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supak111

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2008
55
1
Hey guys, this is really been annoying me for a long time now. Anytime I quit the OS X calculator, tape gets deleted. I know that this should not happen. On my other 2 Macs (all on latest OS X), if I quit the calculator app and reopen it the paper tape history is still there. There are no preferences in the calculator app.

I know I can save the paper tape but I just want it to be automatic. Whats the issue here?
 

supak111

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2008
55
1
On my other 2 13" MacBooks it is. Thats what I found weird. All 3 are on the latest OS X
 

chown33

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 9, 2009
10,706
8,348
A sea of green
The persistence of the Paper Tape window's contents depends on a system-wide setting.

The setting is controlled by:
System Preferences > General > checkbox: Close windows when quitting an app

When the checkbox is on, Calculator (and many other apps) will automatically preserve the location, visibility, and contents of windows between launches.

When the checkbox is off, apps will typically discard (or lose) either location, visibility, or contents of windows when the app is quit.

Look at the state of this checkbox on each computer, and see what it says.

This may be coupled to another checkbox: Ask to keep changes when closing documents


Whatever the checkbox's state is, you can "reverse" it for a given app by holding down the Option key when choosing Quit from the app's menu. The menu item changes from Quit APP_NAME_HERE to one of:
Quit APP_NAME_HERE and Close All Windows
Quit APP_NAME_HERE and Keep Windows

For example, if your checkbox is normally checked, you can preserve the Paper Tape in Calculator by quitting with cmd-option-Q instead of cmd-Q.
 

supak111

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2008
55
1
OMG thats it! Thank you so much. This has been driving me nuts. And holding down the option key is a neat trick thanks for that as well bud.
 

macinjosh9895

macrumors member
May 12, 2019
31
4
Nevada
I'm so glad to have found this thread! Losing my calculator tape was driving me nuts too on my new Mac because of that check box. Thank you!
 
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