What Is Stage Manager in Mac

Stage Manager is a feature built into newer versions of macOS and iPadOS. It lets you organize open apps and windows into groups, which appear on the left side of your desktop. The group you’re currently using appears in the centre of your screen. The idea of Stage Manager is to reduce clutter on your device and make it easier for you to switch between your different tasks.

Which Mac is compatible with Stage Manager?

To use Stage Manager, your Mac needs to be running macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. That includes various Intel and Apple Silicon iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini models. Check the Apple website for a full list of compatible Macs.

Read our guide on Ventura vs Sequoia to see how the older version of the operating system compares with what you get now.

Also, check out how much space does macOS take up if you’re thinking of doing an upgrade. This guide covers various versions of macOS, including Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, and Sonoma. As well as disk space, you’ll discover all kinds of system requirements for each OS.

How to access Stage Manager on Mac?

To access Stage Manager on Mac, you first need to enable it. Click the Control Centre icon in your menu bar, then select the Stage Manager icon. Now, click Turn On Stage Manager. You can also enable Stage Manager in your System Settings, in the Desktop & Dock section.

A note from our experts: 

 

Looking for an alternative? MacKeeper’s Login Items tool gives you another easy way to keep your Mac organized. It stops apps and background processes from automatically starting up when you turn on your Mac.

 

Here’s how to use MacKeeper’s Login Items function:

1. Download and run MacKeeper.
2. Select the Login Items tool, and click Start Scan.
3. Choose what to remove, and click Remove Selected Items.

Now, when you restart your Mac, the login items you removed with MacKeeper won’t start by themselves.

How to use Stage Manager on Mac?

First, enable Stage Manager, and once it’s on, you’ll see your running apps on the left, with windows grouped by app. Click a group, and macOS will display all the windows in that group. You can also take windows from the side groups to form new custom groups. If the groups are hidden behind open windows, move your mouse cursor all the way to the left of your screen, and the groups will appear. Drag a window to the left to remove it from a group.

1. Organizing apps

By default, Stage Manager will group windows by app. For example, all your Safari windows will be under the same group, on the left side of your screen. When you open a new app, it will be displayed in the middle of your screen, and the app that was previously there will move to the left-hand side.

The default groups are useful, but we also like to create our own custom groups, containing two or more different apps. So how do we do that? Like this:

1. Select one of your groups on the left.
2. Now, drag and drop a window from one of the other groups into the centre of your screen.
3. Repeat as many times as you want, and rearrange and resize your windows to your liking.
4. Congratulations—you’ve formed your first custom Stage Manager group.

2. Grouping apps in Stage Manager

You can also use Stage Manager in combination with your Mac’s Mission Control feature. That means you can have different sets of Stage Manager groups on separate desktop spaces. Used together properly, these features can be hugely powerful organizational tools.

Here’s how Stage Manager and Mission Control work together:

1. Open Mission Control by pressing Ctrl+Up Arrow. You can also swipe up with three fingers if you have a trackpad or press the Mission Control key if you have one on your keyboard.
2. Add new desktop spaces by clicking the Plus icon in the top right of your screen. You also drag and drop your desktop spaces to change their order.
3. Access Mission Control to switch between desktops. You can now make Stage Manager work in Mac on each of those desktops.
4. If you’re using a trackpad, you can also switch between desktops by swiping left or right with three fingers.

3. Configuring Stage Manager settings

There’s a lot to be said for leaving advanced settings alone, but we love digging into preferences and playing around. In your macOS System Settings, you can change how Stage Manager works and what you see on screen when it’s running. Simply do as follows:

1. Open your Mac’s System Settings using the icon in your Dock or by selecting Apple > System Settings from your menu bar.
2. In the left-hand menu, scroll down and select Desktop & Dock.
3. Scroll down again until you see the Desktop & Stage Manager section.
4. In Show Items, you can toggle In Stage Manager to decide whether or not icons on your desktop will be showing when using Stage Manager.
5. You can also choose whether or not to Show recent apps in Stage Manager. If you turn this off, the groups on the left will disappear. But don’t worry—they’re still available. Simply move your mouse cursor all the way over to the left, and the groups will slide back into your screen.
6. Next, there’s a setting to Show windows from application, and you can choose All at Once or One at a Time. If you choose One at a Time, Stage Manager will stack the windows in each group one on top of the other.
7. Finally, you can choose whether or not widgets are visible while using Stage Manager. Scroll down to Widgets, and toggle In Stage Manager on or off.

Pro tips for using Stage Manager on Mac

To get the most out of Stage Manager, you can use it alongside your Mac’s other organizing tools. You can spread Stage Manager across separate spaces using Mission Control, and you also quickly move between groups using the Application Switcher. Press Cmd+Tab, and you’ll see all your currently open apps. Keep pressing Tab to get the app you want to see, and you’ll open whichever Stage Manager group that app is in.

How to turn off Stage Manager on Mac?

Some Mac users don’t get on with Stage Manager. If you want to disable it, just click the Stage Manager shortcut in your Control Centre, in the top left of your screen. Alternatively, open your System Settings, select Desktop & Dock, scroll down, and click the switch next to Stage Manager.

If you don’t like Stage Manager, you might find the best macOS window manager for you in our dedicated guide, which covers a variety of third-party software. These apps help you get your apps and windows exactly how you want them.

Declutter your Mac

Getting Stage Manager to work on your Mac is simple, and it can really help you to keep your apps and windows in order. By creating your own custom groups, you can quickly switch between different tasks and ramp up your productivity. As we’ve demonstrated here, it’s also easy to change Stage Manager’s settings and get it working exactly how you want. Not everyone likes Stage Manager, but thankfully, you can turn it off any time you want and go back to the classic macOS view.

For the maximum in Mac organization, we also recommend giving MacKeeper’s Login Items tool a try. MacKeeper is an Apple Notarized app that offers full macOS Tahoe compatibility. In just a few clicks, you can stop all kinds of apps and background processes from automatically starting when macOS loads—avoiding unnecessary clutter and giving your computer a helpful performance boost.