Finder windows screened by app windows

If a simple reboot of your Mac doesn’t fix things, see if the problem still happens in safe mode.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support 

Safe mode will often correct weird software behavior by forcing the OS to clear caches, do disk repair and other housekeeping and temporarily disables third-party mods.

Does the same thing happen while in Safe mode?

You can exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally, then reevaluate the problem.

With macOS Sequoia v15.4.1, I start with an open Finder window and when I launch Safari, it eclipses part of that Finder window because it is now the frontmost application. When I select Finder from cmd+Tab, the Finder Window now becomes fully frontmost and appears above the Safari 18.4 window.

It behaves the same way with Firefox 137.0.1 and Brave browser v1.77.100. However, it does not raise in the stacking order with Firefox 137.0.2 with the Finder window remaining partially occluded.

I do not use Google Chrome.

James C Austin wrote:

This must have been addressed here previously (unless it's just me), but I haven't been able to find it in my searches. It has happened through a couple of generations of Mac OS, though I'm currently using 15.4 on a 2021 14" MacBook Pro.

I use Cmd-Tab to move through apps in Mac OS. When I want to get to an open Finder window, I'll Cmd-Tab until the Finder window appears. But when it's select it, it immediately vanishes behind an open app window (say, Safari).

I suspect that this is just a bug, but maybe it's a setting? Something I can adjust in Terminal?

Thanks very much in advance.

Jim

what happens if you click on the Desktop ?

Command N will open your default Finder window...