How to switch between windows of the same app on a Mac

⌘Tab takes you to an app, not to one of its windows, so with three Safari or Preview windows open you need a second step. macOS has one built in, and it's quick once your fingers know it.

Use ⌘` and ⇧⌘`

Apple's list of Mac keyboard shortcuts gives both keys. They act on the front app, the one whose name is in the menu bar.

With two windows, ⌘` flips between them. With more, there's no list on screen: press ⌘` until the window you want is in front, and ⇧⌘` if you go one too far. To reach a window in another app, press ⌘Tab to get to the app first, then ⌘`. If your fingers want one shortcut for both steps, every built-in way to switch windows compares the options.

Change the shortcut

⌘` is the system shortcut Move focus to next window, so you can give it other keys, or turn it off, in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Keyboard. The steps, and what to check when the new keys don't work, are in checking the ⌘` shortcut.

When your window doesn't come up

Apple doesn't say whether ⌘` reaches windows on other desktops, in full screen or in the Dock, so when it skips the one you want, look there; where the other window might be goes through each place, and how to find a lost window covers one that seems to have vanished.

The visual way: App Exposé

App Exposé spreads out the front app's open windows so you can tell them apart by what's in them rather than by their titles. From Apple's Mission Control guide:

• Keyboard: press ⌃↓, then click the window you want. Press ⌃↓ again to leave without picking one.
• Trackpad: turn on App Exposé in System Settings › Trackpad, then swipe down with three or four fingers. Swipe up to leave.
• Dock: Control-click the app's icon and choose Show All Windows. This works for any app, not just the front one (See all your open windows on Mac).

It's the better choice when an app has many windows with similar names, such as several Preview documents or browser windows. The trade-off is speed: it takes a look and a click where ⌘` takes a keystroke. More on it in how to use App Exposé.

The Window menu and the Dock

Two pointer-based ways list the app's windows by name, which helps when you know the title but not what the window looks like:

• The Window menu. Most apps list their open windows at the bottom of the Window menu in the menu bar, as Apple's guidelines for the menu bar ask them to. Choose one to bring it forward.
• The Dock. Control-click (or right-click) the app's icon. Its menu lists the app's open windows; choose one to go straight to it.

On non-US keyboards

The second key of the shortcut varies by keyboard: Apple says it's generally the key above Tab, to the left of 1, so on your layout it may type something other than `. Where to find it on yours: the backtick key on a Mac.

With Flick

Flick adds a list to this shortcut: every window of the app you're in, on every desktop, full-screen and minimized ones included, searchable by typing. It's ⌘` if you switch with Flick's ⌘Tab trigger, and ⌥`, off until you turn it on, with the default ⌥Tab, so macOS keeps its own ⌘`. A quick tap flips to the app's previous window; hold and tap ` to pick from the list. Every key is in the help article.

See the front app's windows in Flick