How to make Alfred switch to currently open Chrome instead of opening a new window?

This used to be the normal behavior for me:

  1. I have a Chrome window A open
  2. The focus is in another program window B
  3. I bring up Alfred and type Chrome
  4. Chrome is the first result, selected by default
  5. I hit Enter and...
  6. The focus goes to the already-opened Chrome window A

That's the same as doing Command-Tab if there are only two windows open, each of a different applications. This is how I'd like it to behave.

Now I don't know what I did wrong to make this change (or if it was me at all), but this is what happens now:

  1. I have a Chrome window A open
  2. The focus is in another program window B
  3. I bring up Alfred and type Chrome
  4. Chrome is the first result, selected by default
  5. I hit Enter (nothing different so far) and...
  6. A new Chrome window C gets opened behind program window B
  7. Focus remains on program window B

This doesn't happen with Firefox, for example, where the expected behavior continues working.


I had this same exact issue, and checked for a MacOS update and didn't have one. It turned to be fixed with a Chrome update.


Hmm. I just tried it and it's doing the desired behavior for me (opens the currently open window).

Only thing I can think of is that Alfred is opening another instance of Chrome because you have 2 chrome installations. Try this:

  • Command-click on the Chrome icon on the dock. This will open that Chrome's install location.
  • Open Alfred, search for Chrome, click right arrow, and choose "Reveal in Finder".
  • Check if both locations are the same.

I have the same issue, however for Chrome Canary. The problem isn't reproducible for any of the other browsers I've tested: Chrome, Firefox, Firefox Dev. And I've tried updating OSX and Google Canary. What fixed it was to remove the entire application and reinstalling Canary.