---
title: "Why Mac moves windows when a monitor is unplugged"
description: "When a display disconnects, macOS piles its windows onto the screens that are left and rarely puts them back. Why it happens, what macOS can do, and the fix."
image: "https://getresettle.com/og.png"
source: "https://getresettle.com/mac-windows-move-when-monitor-unplugged"
---

# Why your Mac moves windows when you unplug a monitor

You unplug, and every window lands on the laptop screen. You plug back in, and they stay there. Here is what macOS is doing, the free settings that help, and how to get every window back on its own.

## What macOS does when a display goes away

A window has to be on a screen. When a monitor disconnects, macOS moves its windows onto the displays that are left — usually the laptop — and often shrinks them to fit.

When the monitor comes back, macOS sometimes moves them back. It tends to work when the same monitor returns within a short time. After sleep, a longer break, a different monitor, or a dock that connects displays one at a time, the windows usually stay where macOS put them.

## Why docks and sleep make it worse

A Thunderbolt dock, or a monitor waking up, rarely appears in one step. Displays can connect, drop and reconnect several times in a few seconds. macOS reshuffles windows at every step, so by the time everything is connected the original layout is gone.

## 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 the desktop on the display you want. 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 then reopen their windows where they were the next time you launch them.
3. **Keep one arrangement.** Keep the same monitors in the same positions in **System Settings › Displays › Arrange**. Each new arrangement is one more situation macOS has to guess about.

These help at the edges. None of them puts your open windows back after you unplug and plug back in.

## The fix: a saved layout for every setup

What is missing is a record of where each window belongs on each display setup — the laptop alone, the laptop and one monitor, the desk at the office — and something that puts windows back when that setup returns.

That is what [Resettle](https://getresettle.com/) does. It learns where your windows sit on each setup while you work. When a setup comes back — you plug in, dock, or wake the Mac — it moves every window back. There are no layouts to build first. $14.99, once.

- Two, three or more monitors, including identical models
- The same monitor at home and at work, kept apart
- Full-screen windows, back in full screen on the right display
- Waits for a dock to finish connecting, then puts windows back once
- One click to undo if you would rather it had not

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

## Questions

### Is there a macOS setting that remembers window positions for each monitor?

No. macOS can reopen an app's windows where they were, and it can assign an app to a display. It does not keep a layout for each monitor setup and restore it when you reconnect.

### Why are my windows on the laptop screen after sleep?

External displays can disconnect while the Mac sleeps. By the time they come back, macOS has moved their windows to the laptop, and it does not reliably move them back.

### Is this a problem with my monitor or dock?

Usually not. It is how macOS handles any display disconnecting, whatever the brand. A dock can make it happen more often, because it connects displays in stages.


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