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

Why Command-Tab doesn't do it

Windows and Linux switchers list windows. The Mac switcher lists apps. Five Chrome windows are one icon in ⌘Tab, and choosing it brings back whichever Chrome window you used last. To reach the others you need one of the methods below.

1. Command-backtick

⌘</kbd> moves to the next window of the front app. <kbd>⌘</kbd><kbd>⇧</kbd><kbd> goes backwards. It works in almost every app: browsers, Finder, Terminal, editors, Office.

Two things to know:

• Minimized windows are skipped. Bring those back from the Dock or with App Exposé (below).
• The key moves on other keyboard layouts. On many non-US keyboards the backtick sits next to the left Shift key or needs a dead key. If the shortcut does nothing, open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Keyboard and look at Move focus to next window. You can set it to any key you like there.

2. From the app switcher

Hold ⌘, press Tab until the app is highlighted, then press ↓ (or ↑) while still holding Command. The app's windows spread out across the screen. Let go of Command, pick a window with the arrow keys and press Return.

3. App Exposé

App Exposé shows every window of the current app at once, with minimized ones along the bottom.

• Keyboard: ⌃↓ (Control and the down arrow).
• Trackpad: turn on App Exposé in System Settings → Trackpad → More Gestures, then swipe down with three or four fingers.
• Dock: right-click the app's icon and choose Show All Windows.

Click a window to bring it forward. App Exposé is the best option when you have more than three or four windows of one app and can't remember which is which.

4. The Window menu and the Dock menu

Most apps list their open windows by name at the bottom of the Window menu. Right-clicking an app's Dock icon lists them too. Slower than a shortcut, but handy when windows have clear titles, such as documents.

5. A window switcher

If you want ⌘Tab to show windows like Windows does, install AltTab, a free, open-source switcher with thumbnails of every window. It uses ⌥Tab by default and can replace ⌘Tab in its settings. There's more on that in Alt-Tab on a Mac.

Or stop windows hiding behind each other

All of the above are ways to dig out a window that's covered by another. A scrolling window manager takes a different route: each window gets its own column on one long strip, so nothing sits on top of anything else. Two Chrome windows are simply two columns, and you move between them with the same keys you use for every other window.

In Ribbon, ⌃⌥← and ⌃⌥→ move focus to the neighbouring window whatever app it belongs to, and ⌃⌥1–9 jump straight to a window by its position. The strip indicator shows an icon for every window, so you can see which column is which. You can drive the strip in the live demo to see whether it suits you; Ribbon is a one-time $9.99 for macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon.