Montra help

Updated April 30, 2026

Practical guide to getting Montra running, plus the most common things that go wrong.

Granting Accessibility permission

Montra needs Accessibility permission to read and move windows. Without it, the app can capture nothing and restore nothing.

  1. Launch Montra. The app prompts you to grant permission and opens System Settings.
  2. In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, find Montra in the list and turn the toggle on.
  3. If Montra is not in the list, drag the app from /Applications into the panel and turn the toggle on.
  4. Quit and relaunch Montra so it picks up the new permission.

If the toggle keeps reverting, restart your Mac. macOS occasionally caches an old permission state for menu-bar apps.

Capturing your first layout

  1. Arrange the windows you care about — sizes, positions, which monitor each lives on.
  2. Click the Montra menu-bar icon.
  3. Choose Capture current layout and give the profile a name (e.g. “Work”, “Home”).

Profiles are tied to the monitor setup that was active when you captured them. Switching to a different setup picks the closest matching profile.

Restoring a layout

Two ways:

  • From the menu: click the Montra icon, choose a profile.
  • From a keyboard shortcut: assign a global hotkey in settings, then press it from anywhere.

Optional automatic triggers (off by default for the heavier ones):

  • Monitor connect / disconnect — on by default.
  • Wake from sleep — off by default.
  • After login / unlock — off by default.

Toggle them in Settings → Triggers.

Troubleshooting

A window I expected to move didn’t move. Some apps (most notably ones using non-standard window systems — older Electron, custom toolkits) don’t respond to the Accessibility API the way standard apps do. Montra logs which windows it could not move; check the log file.

Restore feels slow. Restore waits up to ~500ms for laggy apps. If it consistently feels sluggish, check Console.app for AX errors — usually a single misbehaving app is making the whole pass slow.

My monitor setup is not being recognized. Cables, docks, and adapters change the reported display details. Capture a fresh profile in the new physical setup; Montra will use it automatically next time.

Where is the log file? ~/Library/Logs/Montra/Montra.log. Drag it into a support email if something is broken — the timestamps make it easy to spot what failed.

Still stuck? Email support@getmontra.app.