How do you restore ghosted window when going from dual monitor/laptop setup back to laptop?

2026-05-28 07:13 UTC

I use Fedora on Gnome. I often hook my laptop to a dock which connects to the monitor. The dock has all the ports so it is a one usb C cable to connect to my laptop. So i’d have monitor on the left, laptop on the right. Or i can go full monitor and turn off the laptop’s display. Nevertheless, sometimes when I need to packup and unplug the dock’s usb c, some applications are still stuck. I.e. the system still thought that they are still on the external monitor. The only way to “pull” these windows back is to unplug the HDMI, then plug/unplug the dock’s usb c cable into the laptop. Using Window key to get to Overview mode in Gnome, i couldnt see the missing the windows. Not even the good old Alt - Tab. Is there a plugin or something to restore these windows? I even tried to force Gnome to use only 1 workspace, still same problem.

Replies (8)

@eksb@programming.dev 2026-05-28 08:12

Don’t use Gnome.

Open ##2919326
@oeuf@slrpnk.net 2026-05-28 08:42

Not sure if I’ve had exactly this but I usually open the lid to turn my laptop display back on, pull out the USB-c dock and then open and close the overview with the super key. I usually have ‘mirrored’ selected as the multi-display option in my settings FWIW.

Open ##2919705
@ApertureUA@lemmy.today 2026-05-28 09:09

Idk, I used Plasma and they all move back automatically. Also Hyprland and now sway, where this kind of bug isn’t possible as everything is in 10 “spaces” and they display on whichever monitor was focused first. Tell the Gn*me people they suck I guess.

Open ##2921405
@edinbruh@feddit.it 2026-05-28 14:13

Sounds like a bug, file an issue to gnome’s gitlab. They might help you, or tell you that it’s a bug elsewhere

Open ##2926226
@oyzmo@piefed.social 2026-05-28 14:59

https://cheatsheets.zip/gnome-desktop

Open ##2926575
@lobo@lemmy.world 2026-05-28 09:19

alt + space it brings up the minimize/maximize/move menu at least on windows and xfce

Open ##2930478
@Sunsofold@lemmings.world 2026-05-28 21:58

Not something I’ve experienced in a long time but you could try Super+Shift+left/right arrow to see if you can sling it over.

Open ##2932224
@Sunsofold@lemmings.world 2026-05-28 21:59

Not something I’ve experienced in a long time but you could try Super+Shift+left/right arrow to see if you can sling it over.

Open ##2932234