Restore Your Mac Window Layout After Closing or Unplugging Your Laptop

The Daily Reset

You work at a desk with an external monitor. Every morning you open your laptop, launch your apps, and spend a few minutes putting everything back: editor on the main display, browser on the right, terminal off to the side, Slack tucked in a corner.

Then you unplug for a meeting, or close the lid to work from the couch, or reboot for an update. When you come back, the layout is gone and you rebuild it again.

That is a wasted few minutes at the start of every single work session, multiplied by every context switch in between.

What Happens When macOS Re-Fits Your Windows

Unlike the snap-first tools, macOS has no reliable "restore my exact layout" feature. What it does:

• Closes the lid: macOS parks windows wherever wake-up allows, often re-fitting the external-display windows onto the built-in screen.
• Unplugs a monitor: windows from that display get pushed onto the remaining screen and do not return when the display comes back.
• Restarts: apps relaunch but positions are not remembered, so windows stack or scatter.

The result is the same: you manually drag everything back into place.

The One-Time Save That Ends the Rebuild

Instead of arranging windows every session, arrange them once and let an app remember. This is the core idea behind workspace managers.

Snapback saves a complete snapshot: which apps are open, where each window sits, and which display it belongs to. Restoring it is one shortcut.

How to set it up

1. Connect your usual displays and arrange every window the way you want them.
2. Open Snapback from the menu bar and save the arrangement as a named workspace, like "Desk Setup."
3. Assign a keyboard shortcut for one-keystroke restoration.

Now you have a saved layout you can bring back any time.

What restore does

• Every window goes back to its saved position.
• Closed apps are reopened automatically.
• Windows return to their assigned displays, so an external monitor setup comes back whole.

The Scenarios It Covers

Close and reopen your laptop

Work on the built-in display after closing the lid, then come back to your desk. Hit your restore shortcut and the full desk arrangement returns to the right displays.

Unplug and re-plug an external monitor

Windows saved on a display that is disconnected are skipped so nothing piles up on your laptop screen. Reconnect the monitor and your restore puts windows back where they belong.

Reboot after an update

Restart your Mac and restore your workspace right after login. Apps reopen into their saved positions, no manual rearrange.

Dock and undock across locations

Many people work from multiple setups: a two-monitor office desk, a single-monitor home desk, and laptop-only on the couch. Create a named workspace for each. Snapback switches between them instantly and adapts to whatever displays are connected.

Why Other Window Managers Do Not Do This

Rectangle and Magnet are great at snapping windows that are open. But they do not save your layout across a close, a restart, or a monitor change. That memory is what separates a workspace manager from a window snapper.

Try It for Free

Snapback is free, so there is no reason not to test the workflow. Save one layout, close your laptop, reopen it, and hit your shortcut. If your workspace comes back exactly as you left it, you never have to rebuild it again.

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Download Snapback from the homepage or read the multi-display guide for display-specific scenarios.