Switch Between Windows of the Same App on Mac

Everyone knows Cmd+Tab, and everyone eventually hits its limit: it switches apps, not windows. If you have four Safari windows, Cmd+Tab takes you to whichever one was in front last — and no further. The missing shortcut is Cmd+` (backtick), which cycles through the windows of the app you're in.

Cmd+` — the window cycler

With any app in front, press Cmd+` — the backtick key, directly above Tab on a US keyboard — and focus moves to the app's next window. Keep pressing to cycle through them all. Cmd+Shift+` cycles in the opposite direction, which matters once an app has more than two or three windows.

Two things to know about how it cycles:

• Minimized windows are skipped. A window sitting in the Dock never comes up in the Cmd+` rotation. If windows keep “disappearing” from the cycle, check the right end of your Dock — or stop minimizing and just switch away instead.
• Full-screen windows live on their own Spaces, so they don't cycle with the app's normal windows either. The Window menu (below) still reaches them.

The combo pairs naturally with Cmd+Tab: Tab between apps, backtick between windows. Between them you can reach any window on the Mac without touching the mouse. A typical round trip: Cmd+Tab to Safari, Cmd+` twice to reach the window with your research tabs, Cmd+Tab back to your document. After a day or two it stops being a shortcut and becomes how you move.

Also worth knowing: if an app is hidden (Cmd+H), switching to it with Cmd+Tab brings its windows back automatically — hiding plays much nicer with keyboard switching than minimizing does.

Change the shortcut if backtick is awkward

On some non-US layouts the backtick key sits somewhere inconvenient, and macOS quietly adjusts the shortcut to whatever key occupies that physical position. If it's not working or you want a different combo:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts…
2. Select Keyboard in the sidebar.
3. Double-click the key column next to Move focus to next window and press your preferred combo.

To undo, return to the same pane and click Restore Defaults — it resets every shortcut in the pane, so re-apply any other customizations afterwards.

See every window at once: App Exposé

Cycling is fast for two or three windows; for six, seeing them all beats cycling blind. App Exposé spreads out every window of the current app:

• Press Ctrl+Down.
• Or swipe down with three fingers on the trackpad — enable it under System Settings → Trackpad → More Gestures → App Exposé if it's off.
• Or, from the Dock: click and hold an app's icon, or two-finger tap it, and choose Show All Windows.

App Exposé also shows minimized windows in a row along the bottom — the ones Cmd+` can't reach. Click any thumbnail to jump to it, or arrow between thumbnails and press Return to stay on the keyboard.

The last resort that always works: every Mac app has a Window menu in the menu bar listing all of its windows by name, with a checkmark next to the active one and a diamond next to minimized ones. When a window has truly gone missing — wrong desktop, hidden behind others, minimized weeks ago — the Window menu finds it.

Too many windows in the first place?

If the real problem is window sprawl, macOS can group every window by app inside Mission Control — see group windows by app on Mac — and merging a pile of Finder or Safari windows into tabs takes one menu command.