Layoutish 1.3.7: windows stacked as you left them

Layoutish 1.3.7 is the result of nearly two weeks of testing on macOS 27: one screen, three screens through a dock, sleep and wake, and hundreds of restores run overnight. This is what changed, and why it matters. It's part of the biggest update I've ever shipped.

To update, open Layoutish's Settings and click Check for Updates.

Windows come back stacked as you left them

This is the big one. Each app's windows now return in their own order, the way you left them, across all your displays. Before this version, an app's windows could come back upside down, with the one you'd left at the back on top.

The app you left in front comes back in front, too. And a layout applied by its hotkey, a schedule or a display change brings that app forward even while you're working in another app.

A few smaller things make restores calmer:

• Hidden apps stay hidden. An app you've hidden (⌘H) used to appear for a moment whenever one of its windows had to move. Now it stays hidden.
• Nothing happens when nothing needs to. Applying a layout that's already in place changes nothing: no app comes forward and nothing flickers.
• No more jumping between desktops. A restore no longer switches you to another Space.
• Quicker restores. Finder's desktop is no longer saved as if it were a window, so Layoutish doesn't spend time trying to move it.

Your displays, handled properly

Rearranged your displays? Each display's windows come back on that display, wherever it now sits.

Display not connected? Windows saved for a display that isn't there stay where they are, instead of being piled onto the displays you have. The layout's card tells you which displays aren't connected. A layout saved before this version does both once you click Update on it.

Display profiles you can trust. A profile now recognises your monitors at any scaling, so changing the text size or using More Space doesn't break the match. Two identical monitors count as two. A profile saved before this version learns your monitors the first time it matches them. A profile's layout applies only when your displays really change, as when you dock or undock, not again at login or when your Mac wakes.

Each display profile also has its own switch on a layout's card, and a click never changes one by itself.

Your layouts are safer

One damaged layout no longer empties your whole list: the others load, and the damaged one is kept aside, never written over. If a cleaner app wipes Layoutish's settings, your layouts, display profiles and schedules come back by themselves.

Update keeps a layout's excluded apps and its one-display scope. Importing adds only what's new, and imported hotkeys work straight away. Saving or updating a layout while other apps are opening or quitting keeps every window, in the order you see them.

When a layout can't be applied, Layoutish says why

Before, a layout that couldn't be applied could still look as if it had worked. Now Layoutish tells you why: the trial has ended, the permission is off, another layout is still being applied, or there's nothing to apply. Overnight schedules also run to their end time now.

The Quick Switcher, from the keyboard

Press ⌘⇧L, type to filter, use the arrow keys to choose and press Return to apply. The Quick Switcher takes your typing as soon as it opens, and Esc or its close button closes it.

Hotkeys now use ⌘ or ⌃ (a function key works on its own), so a layout's hotkey can't take keys you type in other apps. The recorder tells you when another layout or the Quick Switcher already uses a hotkey.

Finder windows on macOS 27

On macOS 27, Finder no longer tells other apps which folder a window shows. So the first time you save a layout with a Finder window, Layoutish asks to control Finder, and closed Finder windows can open again at their folders.

Help in Settings

Settings now has Help: Check Layoutish tells you what's working and how to fix what isn't, Export Diagnostics makes a file for support, and Email Support reaches me directly. Help on the Website opens the full Layoutish guide.

Layoutish also names its permission the way your macOS does: on macOS 27 it's Device Control and Data Access. If the permission is removed while Layoutish runs, it notices and tells you how to add it back.

And a few more

• Opening Layoutish again from Finder or Spotlight opens its window, even when the menu bar icon is hidden.
• Layoutish no longer sends notifications, and it does less while it waits.
• A licensed Mac stays licensed through weeks without a restart.
• Settings lists the open-source software Layoutish uses.

Your licence now works on 3 Macs

You asked for this, so your Layoutish licence now works on up to 3 of your own Macs. There's nothing to do: your key already has the extra Macs.

Don't have Layoutish yet? Try it free for 7 days, no card needed.