different display from the pointer, so you can drag or click there straight away. It's off by default. Show switcher on, in Settings › Appearance, opens the panel on Display with the pointer (the default) or Display with the active window, the one showing most of the window you were just using. The free version switches between your 5 most recent windows; a license lists every window.

Set up Flick for more than one display