How do I open an app to the front of the page in Monterey OS?

[Investor27]

On my 2017 Macbook Pro running Catalina, every time I open an app (for example, the Apple System Preferences), the newly opened small window is brought to the front of my open Safari browser. But on my wife's new Monterey OS Macbook, all open apps stay in the background so that I can't see them unless I swipe up with 3 fingers. Is there an option where when I open an app it will open in the front automatically?

 

[Artiste212]

On my 2017 Macbook Pro running Catalina, every time I open an app (for example, the Apple System Preferences), the newly opened small window is brought to the front of my open Safari browser. But on my wife's new Monterey OS Macbook, all open apps stay in the background so that I can't see them unless I swipe up with 3 fingers. Is there an option where when I open an app it will open in the front automatically?

It sounds like your wife's Monterey OS Macbook is using Single App mode - this shows only the currently used app, and all others are hidden. You can use the Dock or the Cmd-Tab interface to switch. This isn't an option in System Preferences but you can set up Single App Mode using Onyx (free app). It's under Parameters > Misc. Options > check "Turn on the single application mode."

There is also a switch that can be accessed through Terminal — the instructions to set this up are below. Although this article is old, at the bottom of the article is an update showing this still works in Monterey.
enable-single-application-mode-in-mac-os-x

 

[Investor27]

Thanks for the reply, but that's not it. The Single App mode would minimized everything else to the dock besides the app that one just clicked on to open. On my 2017 Macbook Pro running Catalina, the app that I clicked on to open would be focus on top of my browser like the picture below (the Calculator app is in front of the browser). I wanted to do the same for my 2020 Macbook Pro running on Monterey. As it stands now. When I click on an app like the Calculator app, it opens in the background, behind my browser so that I can't see it unless I do the 3-finger swipe to bring up both that app and my browser, and then click on the Calculator app to bring it forward. It's too many steps compared to my computer where it will just be forward or focused when I click to open it.

 

[kapitainsky]

I have the same issue - it only started acting like this with Monterey. What I noticed is that behaviour depends on the app I have running in . E.g. when I have Safari or Firefox and open calculator it is brought to the front. But if I have iTerm2 running calculator is opened in the background (behin iTerm2 window).

For me it looks like some bug which hopefully will be fixed at some stage.

 

[Slartibart]

can you kindly check wether this behaviour persists even if you create and use a new user?

EDIT: what happens if you run an app from the terminal, e.g.:

open /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011/Microsoft\ Excel.app

?

 

[Reggaenald]

That’s a bug introduced with Monterey, happens on my MBP as well. The best fix is to wait for a fix I guess.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Looks like several folks out there have seen this. I haven't experienced this at all but maybe I haven't hit upon the right combo of apps.

 

[Investor27]

I've only used Safari, and the calculator, system preferences, activity monitor, and all other apps open in the background only with Monterey.

 

[DeltaMac]

I think it is a difference in how Monterey uses Spaces.
You can go into System Preferences, Missions Control pane, and change one or two of the settings in the Spaces area.
try turning on "Automatically rearrange Spaces ..." and "Displays have separate spaces", and uncheck the other two choices. There could be other settings combinations, depending on how you work.

 

[Investor27]

I think it is a difference in how Monterey uses Spaces.
You can go into System Preferences, Missions Control pane, and change one or two of the settings in the Spaces area.
try turning on "Automatically rearrange Spaces ..." and "Displays have separate spaces", and uncheck the other two choices. There could be other settings combinations, depending on how you work.

By default, both "Automatically rearrange Spaces" and "Displays have separate spaces" were already checked. The "Group Windows by application" was unchecked, and I also unchecked "When switching to an application, switch to a space..." per your suggestion. Still doesn't work, and all apps open to the background.

I did discover a quicker solution than having to use the 3-finger swipe up, and then choose the newly opened app to bring it to the front. If you click on any app on the Dock twice, it will open in the front as originally intended. On my Catalina Macbook Pro, I only have to click on the apps in the Dock or anywhere once to open it in the front.

 

[kapitainsky]

can you kindly check wether this behaviour persists even if you create and use a new user?

EDIT: what happens if you run an app from the terminal, e.g.:

open /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011/Microsoft\ Excel.app

?

the same with new user

I do not have Excel

The issue is tricky as at least for me it depends on apps combo

 

[skes]

On my 2017 Macbook Pro running Catalina, every time I open an app (for example, the Apple System Preferences), the newly opened small window is brought to the front of my open Safari browser. But on my wife's new Monterey OS Macbook, all open apps stay in the background so that I can't see them unless I swipe up with 3 fingers. Is there an option where when I open an app it will open in the front automatically?

I have the same issue since the BigSur update on my MacBook Pro 2015. Every app opens as a background window and I always have to press CMD-Tab (or better CMD-Shift-Tab for reverse order if I have many open apps, because it's always the right most on the icons list). It has to be a "defaults" setting that changed from Catalina to BigSur (and it's also kept now in Monterey). I'd guess that it should have a name like "bringToFront" or something similar, but I'm yet to find it...

(Edit 1): No, I'm not opening the apps in a single window. No matter how small the windows of the other apps are on the screen, the newly opened app will never have focus and it's always going to be the last one in the stack.

(Edit 2): This always happens when the terminal app is open. I'll edit my answer if I see it happening when other apps are also open.

 

[Landlocked Surfer]

Ran into the same issue on Monterey and found the solution here:

MacOS Monterey Terminal CLI: "open" command does not change focus

Has anyone encountered an issue in which Terminal.app is no longer able to switch focus to another application? For example, typing in the command open . would have previously opened the current fo...

apple.stackexchange.com

Disabling "Secure Keyboard Entry" in the Terminal application did the trick for me.