Force alt + tab to switch only on current workspace in GNOME shell

Question

I am looking for a clean and fast method to force GNOME in Ubuntu 14.04 to switch between active apps only on the current workspace when pressing the shortcut alt + tab.

score 317 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 07 '18 at 13:41

317

Simply:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only true

edited Jan 07 '18 at 13:41

pomsky

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answered Apr 21 '16 at 02:16

austinmarton

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super fast, no extra software necessary and does exactly what was asked for! +1 – Jamie-505 Mar 03 '17 at 10:52
This isn't working for me on Ubuntu 16.04. I think it might be due to these settings being managed in several different apps. Any idea how to make this setting overrule the others? – n1k31t4 Oct 20 '17 at 13:09
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It worked for me on Ubuntu 17.04 – Esteban Filardi Oct 23 '17 at 11:29
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...and for me in 17.10. – colan Oct 25 '17 at 15:44
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It's working on Ubuntu 18.04. It's straightforward and you don't need to install anything – Andrea Tulimiero Apr 30 '18 at 20:07
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Strangely, it doesn't work for me in 18.04, but this extension does: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/310/alt-tab-workspace/ – k_g Aug 02 '18 at 04:12
Nice. How can I set this as a default for all users. – crafter Aug 07 '18 at 22:29
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@crafter see [How can I change default settings for new users?](https://askubuntu.com/q/65900/301745) – wjandrea Jul 17 '19 at 22:49
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This should be the accepted answer! Works on Ubuntu 18.04. thank you, thank you, thank you!!! – Dmitry Shevkoplyas Jan 15 '20 at 21:36
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If it doesn't work, you can try replacing `gsettings` with the fully qualified `/usr/bin/gsettings`. Package managers like Anaconda can muck with the default `gsettings` alias. – Tahlor Apr 02 '20 at 20:49
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Works on 20.04 as well. – Jong May 10 '20 at 10:20
Does not work for me on 18.04. – faceclean May 15 '20 at 14:03
Does anybody know if this is possible but for screens? I.e. alt tab between stuff on the screen I am currently interacting with, but not other screens. I like to have one screen with a fixed set of tools (email, slack etc) and then my main screen for active work, but alt tab will select slack or email rather than switching between two tools I am using on my primary screen – M1ke Oct 28 '20 at 11:52
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This worked for me on 21.10. – Marc-François Oct 29 '21 at 18:28
Does this only work for "Switch Applications" or also for "Switch Windows"? – Kvothe Mar 14 '22 at 13:52
Still working! awesome – let4be Jan 12 '23 at 16:26

score 207 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 09 '19 at 16:41

207

Here is the solution I came up with:

Very fast & easy, without any installations/extensions:

Install dconf-editor (already installed on current debian/ubuntu distributions):
```
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor
```
Open dconf-editor (from the Dash or a Terminal)
Navigate to: org -> gnome -> shell -> app-switcher
Set "current-workspace-only" to true

..and you're done :)

edited Feb 09 '19 at 16:41

pomsky

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answered May 12 '14 at 18:53

daniel451

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Wish Gnome would just put this in their Settings applet – leo-the-manic Dec 28 '16 at 19:29
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Please add @austinmarton answer too, since while this is more generic, there's a gnome way that requires no extra installs. – Mihail Malostanidis Oct 07 '17 at 14:54
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I've added feature issue to Gnome TWEAK project https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-tweaks/issues/123 – sobi3ch Feb 15 '18 at 11:22
Wish this will become the default for future release! – samb Mar 10 '18 at 17:58
This should be on Gnome Tweak! Agree @sobi3ch – rtindru May 07 '18 at 06:19
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As of Ubuntu 18.04 this setting can be found at /org/gnome/shell/window-switcher/current-workspace-only – GuruBob Jul 01 '18 at 23:37
@GuruBob I've got both of these settings available in dconf in 18.04, however the shell/app-switcher one listed in the answer was the one that I needed to change. – EoghanM Aug 30 '18 at 13:33
2

WARNING: For me in Ubuntu 18.04 does not work, but the command line version worked: gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only true – carlo.polisini Aug 31 '18 at 09:39

score 25 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 05 '18 at 16:53

25

Seems to be fixed with

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.window-switcher current-workspace-only true
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only true

answered Jan 05 '18 at 16:53

N0rbert

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Looks like I need only the first one (`.window-switcher`) – kerner1000 Jan 05 '18 at 17:52
This did the job. It only shows the apps currently in the workspace and, when an app has two instance each in a different workspace when pressing Alt+Tab it prevents from showing both of them. But you have to use both the commands in this answer. Awesome, thank you! – juliangonzalez Oct 01 '18 at 15:38
Debian Buster : the first line did it for me. – RichieHH Jan 08 '20 at 13:39

score 22 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 23 '16 at 00:02

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As an alternative to installing dconf-editor and having to fiddle around with your mouse so much, you can also do this from terminal.

