How to get back a window that's off screen on a Mac

A window can end up past the edge of your screen after you unplug a display, change your display arrangement, or reopen an app that remembers where its windows were. You can't drag it back when you can't reach its title bar, but you don't need to: the Window menu can move the active window for you. If you aren't sure whether the window is off screen, minimized or on another Desktop, start with how to find a lost window.

Make it the active window

The commands below act on the active window, the front window of the app whose name is in bold in the menu bar. So first bring that app forward: click its icon in the Dock, or press ⌘Tab until it's selected and let go.

If the app has more than one window, open its Window menu. The bottom of the menu lists the app's open windows, with a checkmark next to the active one; choose the window you can't see. Pressing ⌘` also moves through the front app's open windows, one at a time.

Center it

On macOS 15 Sequoia or later, choose Window › Center. Apple describes it as centering the active window on the desktop, which brings a window that's partly or wholly past an edge back into the middle of your screen. The keyboard shortcut works too, and you don't need to see the window to use it.

On Apple keyboards, the Fn key may be labelled with a globe. On a keyboard without either key, use the Window menu instead. Left, Right and the other layouts are in Window › Move & Resize, and window tiling on Mac covers them all.

Fill or zoom it

If Center isn't enough, for example because the window is bigger than your screen, choose Window › Fill (Fn-⌃F) on macOS 15 or later. The window grows to fill the desktop, and you can then drag any edge to make it smaller.

Window › Zoom is in the Window menu of most apps on every version of macOS. It switches the window between the size you gave it and a size the app chooses, which in many apps fills the screen, so it often brings the window back into view. If it doesn't, choose Zoom again to switch back. Zoom isn't full screen: the window stays on your desktop, as full screen vs maximize explains.

Move it to a display you can see

A window can also be “off screen” because it's on a display you aren't looking at: a monitor that's switched off but still connected, a TV, or an iPad used as a second display. Centering it may only move it to the middle of that display.

Many apps also have a Move to item in the Window menu. Apple documents it for an iPad used as a display: Window › Move to (on macOS 14, Move to iPad and Move Window Back to Mac). For other ways to send a window across, see how to move a window to another monitor.

Change the display arrangement or resolution

1. Open Displays settings

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

2. Check which displays your Mac is using

   With an external display connected, Arrange shows where macOS thinks each display sits. This is where you spot a display you'd forgotten about, or one placed on a different side than it sits on your desk. Drag the displays to match your desk.

3. Try another resolution

   Switching to a different Resolution makes macOS lay windows out again for the new screen size, which can pull a stray window back in. Choose Default again afterwards.

Reconnect the display

When you unplug a display, macOS moves its windows to the displays that are left. If a window still ends up out of reach, for example because an app put it back where it was on a display that's gone, plug that display back in, move the window to your main display with a drag, or with Window › Move to in apps that have it, then disconnect again.

If your Mac doesn't notice a display you just connected, open Displays settings, hold ⌥ so the Detect Displays button appears in place of Night Shift, and click it. Apple's other suggestions: unplug the display and plug it back in, check the cable and the port, or put your Mac to sleep and wake it.

Open the app without its old windows

Apps reopen the windows you had open when you last quit them, and many put them back where they were. If a window keeps coming back off screen, quit the app with ⌘Q, then hold ⇧ while you open it again. Apple says this doesn't change any settings, but the app forgets the windows that were open the last time you quit it.

Use this one last in a browser or any app where a window holds work you want to keep: you may lose those windows, tabs included. To stop every app reopening its windows, turn on Close windows when quitting an application in System Settings › Desktop & Dock › Windows.

On macOS 14

Window tiling, with Center, Fill and the Fn-⌃ shortcuts, arrived in macOS 15 Sequoia. On macOS 14 Sonoma, use Window › Zoom: Sonoma's Desktop & Dock settings describe Zoom as expanding a window to fill the space between the Dock and the menu bar. Holding ⌥ while you click the green button maximizes a window too, but only a window whose button you can reach. Moving the window to another display, the Displays settings steps and opening the app with ⇧ held work the same on every version. On macOS 15, 26 and 27, Apple documents the same menu items and shortcuts.