Stage Manager on a Mac: turn it on, use it, turn it off

Stage Manager is a way of arranging windows that you turn on and leave on, rather than a view you open for a moment. It works the same way on macOS 14 Sonoma through macOS 27; macOS 26 renamed one of its settings and moved the menu bar option into Control Center, and both differences are noted below.

Turn it on or off

Apple's Stage Manager guide gives two ways. Either one turns it on when it's off and off when it's on.

1. From Control Center

   Click Control Center in the menu bar, then click Stage Manager.

2. From System Settings

   Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar, go to Desktop & Stage Manager, then turn Stage Manager on or off.

Neither Apple's guide nor its list of Mac keyboard shortcuts gives a key for Stage Manager, so Control Center is the quickest way. To have a Stage Manager button in the menu bar as well:

How it arranges windows

The window you're working with sits in the center of the screen. The apps you used recently line up along the left side, each as a small preview, so the rest of the screen stays clear. In the center you can still move, resize and overlap windows however you like: Stage Manager decides which apps are in the center, and the layout there is yours.

• Hide the strip. Turn off Show recent apps in Stage Manager and the recent apps disappear. Move the pointer to the left edge of the screen to show them for a moment.
• Desktop items. Files on the desktop are hidden while Stage Manager is on, unless you turn on In Stage Manager next to Show Items. When they're hidden, click the desktop to show them.

Switch between apps and windows

Click an app on the left to bring it to the center; the app that was there moves to the strip. ⌘Tab still switches apps as usual, and the app you pick comes to the center.

What you get when an app has several windows depends on Show windows from an application, in Desktop & Stage Manager settings:

• All at Once: all of the app's windows come to the center when you switch to it.
• One at a Time: only the window you used last comes to the center. To get to the app's next window, click the app on the left again.

One at a Time keeps the center tidy, but reaching one particular window of a busy app can take several clicks; All at Once gets you there faster. For the other built-in ways to move between windows, see how to switch between windows on a Mac.

Group apps

A group is a set of apps that come to the center together, such as a browser beside your notes. Apple's steps:

• Add an app to the group: drag it from the left side of the screen into the center.
• Remove an app: drag it from the center to the left side.

When you switch to a group, all the apps in it open in the center together.

Its settings

All of them are in System Settings › Desktop & Dock, under Desktop & Stage Manager (Apple's Desktop & Dock guide).

Widgets have their own In Stage Manager option, next to Show Widgets in the Widgets section.

Stage Manager or Mission Control?

They answer different needs, and many people use neither or both.

• Stage Manager is a mode. It keeps one app, or one group, in front and the others a click away at the side. It suits a laptop screen and a way of working where you focus on one or two apps at a time.
• Mission Control is a view. Press ⌃↑ or swipe up with three fingers, and every window on the current desktop spreads out in one layer, with your other desktops and full-screen apps along the top (Apple's Mission Control guide). It suits finding one window among many by looking. More in how to use Mission Control.
• Desktops (spaces) keep separate sets of windows that you swipe between. Stage Manager doesn't replace them.

If what you really want is two apps side by side on a clean screen, look at window tiling on macOS 15 and later, which places windows in halves and quarters and leaves the rest of your desktop as it is: see how to tile windows on a Mac.