Hi hope someone can help. If I toggle between open apps from the dock, instead of opening the app it goes to the desktop. Same happens when i use the command tab shortcut. Driving me crazy! I have to click the required app icon again for it to go where I want it to. So if I'm in Safari and decide I want to go to the mail app, clicking the mail icon takes me to the desktop. Macbook Pro mid 2009 El Capitan 10.11.6.
Thanks in advance.
Put these apps in full screen mode—
from here you can use mission control to swipe four finger up for all Full screen Apps or swipe left and right to move among them.
Use Mission Control on your Mac - Apple Support
If you think you have a bigger problem—
Boot into Recovery (Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities> Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD. If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.
Recovery http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
To trouble shoot further you can:
Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.
This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.
Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443
This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.
You can try reinstalling the Combo update:
Download OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update - Apple Support
or
if neccessary re-install the macOS from Recovery on top of your existing macOS.
Put these apps in full screen mode—
from here you can use mission control to swipe four finger up for all Full screen Apps or swipe left and right to move among them.
Use Mission Control on your Mac - Apple Support
If you think you have a bigger problem—
Boot into Recovery (Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities> Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD. If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.
Recovery http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
To trouble shoot further you can:
Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.
This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.
Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443
This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.
You can try reinstalling the Combo update:
Download OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update - Apple Support
or
if neccessary re-install the macOS from Recovery on top of your existing macOS.
If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply. Pastebin
Etrecheck – System Information
dock icons
