Your Mac forgets where the windows were when you plug in a monitor

Updated October 2026

You take your MacBook somewhere else, come back, plug into the monitor or the dock, and every window stays on the laptop screen or lands on the wrong display. Dragging them back by hand every day is the usual fix.

Why it happens

macOS keeps a window on a display only while that display is connected. When you unplug, it moves everything to the built-in screen, and when you plug back in it does not remember which window was where. After a restart, or with two monitors of the same model, macOS can also change which display it treats as first, and windows end up on the wrong one.

What you can try in macOS

• In System Settings, Displays, drag the displays to match your desk and choose the main display, so the menu bar and new windows appear where you expect.
• Use the same ports and the same dock each time.
• Assign apps to desktops from the Dock (right-click, Options) if an app only belongs on one desktop.

This keeps the setup steady, but macOS still won't restore the size and position of each window.

How Cue fixes it

• Save your layout once as a scene with ⌥⌘S: which app, on which screen, at which size and position.
• Plug in and press ⌥⌘1. Cue moves and resizes every window to where it was.
• Make it automatic: a rule applies the scene the moment your monitors connect.
• Different desks, different scenes. Keep one for the office and one for home, up to nine on the keyboard.
• Cue knows each monitor by its model and serial number, so a layout made for your monitors goes back to the same monitors, even after a restart.

Cue for Mac

One keystroke. Every window in place, across all your displays.

Try free for 7 daysBuy Pro for $8

Every feature for 7 days, then $8 once. macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel.

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