Mac windows move when you unplug a monitor? How to restore window positions automatically

You dock your MacBook, spend ten minutes arranging windows across two screens, close the lid for a meeting, and come back to every window heaped on one display. Your Mac will not put them back. What is happening, and how to make the arrangement return by itself.

What your Mac actually does

Your Mac rescues the windows, then forgets them. When a display disconnects it moves every window that lived there onto a remaining screen, which is sensible; a window nobody can see is worse. When the display comes back, it does nothing. There is no memory of where those windows were, so they stay where they were dumped, usually overlapping in a heap on the laptop screen, and you rebuild the arrangement by hand. Every time.

Dock and undock once a day and that is a few minutes a day, forever, on the same drag-and-resize routine.

The manual workaround

Save the arrangement once, press a shortcut after you plug back in. WonderSnap (often searched as "Wonder Snap") has that too, and it is worth having (see Saved arrangements below), but you have to remember to press the key. The better fix is not having to.

The automatic fix: Auto-Restore per Display

One menu-bar toggle, on by default, and your layout comes back by itself. "Auto-Restore per Display" remembers the arrangement of your windows for each monitor combination you use: laptop only, laptop plus the office display, laptop plus the display at home. It tracks how you leave things. Nothing to configure, nothing to save by hand.

When a combination returns, WonderSnap restores that arrangement automatically. Unplug, work on the laptop screen for an hour, plug back in: your last docked arrangement comes back on its own. Apps that were not running at the time stay in the remembered arrangement, so a later restore still knows where their windows go. Unplugging never rearranges the screen you still have; the restore happens when a display comes back.

Setting it up

1. Download WonderSnap, drag it to Applications and open it. Menu bar only, no Dock icon.
2. Grant Accessibility when the onboarding asks. Your Mac requires this permission for any app that moves or resizes other apps' windows. WonderSnap never reads your screen content or keystrokes; windows only move when you ask.
3. That is it. Auto-Restore per Display is on by default: arrange your windows on the docked setup and go on with your day.

Requirements: macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. WonderSnap is a native menu-bar app.

Saved arrangements, for the setups you name

For layouts you want on demand, not on reconnect. Menu bar > "Save Window Arrangement…" snapshots which windows sit where across all displays, including their stacking order. Restore from menu bar > "Restore Arrangement", or press ⌃⌥⇧1, ⌃⌥⇧2 or ⌃⌥⇧3 for the first three. Windows deal back into place one by one, and the stacking order is re-asserted.

Manage them in Settings > Arrangements: rename, update in place, reorder (the order defines the ⌃⌥⇧ slots) or delete. Each row shows how many of its windows can be matched right now.

One honest limitation

Two windows of the same app with identical titles can swap places. The Mac gives no stable identity to a window across an app relaunch, so any restore, WonderSnap's included, matches best-effort: by app first, then by window title, then by position. That is the one case it cannot resolve. Everything else lands where you left it.

While you are at it

WonderSnap is a full window manager, so building the arrangement is faster too: click and hold a title bar for a snap menu, press ⌃⌥Space for a layout picker that fills every zone, and let Snap Assist offer your other windows after you dock one. Free for 7 days, no account and no card.

Questions

Why do my Mac windows all move to one screen when I unplug my monitor?

When a display disconnects, your Mac moves every window that was on it onto a remaining screen so nothing is left invisible. It keeps no memory of where they were, so when the display reconnects nothing goes back.

Does a Mac have a setting to remember window positions per display?

No. macOS Sequoia and later add tiling, but there is no built-in memory of window arrangements per monitor configuration. WonderSnap's Auto-Restore per Display fills that gap and is on by default.

Do I have to save anything for Auto-Restore per Display to work?

No. It tracks how you leave your windows for each monitor combination and restores the last arrangement when that combination returns. Saved arrangements (⌃⌥⇧1/2/3) are the separate, on-demand feature for setups you name yourself.

Does it work with two external monitors, or a monitor at home and another at the office?

Yes. Each combination of connected displays is remembered separately, so laptop-only, laptop plus the office display and laptop plus the home display each get their own arrangement.

What permission does WonderSnap need?

Accessibility, which your Mac requires for any app that moves other apps' windows. Screen Recording is optional and only enables live window thumbnails elsewhere in the app; Auto-Restore does not need it.