Dual Monitor - Dock shows application as active on a monitor with no visible windows and prevents restoring minimized windows

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Ubuntu Version: 26.04 LTS

Desktop Environment (if applicable): Gnome 50

Problem Description:
When using multiple monitors in GNOME Shell with Ubuntu Dock:

  • If an application has:

    • a focused window on Monitor 2

    • and a minimized window on Monitor 1

  • The dock on Monitor 1:

    • shows the application as active

    • even though no window is visible on that monitor

  • Clicking the dock icon with “Minimize or overview”:

    • does not restore the minimized window on Monitor 1

    • because the application is considered already active (due to focus on Monitor 2)

Example:

Files app focused on monitor 2 and minimized on monitor 1, click on the dock icon to overview the minimized on monitor 1 won’t work.

Relevant System Information:
Ubuntu Dock v105

Screenshots or Error Messages:

Screenshot From 2026-04-25 16-00-40
Screenshot From 2026-04-25 16-00-40755×969 71.1 KB

What I’ve Tried:
-Isolate monitors checked
-Tweak the click action to be able to restore the minimized app (“Files”, in this case)

Files app is minimized in monitor 1, and also opened in the second monitor. In the screenshot above, you can see that the purple dot indicates that the Files app is focused, but in fact, it’s open in the secondary monitor

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2

Welcome to the community, @rashwanov Great to have you here.

I’ve looked into this, and it seems you’ve encountered a specific focus-handling bug in Ubuntu Dock v105 (Dash-to-Dock) that often triggers when “Isolate Monitors” is enabled. Essentially, because an instance of the app is already focused on Monitor 2, the Dock on Monitor 1 registers the application as “Active” and ignores the click-to-restore command for the minimized window on that specific screen.

Since you’ve already tried basic click-action tweaks, you might want to try these more targeted steps:

1. Force Focus via Terminal (Dconf)

Sometimes the Ul toggle doesn’t correctly propagate the setting for multi-monitor logic. Try forcing the previews action, which usually bypasses the “already focused” check:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'previews'

This should force a window spread across the monitors, allowing you to click the minimized one.

2. Test the “Isolate Workspaces” Toggle

In some cases, the Dock’s monitor isolation conflicts with GNOME’s workspace isolation. Go to Settings > Multitasking and toggle “Workspaces on primary display only” to see if it changes how the Dock tracks the window state on the secondary monitor.

3. Reset the Extension State

Given that you are on 26.04 (GNOME 50), there might be some residual config issues. You can try a “soft reset” of the dock settings to clear any stuck focus flags:

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock/

(You will need to re-enable your preferences like “Isolate Monitors” after running this).

4. Debugging via Looking Glass

If none of the above works, press Alt + F2, type lg and go to the “Extensions” tab. Look for “Ubuntu Dock” and see if there are any error flags related to monitor-isolation or window-focus.

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3

Hi there. Thanks for the greetings.

Unfortunately, none of the above worked, and lg monitor didn’t show any errors either.

I changed the scroll action to cycle through windows, which is a fine workaround for now.