Cmd-Tab not working on Mac? Fixes for every kind of "broken"

When Cmd-Tab stops behaving, it's almost never one problem. Sometimes the switcher is genuinely frozen — you press the keys and nothing appears. More often it's doing exactly what Apple designed it to do, just not what you expected: it skips your minimized window, or it switches apps when you wanted a specific window. The fix depends on which one you've got, so this guide is split by symptom.

Everything below is current for macOS Tahoe (macOS 26), and most of it applies to Sonoma and Sequoia too.

First, figure out which "not working" you have

No switcher appears at all — you hold Cmd-Tab and the row of app icons never shows up, or it's frozen. That's a genuine glitch. Jump to the frozen-switcher fixes.
The switcher works but skips a window — it appears, but the app you want isn't there, or picking it doesn't restore the window you had in mind. That's usually a minimized window. See reaching minimized windows.
It switches the wrong thing — it flips between apps fine, but you wanted to move between two windows of the same app. That's Cmd-Tab working as designed. See apps vs windows.

Fix a frozen or unresponsive Cmd-Tab

If the switcher won't show up at all, it's almost always the Dock — the App Switcher is drawn by the Dock process, and when the Dock hangs, Cmd-Tab hangs with it.

Restart the Dock. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and run:
```
killall Dock
```
The Dock vanishes for a second and relaunches. This keeps all your Dock settings — it just restarts the process. Try Cmd-Tab again; this resolves the frozen switcher the large majority of the time. (Prefer no Terminal? Open Activity Monitor, select Dock, and click the stop button to force it to relaunch.)
Restart your Mac. If the Dock restart didn't stick, a full reboot clears whatever background state was interfering. Unglamorous, but it works.
Find the app that's hijacking the shortcut. Some apps grab the Command key or the Cmd-Tab combo even when you're not using them — screen-sharing and remote-desktop tools are common culprits, as are third-party window switchers you installed and forgot about. Quit suspects one at a time. To confirm it's third-party software at all, boot into Safe Mode (hold Shift on Intel at startup, or hold the power button → Options → hold Shift on Apple silicon) and test Cmd-Tab there — if it works in Safe Mode, a login item or background app is the cause.
Rule out the keyboard. On an external or Windows-layout keyboard, the physical Alt key maps to Option and Win maps to Command, so your muscle-memory chord may be pressing the wrong modifier. Check and remap in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Modifier Keys (pick the specific keyboard from the dropdown). A stuck or flaky modifier key will also break the combo — test Cmd-Tab on the built-in keyboard to isolate it.

Make Cmd-Tab reach minimized and hidden windows

This one isn't a bug. Cmd-Tab deliberately ignores minimized windows — Apple's assumption is that minimizing means "out of sight, out of mind." So if the app you switch to has only minimized windows, nothing comes forward.

Two ways around it, without letting go of the keys:

The Option trick: hold Cmd-Tab, press Tab until your app is highlighted, then — still holding Command — press and hold Option and release everything. The app's minimized window comes to the front.
The Exposé trick: hold Cmd-Tab to your app, then (still holding Command) tap the up or down arrow. That drops you into App Exposé showing every window for that app, including minimized ones. Arrow to the one you want and press Return.

Cmd-Tab switches apps, not windows

If Cmd-Tab flips between apps perfectly but you wanted to move between two windows of the same app, it's working exactly as built. Cmd-Tab is an app switcher — one icon per app — and it brings that app's most recent window forward.

The built-in tool for windows is Command-backtick (⌘`), which cycles the windows of the front app on your current Space. Two catches worth knowing:

⌘` has no preview — it just flips windows blind, so on a busy app you're guessing.
⌘` sometimes stalls right after Cmd-Tab and won't respond until you open and close Mission Control (Control-Up) once to reset it. This is a long-standing quirk, not something you broke.

The honest gap: macOS has no single built-in key that moves you to the exact window you want, newest first, across apps. Cmd-Tab does apps; ⌘` does one app's windows. Nothing does most-recently-used windows across everything.

It jumps to another Space or desktop

If Cmd-Tab yanks you to a different desktop when you pick an app, that's the Spaces behavior. Toggle System Settings → Desktop & Dock → "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows" to control it. Turn it off to stay put; turn it on if you'd rather follow the app. (More on this in our Spaces and virtual desktops guide.)

Quick reference

Symptom	Most likely cause	Fix
No switcher appears / frozen	Dock process hung	`killall Dock`, then restart the Mac
Works, but a window won't come forward	Window is minimized (by design)	Hold Cmd-Tab → app → press Option, or arrow into App Exposé
Switches apps, not same-app windows	Cmd-Tab is an app switcher	Use ⌘`; reset with Mission Control if it stalls
Jumps to another desktop	Spaces switching setting	Toggle it in Desktop & Dock
Nothing at all, even after restart	Interfering app or keyboard	Test in Safe Mode; check Modifier Keys

When it's time to replace the built-in switcher

If you keep hitting these walls — the flaky Dock hang, the blind ⌘`, the skipped minimized window — the deeper problem is that Cmd-Tab was never a window switcher. That's the job of a dedicated tool.

Two honest options. AltTab is free and open source, shows live thumbnails, and switches across Spaces — a great pick if you want maximum configurability. Let's Switch takes the minimal route: hold Option-Tab to flip through your most recently used windows across apps and monitors, each with a live preview, and press Option-backtick to cycle one app's windows — both free, for as long as you like. Its Pro tier adds an Option-Space search palette to fuzzy-find any open window and launch any installed app. It's menu-bar only (no Dock icon), needs no account, is a one-time purchase good on up to 20 devices, and collects no telemetry. Two honest caveats: it stays within your current Space, and it's newer and not open source.

Either way, you stop fighting a shortcut that was built for a different job. For a fuller rundown of replacements, see Cmd-Tab alternatives for Mac.

Frequently asked questions

Does killall Dock delete my Dock settings? No. It only restarts the Dock process; your icons, size, and preferences stay. (The command that does reset everything is defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock — don't run that unless you want a factory-default Dock.)

Why does Cmd-Tab skip my minimized windows? By design. Apple treats minimized windows as out of the way, so the switcher ignores them. Use the Option-release trick or arrow into App Exposé to reach them.

How do I switch between two windows of the same app? Press Command-backtick (⌘`) to cycle the front app's windows on the current Space. See our keyboard window-switching guide for the full set of moves.

My Windows keyboard's Alt-Tab does nothing on the Mac — is that the bug? That's not a bug. On a Mac, Alt maps to Option and the app-switch chord is Command-Tab. See Alt-Tab on Mac for the full translation.