Cmd + Tab changes desktop on Mojave

After updating system to Mojave when I use Cmd ⌘ Tab ⇥ shortcut it behaves strangely.

I have opened many Chrome windows on different desktops.
When I have focus for example on Sublime Text, and I had focus before on Chrome, then when I press Cmd ⌘ Tab ⇥ it should switch to the Chrome window that is on the same Desktop that active Sublime is, but it doesn't. It switches to a Chrome window on a different Desktop.

It is very frustrating for me because I need to hide all Chrome windows except one, to avoid this behaviour.

gkucmierz

Posted 2018-11-13T21:32:10.353

Reputation: 591

1Spaces is not designed so you can spread a single app to multiple Spaces. That's the root of your issue & there is no "fix" other than... don't do it that way. Consider switching to specific Spaces rather than using Cmd/tab. – Tetsujin – 2018-11-14T06:40:20.070

6Same problem here after updating to Mojave. I disagree with @Tetsujin as I have different project actively working on different Spaces, and each of them has its own Chrome window and text editor etc. However I found this problem only occurs for Google Chrome, not any other app, Safari doesn't have this "bug", so I wonder if it's not Mojave but Chrome? or both together? – DaxChen – 2018-11-24T06:08:50.737

6Not sure what @Tetsujin is talking about, actually I have been doing this for the last 10 mac os versions and this is entire part of my workflow. This is just a bug of Mojave, not us using it wrongly. – adriendenat – 2018-12-12T11:30:52.867

2I'll try to provide a video of the issue. I don't think this is the normal way Spaces are supposed to work, especially as this is not consistent, this happen only in certain situations. – adriendenat – 2018-12-12T11:44:01.260

@Tetsujin you can see the bug here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdGTtuC-gS4

– adriendenat – 2018-12-12T13:17:41.947

4@Tetsujin Grsmto is absolutely right, and the answer proposed below by aceoak (create new space, cycle through all spaces to drag Chrome windows to new space, then drag them back from the new space) confirms that this is a Mojave bug, not a Chrome one. – Jonathan H – 2018-12-21T12:43:14.120

There are at least 2 bugs filed for this: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=990461 and https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=898055 Please upvote if this issue if affecting you.

– cbare – 2019-09-09T01:44:23.347

1It's not a Mojave bug, I just had it happen on Mojave (which is why I found this post while googling), but I've had it happen occasionally on previous versions of macOS. It's something Chrome is doing differently than every other program I've used on macOS. And it's really annoying.

My slash-and-burn fix has been to move all affected Chrome tabs over to Safari - Chrome can't misbehave when I take away its windows. – CarlRJ – 2019-09-26T17:09:38.063

Answers

I also have this problem. It seems to be more prominent after waking up from sleep.

One temporary fix I use: create a new space in Mission control, drag all the Chrome windows in the "focus-hog" space to the new space (in Mission control, click and drag the Chrome icon up onto the new space), and then drag them back. This seems to reset the behavior for all spaces with Chrome windows.

aceoak

Posted 2018-11-13T21:32:10.353

Reputation: 311

4Ha, that's weird, but it works! :) This proves that it is indeed a Mojave bug, and neither a Chrome bug nor a feature of Spaces. – Jonathan H – 2018-12-21T12:47:58.273

Thanks for this simple, yet effective workaround. It has been plaguing me... :/ I can omit creating a new space, and assemble all Chrome windows in the space of the offender (aka focus grabber), and then redistribute to my likings. – f4lco – 2019-01-25T13:36:29.330

1It works! I haven't been able to use cmd+tab to switch back to Chrome for ages. It would always change spaces and take me to a different Chrome window. – bzle – 2019-04-01T19:15:48.140

13I found a simpler workaround: after cmd-tab switches to Chrome on the wrong desktop, minimize that chrome window. cmd-tab back to the other app. The cmd-tab behaviour will be fixed. Now, you can restore the minimized chrome window and the cmd-tab behaviour stays fixed. – user3392439 – 2019-04-03T06:52:54.980

@user3392439 didn't work for me. – Nolan Amy – 2019-04-27T20:15:17.470

3@user3392439 This does seem to work, thanks! Such a frustrating bug, it's been there for ages, c'mon Apple! – Jaime Cham – 2019-05-09T08:33:40.547

@user3392439 - your workaround should be an answer to this question – Daryl Spitzer – 2019-09-23T16:18:52.057

At least for me, and in the Chromium bug reports someone else linked, this issue was directly caused by using App Exposé (this may now be called "Application Windows"). Since this functionality wasn't really important to me, I simply turned off my keyboard and mouse shortcuts for Exposé, and I haven't had any problems since. (You can do this by going to System Preferences > Mission Control > removing the shortcuts for Application windows, and also disable in the Hot Corners menu if it's there.)

Update: this seems to be fixed as of Chrome 78.0.3904.70 (https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=990461)

ctuong

Posted 2018-11-13T21:32:10.353

Reputation: 46