To create the current-workspace-only value:

dconf write /org/gnome/shell/app-switcher/current-workspace-only 'true'

To erase it, going back to default settings:

dconf reset /org/gnome/shell/app-switcher/current-workspace-only

I would like dconf-editor more if it could search through paths, properties, and values.

edited Apr 23 '16 at 00:02

muru

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answered Jun 22 '15 at 06:37

matty

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the [(later) answer using `gsettings`](https://askubuntu.com/a/759740/17060) is just a higher-level api that also sets the `dconf` values (and would probably be in general preferred over directly accessing dconf) – michael Jan 01 '18 at 07:56
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This solution work still on Ubuntu 21.10. Perfect. – KFO Dec 07 '21 at 07:37
For keys that don't exist yet, dconf does not let you auto complete them, while gsettings does. f.e. `dconf write /org/gnome/shell/app-sw` then pressing tab does not complete to anything, but `gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-sw` then pressing tab completes to `gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher` – trusktr Jun 21 '22 at 23:34

score 14 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 10 '19 at 15:42

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An alternative for people who want to tab through open windows on current workspace but also want to be able to tab through all open apps (on any workspace) this can be achieved by changing the keyboard shortcuts.

Under Settings > Devices > Keyboard (on Ubuntu 17.10):

Switch Windows: Alt+Tab
Switch Applications: Super+Tab

edited Jun 10 '19 at 15:42

pomsky

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answered Nov 28 '17 at 17:48

Clauds

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That's tricky - Alt+Tab changes windows, even when changing the keyboard shortcuts. Is there a way to fix that? – Rick-777 Nov 29 '17 at 14:49
Yes, Alt+Tab will show the windows open on the current workspace whereas Super+Tab will show all open programs (on any workspace). What do you want to achieve, that Alt+Tab shows open programs on the current workspace instead of open windows? – Clauds Nov 30 '17 at 10:19
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Hi ! I'm trying to set this specific behavior, but I don't seem to be able to. Both commands always behave the same. I tried gsettings current-workspace-only for window and app switcher with no luck either. Any idea? Thanks :) – Biggybi Apr 15 '18 at 06:16
I checked my gsettings and I have `org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only false` and `org.gnome.shell.window-switcher current-workspace-only true` – Clauds Apr 15 '18 at 09:59
This does not answer the question but is a great tip nonetheless. – crafter Aug 07 '18 at 22:32
This is great, thanks! Just did this in Ubuntu 18.04 and it's really helpful. It seems I didn't have Alt+Tab bound to anything originally (but it still performed the 'switch applications' action). After binding Alt+Tab to 'switch windows', I had to re-bind Super+Tab to 'switch applications' for some reason. – Daniel Buckmaster Jul 03 '19 at 00:39

Pablo Bianchi · Answer 6 · 2019-11-11T19:55:30.877

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AlternateTab

If you also want to ungroup applications on switcher you can add the officially supported AlternateTab extension.

Moreover:

Actually, Ubuntu is going to have the Alternatetab as default on Alt+tab in the upcoming version of Ubuntu (19.04), while the current default app switcher will remain on Super+tab.

edited Nov 11 '19 at 19:55

answered Feb 09 '19 at 04:43

Pablo Bianchi

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 02 '18 at 04:14

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The other solutions here did not work for me on Ubuntu 18.04.1, but the Alt Tab Workspace extension worked.

answered Aug 02 '18 at 04:14

k_g

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That's odd. If you follow [the code](https://github.com/kwalo/gnome-shell-alt-tab-workspace/blob/master/alt-tab-workspace%40kwalo.net/extension.js#L12) it does the same as [austinmarton's answer](https://askubuntu.com/a/759740/349837) – Pablo Bianchi Apr 18 '23 at 03:54

Force alt + tab to switch only on current workspace in GNOME shell

7 Answers7

AlternateTab

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