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Is there a hot key to move one window (say chrome browser) from one screen another screen for multiple monitors?

I'm using mac osx 10.10

genxgeek
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7 Answers7

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EDIT: As mentioned by @dbernard and Spectacle, Spectacle is no longer actively being maintained, the recommended alternative is Rectangle which is also free. Checkout Rectangle's github.

Spectacle works just as well and is free! See their github for more information.

Feel free to take a look at their keyboard shortcuts found here. The default shortcut for moving to "Next Display" is ⌃⌥⌘→ and you can configure it to whatever you want.

Works perfectly on 10.10.5 and 10.14.6

nevets1219
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  • Does not work very well on 10.11.6 (El Capitan). Some windows do not react on the shortcuts. – wheleph Nov 25 '16 at 08:35
  • Have you tried the other solution? I suspect it's that particular window. – nevets1219 Nov 25 '16 at 08:37
  • Let me see... I had issues with Terminal windows but now I don't (maybe because I did restart). I'll observe further... – wheleph Nov 25 '16 at 08:41
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    I've had issues with iTerm too but I think iTerm said it was either their issue or an El Captain issue. – nevets1219 Nov 25 '16 at 08:44
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    Works great for me on High Sierra – Marcin Nabiałek Dec 27 '17 at 15:51
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    works for me in Mojave 10.14.5, thanks for sharing – Hearen Jul 11 '19 at 07:00
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    Spectacle being not maintained anymore, the open-source alternative is now [Rectangle](https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle). Works well on MacOS 10.15! – dbernard Dec 11 '19 at 14:21
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    This app works great. Do remember that starting from El Capitain, the apps has to be given permission to access accessibility features then it works like a charm. – Roman Dec 21 '19 at 01:44
  • It doesn't work with MacOS 10.15 for me - I hear an "error" "blimp" sound but nothing else. I've tried everything. What could it be? – Cornelius Roemer Dec 27 '19 at 19:09
  • Could be the permission to accessibility feature Roman mentioned – nevets1219 Dec 28 '19 at 00:24
  • @CorneliusRoemer Rectangle [doesn't support](https://superuser.com/a/1532947/282374) moving a window between Desktop Spaces. Do you have multiple monitors plugged in? – Carl Walsh Aug 28 '20 at 18:49
  • I missed my KDE shortcuts for moving windows between monitors, but rectangle fills just that gap. Works perfectly on Big Sur (11.2.1) with 3 monitors. Customisable, but the default shortcuts are very convenient. – Anubis Apr 23 '21 at 05:54
  • Rectangle works nice in 13.3.1 through brew installation: brew install --cask rectangle – LeonardoX May 17 '23 at 00:24
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Doesn't exists. If you want this feature you have to use an external program. For such thing, I use Moom (10$) where you can define a shortcut for it. Checkout the screenshot:

enter image description here

This let me use ⌥alt+⇥tab to move the active window to the desktop on the right.

jherran
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  • does it work with Yosemite? – genxgeek May 17 '15 at 16:42
  • Yes, I use it on Yosemite – jherran May 17 '15 at 16:43
  • not to hijack to hijack this thread but do you know how with the keyboard I move the window around (on current screen)...instead of using mouse always to reposition window? – genxgeek May 17 '15 at 17:16
  • I use ctrl + shift + z, and then move the window with the cursor and press esc to end. But now I can't check if I customize that keyboard shortcuts. – jherran May 17 '15 at 17:19
  • so this is a feature of moom or built in apple stuff? ctrl + shift + z didn't work but i can check to see what it possibly set to in moom. – genxgeek May 17 '15 at 17:24
  • It's a Moom feature – jherran May 17 '15 at 17:25
  • ha, ok got it... i have mine set to command + M. and it moves around fine with arrows (coarse grained). I didn't notice that if you hold it moves very fine grained (pixel by pixel).....but like I said the arrows seem to work but is there way to speed up how fast it moves? – genxgeek May 17 '15 at 17:27
  • I don't know if it's possible – jherran May 17 '15 at 17:30
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On newer macos you can use the menu items to do this. This works in Catalina, havent tried with earlier macos versions.

Go to System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts There create shortcuts for menu items corresponding to your screen. I have a macbook pro that is connected to a iMac in target display mode, so i get to see the following options in apps:

Window/Move to iMac Window/Move to Built-in Retina Display

I added shortcuts for these 2 window commands and assigned the same shortcut for both these commands as at a time only one of them appear on my system.

The exact menu items i used were: Window->Move to Built-in Retina Display Window->Move to iMac

I assigned these shortcuts Command + Option + Shift + N (⌥⇧⌘N)

No need for any third party tools for this functionality.

MMM
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no1lives4ever
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    Great option. I have just tried that and it works fine. The only problem is that not all apps have Window->Move to X display menu item. That definitely works for Chrome but it does not work for KeePassX for example. – AlexHalkin Jan 13 '20 at 16:46
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    After I posted this, I also noticed that the one I posted above does not work always. Esp with Firefox. I still keep shiftit installed on my system. That handles this very nicely. This is one thing that apple should make it easy to assign shortcuts to. Maybe have some default ones like there is one for entering/exiting full screen. – no1lives4ever Jan 14 '20 at 17:37
  • Amazing, this one is working like a charm for me! Thanks a lot. I had to figure out how to add that menu item shortcut, but this helped me a lot. – tomdelahaba Mar 29 '22 at 22:04
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BetterTouchTool can also do it: https://folivora.ai/

Gestures -> Keyboard -> Add new shortcut -> "chose your key combination" -> Trigger predefined action -> Move Window to next Monitor (or alternatively Move Window One Space/Desktop Left/Right.)

(a must have tool in my opinion, it can do many other awesome things)

Motsel
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Spectacle is not being maintained. The free and maintained option now is https://rectangleapp.com.

eplictical
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I use the Magnet app, which is an elegant app that helps with setting up zones on your monitors and keyboard shortcuts to snap windows into full screen, half screen, third screen, etc.

It also supports a shortcut to move your window to different monitors.

Dave Hunt
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There is a tool for more advanced users called Hammerspoon. With this, you can achieve a lot of things and as this answer on a question on StackOverflow pointed out, it's pretty easy to achieve what you want with a simple Hammerspoon configuration.

Hammerspoon is not exactly an app, but it might still be interesting for some users.

-- From https://stackoverflow.com/a/58662204
hs.hotkey.bind({'alt', 'ctrl', 'cmd'}, 'n', function()
  -- Get the focused window
  local win = hs.window.focusedWindow()
  -- Get the screen where the focused window is displayed, a.k.a. current screen
  local screen = win:screen()
  -- Compute the unitRect of the focused window relative to the current screen
  -- and move the window to the next screen setting the same unitRect 
  win:move(win:frame():toUnitRect(screen:frame()), screen:next(), true, 0)
end)
peterfication
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