Putback icon
Putback icon

Putback

Automatically restores window layouts on macOS when display setups change, offering instant position recovery, desk scene customization with app placement and wallpaper settings, hotkey triggers, undo feature, strong privacy protections, and no subscription needed.

The problem it solves: unplug and macOS piles every window onto one screen. Putback keeps a separate memory per display setup and puts everything back in 0.4 seconds.

Cost / License

  • Pay once
  • Proprietary

Application type

Platforms

  • Mac  Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later (Apple silicon and Intel)
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Putback information

  • Developed by

    AU flagpetersindex
  • Licensing

    Proprietary and Commercial product.
  • Pricing

    One time purchase (perpetual license) ranging between $19 and $79.
  • Alternatives

    11 alternatives listed
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  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Office & Productivity, OS & Utilities
Putback was added to AlternativeTo by petersindex on and this page was last updated .

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Official Links

What is Putback?

Putback is a menu bar window manager for macOS that solves a specific problem: every time your display setup changes, macOS moves your windows and does not move them back. Undock from a monitor and everything piles onto the laptop screen. Dock again and it stays piled.

Putback learns where your windows sit while you work, keeps a separate memory for every display setup, and restores each window to the screen and position it was on the moment that setup comes back. Nothing to save, nothing to configure.

Scenes go further. Name an arrangement, or draw one in Scene Studio with boxes for each app, even apps that are not running yet, give it its own wallpaper, and apply it with one hotkey. Putback opens the missing apps and seats each window where you drew it. A trigger can apply a Scene for you: 9am applies Coding, a calendar video call applies Meeting. Off until you turn it on.

What it does:

  • Restores every window when your displays change, with a separate memory per desk
  • Named Scenes you switch to with one hotkey, drawn in Scene Studio
  • A wallpaper per Scene, and Scenes that open the apps they need
  • Triggers that apply a Scene by time or calendar, off by default
  • Stash tucks every window aside and brings them all back
  • Undo for the whole desk, and a history of every restore with the reason for it
  • Per app rules for which display a window belongs on
  • Works with any number of displays, including Sidecar and DisplayLink docks
  • Lives in the menu bar, no dock icon

Privacy and trust: your window data never leaves your Mac. Putback is signed and notarized by Apple, and updates arrive through Sparkle, the standard macOS update framework. It needs the macOS Accessibility permission, the same one Rectangle and Magnet use, because that is the only way any app is allowed to move a window.

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. Free for 7 days with no card, then a one time $19 for one Mac, $29 for five, or $79 for twenty. No subscription and no account: the licence key is the account, and you can move it between Macs yourself.