Stay not restoring your windows?

Stay, from Cordless Dog, is free on the Mac App Store. You store window positions for each display combination and it can restore them as displays connect and disconnect. If it has stopped working for you, try these steps.

How do they compare?

What should you try first?

1. In System Settings, Privacy and Security, Accessibility, remove Stay, add it back and turn it on. 2. Make sure automatic restore on display changes is enabled in Stay. 3. With the displays you use connected, arrange your windows and store them again, because Stay keeps one set per display combination and restores the set as it was last stored. 4. Check you are on macOS 14.6 or later, which Stay 1.5.1 requires.

What does Stay not do?

Stay restores the positions you stored. If you rearranged windows after storing, the old positions come back. Its App Store page does not list relaunching closed apps, Spaces, or browser tabs.

What is the alternative?

SnapState saves a named workspace with windows on every Space, the apps to relaunch, full screen windows and all open browser tabs, and can restore it automatically on wake or monitor connect. See the full Stay alternative comparison.

See SnapState restore a workspace

The 40 second demo shows a workspace saved from the menu bar and restored with one click: apps relaunch and windows return to their displays, positions and sizes.

What are SnapState's honest limits?

SnapState is not a tiling or snapping tool. It does not save tab groups, history or form data, Firefox is not supported, and it does not change the display arrangement, menu bar or Dock. It needs Accessibility permission, and Automation permission for browser tabs. See SnapState.

Frequently asked questions