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The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
I made a simple app using xcode, but it has one issue.
When I close its only window, I can't open it again. If I click the icon, nothing happens. How do I make it so the window opens every time I click the icon in the dock?
Thanks
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
When you click your app does its name appear at the upper left on the main menu bar?
Yes it does
Then you should be able to open a new window from there.
From where? I've tried with the upper tabs like "File" and "Window" with no help. I just want the window to open every time a click the app, like most apps do.
What happens if you ⌘Q instead of 'closing' the last window?
You could also right click on the dock icon and select Quit from there and then restart your app.
BTW if you want YourApp>File>NewWindow to work you have to write the code. Also, you need to understand that closing the last visible window does not terminate or quit the app like it generally does in that Microsoft OS.
I understand all of this. I am asking how to make it so that when I click
My dock icon, the one and only window that was previously closed to reopen. Where do I input my code for that and what would the code be? (I am using AppleScriptObjC)
Thanks
Don't you get your window back if you actually quit the app and then restart it?
Yes, but I want the effect that, for example, Safari has. When you close all windows but do not quit the app, and click the icon in the Dock, a new window appears with you homepage. I want my app's main window to appear when I click the icon. But to answer your question, yes. When I actually quit the app and reopen it, a new window does appear.
OK good, but I'm sorry I can't help you with AppleScriptObjC.
Assuming your window is not released when it is closed, you can add the applicationShouldHandleReopen:hasVisibleWindows: method to your AppDelegate and bring your window back to the front - for example (mainWindow in the following is an outlet to your main window):
on applicationShouldHandleReopen_hasVisibleWindows_(theApplication, flag)
mainWindow's makeKeyAndOrderFront_(me)
returntrue
end applicationShouldHandleReopen_hasVisibleWindows_
That didn't work. Just to clarify, because I didn't quite understand what you said before, (I haven't learned the technical terms yet) the one and only window on my app has been closed (there are no windows open). What I want is for that one window to reopen when the dock icon is clicked.
Thank you.
Adding that delegate method will reopen your window when the Dock icon is clicked - check from the Interface Editor that the window behavior Release When Closed is unchecked, otherwise it goes away when you close it, instead of just being removed from view. I don't know how you are referencing the window, but in my example I connected the outlet mainWindow to the window (make sure you got the window and not its view).
Thank you for the help. This worked, but I decided to go with this in my delegate:
on applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed_(sender) returntrueend applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed_it works a lot better for my app, because it is small and has no need to stay open, so it will just quit instead. Thank you for your help
Xcode Open my App when Its Icon is clicked?