Prevent Application from Staying Open When I Close It

Question

Prevent Application from Staying Open When I Close It

Okay, I know that if you have the "Show Recent Applications in Dock" will keep the recent applications in a separate place. I have that disabled. I want to know how to actually close an app and make it go away. There is a little dot next to the applications that I close, and I have to then right-click and close again. When I click the 'X', I just want the application to go away and disappear from the dock.

In the image below, Firefox is not "open" anymore as I have closed it. The terminal is not open anymore as I have closed it too. The difference between the two is that terminal is kept on the dock and Firefox is kept in a folder below. I don't want Firefox to stay on the dock.

Basically, when I close Firefox, I want the dock to look like the second image. I don't want to have to right-click and close or do the '⌘+Q' to quit the application. I simply want to click 'X' and have it close.

Remember... all I want is to click 'X' and it goes away. Is this possible?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.3

Posted on May 4, 2023 9:40 AM

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Answer 1

May 4, 2023 9:51 AM in response to william.jonah.roberts

If you are just clicking the Red 'x' in the upper left of an app, you are not closing it, you are merely sending it down to the dock. If you want to REALLY close it, you have to right click the app name in the menu (or command click) and then choose QUIT app name.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,692 points

May 4, 2023 10:14 AM in response to william.jonah.roberts

william.jonah.roberts wrote:

Basically, when I close Firefox, I want the dock to look like the second image. I don't want to have to right-click and close or do the '⌘+Q' to quit the application. I simply want to click 'X' and have it close.

Remember... all I want is to click 'X' and it goes away. Is this possible?

It is possible, but apps have to be specially coded to implement that feature. It certainly isn't difficult. The developer just has to return "YES" from a method named "applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed".

However, I'm certain that Firefox will never implement this. In fact, Firefox is almost as bad as Chrome. It won't even quit when you do ⌘ Q. I recommend Safari instead.

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