---
title: "Remember window locations by monitor connection on Mac"
description: "Windows 11 has a setting called \"Remember window locations based on monitor connection.\" macOS has no equivalent. What to use instead, and what each app does."
image: "https://getresettle.com/og.png"
source: "https://getresettle.com/mac-remember-window-locations-by-monitor-connection"
---

# The Mac equivalent of "Remember window locations based on monitor connection"

You have typed the name of a Windows 11 checkbox into a Mac. That checkbox does not exist here. macOS ships no setting that remembers a window layout for each monitor setup, and nothing is hidden in System Settings. Here is what macOS does instead, and what the apps do that fill the gap.

## What that Windows setting does, and where macOS stands

On Windows 11 the option sits at **Settings › System › Display › Multiple displays**, and it is called, word for word, "Remember window locations based on monitor connection." Tick it, and Windows puts each window back on the monitor it was on the last time you used that combination of displays.

macOS has no equivalent. There is no checkbox, no hidden preference and no Terminal command that gives a Mac this behaviour. **System Settings › Displays › Arrange** holds where your monitors sit, not where your windows sit.

The question is common enough that competitors write about it. The app Workflo has a section on [its own site](https://getworkflo.app/save-window-layout-mac) titled "The Mac equivalent of 'remember window locations based on monitor connection'" (checked 30 September 2026).

## What macOS does instead when a monitor comes and goes

When a display disconnects, macOS moves its windows onto the screens that are left. When the display returns, it sometimes moves them back and often does not. [Why this happens, in full](https://getresettle.com/mac-windows-move-when-monitor-unplugged).

That is the whole of it. macOS keeps no record of which window belonged to which monitor.

## What you can do with macOS alone

1. **Assign an app to a display.** Right-click the app in the Dock, choose **Options › Assign To**, and pick a desktop. New windows from that app open there. Windows that are already open are not moved.
2. **Let apps reopen their windows.** In **System Settings › Desktop & Dock**, turn off **Close windows when quitting an application**. Apps reopen their windows where they were, as long as your displays are the same as when you quit.
3. **Keep one arrangement.** Keep the same monitors in the same positions in **System Settings › Displays › Arrange**. Every new arrangement is one more situation macOS has to guess about.

None of these remembers a layout per monitor setup. Assign To decides where a window opens, not where it goes back after a display change.

## Apps that give the Mac that setting, in effect

Several Mac apps do the job of that Windows checkbox, in their own way. What separates them is whether you save the layout by hand or the app learns it.

| App | Price | How it remembers | Last updated |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Resettle** | $14.99 once | Learns each display setup as you work | September 2026 (0.8.7) |
| [Stay](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stay/id435410196?mt=12) | Free | You store window positions on command | August 2025 (1.5.1) |
| [Display Maid](https://funk-isoft.com/display-maid.html) | $5.99 | You save window sets per display configuration | October 2023 (3.3.10) |
| [Moom](https://manytricks.com/moom/) | $15 | You build and save layouts | August 2026 (4.6) |
| [Workflo](https://getworkflo.app/) | $19.99 once | Learns each display setup | August 2026 (1.5.4) |
| [Putback](https://putback.app/) | $19 once | Keeps a memory for each display setup | September 2026 (1.3.0) |

Prices and release dates come from each app's own site or App Store listing, checked on 30 September 2026. What each one gets wrong is in [the comparison](https://getresettle.com/compare).

## Where Resettle fits

Resettle is the closest thing to that Windows checkbox on a Mac, and it works the other way round. Windows asks you to switch the feature on. Resettle learns where your windows sit on the setup you are using, and puts them back when that setup returns. There is no checkbox, because there is nothing to switch on.

It is a separate app, not a setting inside macOS. It puts windows back after macOS has moved them; it does not stop the move. $14.99 once, one Mac, with a 14-day refund and no free tier.

- One learned layout per display setup: the laptop alone, the laptop and a monitor, the dock at the office.
- Tells identical monitors apart, and the same model at home and at work.
- Puts windows back after a dock, a wake from sleep or a lid opening, once the displays have settled.
- It never guesses. A window it cannot identify is left alone, and every restore can be undone.

[Get Resettle · $14.99](https://getresettle.com/#pricing)

## Questions

### Is there a hidden macOS setting for this?

No. macOS has no option that remembers window locations per monitor connection, in System Settings or anywhere else. The behaviour people remember from Windows 11 does not exist on the Mac.

### Does Resettle work like the Windows checkbox?

In effect, yes. It keeps a layout for each display setup and restores it when that setup comes back. The difference is that on Windows this is a setting, while Resettle is a separate app that learns the arrangement as you work. There is nothing to tick.

### Windows remembers per connection. Does Resettle?

Yes. Resettle treats each combination of displays as its own setup and keeps a separate layout for it. Plug the same monitor back into the same Mac and that setup's windows return.


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