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Messages app now quits when close window?

This is not a bug. I recall Apple introducing this sort of functionality as a feature a couple versions of MacOS ago. I've always had it happen (not consistently) with Safari, and occasionally Mail. It seems the Messages implementation is new to Mojave.

Ah... I found this article explaining Apple introduced "automatic background quit" in 10.7.
 
This behavior is incredibly annoying as it removes Messages from the CMD-Tab switcher.

I don't particularly care if the dock has an icon or if the app is technically open or closed.... but I DO need to access it via CMD-Tab.

This Mac app is now working how Windows apps typically work.

This feels like a new, poorly thought out behavior to me. Not a "bug".

I posted about this issue here:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...essages-app-from-quitting-when-i-close-its-wi
 
pkamb said:
This behavior is incredibly annoying as it removes Messages from the CMD-Tab switcher.

I don't particularly care if the dock has an icon or if the app is technically open or closed.... but I DO need to access it via CMD-Tab.

This Mac app is now working how Windows apps typically work.

This feels like a new, poorly thought out behavior to me. Not a "bug".

I posted about this issue here:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...essages-app-from-quitting-when-i-close-its-wi
Click to expand...

Well it doesn't happen on fresh installs so it does look like a bug, and DrCoop already posted a fix in this thread so if it's annoying you then you should try that.
 
Seeing this behavior too, is this how Apple "fixes" their buggy apps now? Um just make it quit and restart to sync lol
 
DrCoop said:
Just tried this and it worked for me. My Air was doing it, but my iMac wasn't. No way I could have kept on going with it quitting every time I close it. Hopefully this works for others.

Disable Automatic Termination in Mac OS X
Launch Terminal and enter the following defaults write command:

defaults write -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool yes

Remember to restart iMessage afterward.

-RC


Source:
http://osxdaily.com/2012/05/15/disable-automatic-termination-of-apps-in-mac-os-x/
Click to expand...

Thank you! I feel like I only started seeing this with 14.1 or 14.2, so I was surprised to see the thread go back so far, but maybe I just hadn't noticed.
 
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Same issue here since Mojave. Have a MacPro 12C/64GB The problem is, after a while if clock the messages app, it tooks about 3-4 seconds to appear. Does appear instantly as it was for years. This is stupid, because you have always to wait till it's appear.
 
anthonyzp said:
Just updated to Mojave. I am a heavy iMessage user using the Messages app on my MacBook.

I like to 'close' my windows for all my apps running and Mail and Messages would still run (black dot indicator below app icon on dock) in the background and when a new message arrived, I'd click Messages app and the app would pop up right away.

Now in Mojave I have noticed when you close the Messages window, the app actually quits so when you go to read a new message, the app opens up first (app icon bounces on dock a few times before opening) which just takes a few seconds rather than instant.

Anyone else noticing this changed behaviour?
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1545281016][/doublepost]Yep. Me, too. Took me a while to figure out it wasn't me. Don't like it.
 
In my case the app quits sometimes instantly and sometimes not. Can‘t figure it out when this or that happens.
 
Anyone have an actual fix for this? I just installed 10.14.4 and it's still happening. Only with Messages.

Come Apple... we've all been patient!
 
Hmm, ok so here is the exact behaviour
1 open imessage, the app and the bulb that show you that app from the dock is open is there
2 close the imessage , the bulb is still there until your pointer is focusing/selecting another app
3 the bulb disappear when you select/enter in another app or just press anywhere on the desktop
4 the bulb even if it is not there, the imessage is still opened , so the issue is an grafic one, the bulb is not there and the app doesn't show on the cmd+tab
Its clear an difference when you open the imessage from an cmd+w and from an cmd+q

This issue is from the beginning of Mojave, i was the first one to report it and talk with apple about this last year
 
When the window closes, the app is still running in the background. It still shows up in Activity Monitory.

Have they told you it was a bug?
 
they told me they will looking into it...months later still nothing but i never contact them again
 
We must have had different issues. I should have been more clear in my description. The application closes / is removed from the dock BUT the application is still running if you look in the activity monitor.
 
Ah gotcha, but that should still fix it! If you Command-Q it'll quit fully. If you close the window, it'll stay open and running and the dock icon will reflect that.
 
mj_ said:
Exactly. And Messages is not terminating. Instead, the indicator simply disappears but the application continues to run in the background nevertheless. Thus, it behaves completely irrational and unlike every other application I've encountered.
Click to expand...

As I wrote, "If an app is quit, the process can be silently kept alive so that when the app is re-opened, it relaunches instantly. If system resources are strained, the process can be killed."

Again, this is normal behavior for applications that adopt automatic termination. macOS can keep the process alive so that relaunching is instantaneous. It's free to terminate the process to reclaim resources. This is similar to the behavior of iOS. You're not supposed to worry about process management.
 
Last edited:
slb said:
As I wrote, "If an app is quit, the process can be silently kept alive so that when the app is re-opened, it relaunches instantly. If system resources are strained, the process can be killed."

Again, this is normal behavior for applications that adopt automatic termination. macOS can keep the process alive so that relaunching is instantaneous. It's free to terminate the process to reclaim resources. This is similar to the behavior of iOS. You're not supposed to worry about process management.
Click to expand...

I still think it's a bug. The exact behaviour is you close the window and it stays active in the dock. It doesn't "disappear" from there until you click on some other app. This is completely different from any other other app that "closes" when you minimize the window.
 
anthonyzp said:
Just updated to Mojave. I am a heavy iMessage user using the Messages app on my MacBook.

I like to 'close' my windows for all my apps running and Mail and Messages would still run (black dot indicator below app icon on dock) in the background and when a new message arrived, I'd click Messages app and the app would pop up right away.

Now in Mojave I have noticed when you close the Messages window, the app actually quits so when you go to read a new message, the app opens up first (app icon bounces on dock a few times before opening) which just takes a few seconds rather than instant.

Anyone else noticing this changed behaviour?
Click to expand...

Well, I appear to have resolved this issue... finally.

The trick was to disable all the accounts listed in iMessage preferences, rebooting and then re-enabling. iMessage hasn't "died" when minimized since I have done this.
 
saduser said:
I still think it's a bug. The exact behaviour is you close the window and it stays active in the dock. It doesn't "disappear" from there until you click on some other app. This is completely different from any other other app that "closes" when you minimize the window.
Click to expand...

Again, this is normal behavior. If the application is also configured to quit when its last window is closed, it will quit immediately.
 
If you read my last update, I explained what I did to get the behaviour back to normal...

Nothing else changed on my system. iMessages no longer "quits".
 
saduser said:
If you read my last update, I explained what I did to get the behaviour back to normal...

Nothing else changed on my system. iMessages no longer "quits".
Click to expand...

If an application implements a certain delegate method, it can return true if certain conditions are met, and this will quit the application when the last window is closed (I assume you mean "close" when you write "minimize"). If you changed your account configuration, or the state of the window manager changed due to rebooting, there may be a reason now that Messages returns false.

Really, you're not supposed to be concerned about when exactly the application quits. That was supposed to be the point of behaviors like automatic termination. In practice, users still pay attention to it.
 
maverick808 said:
Well it doesn't happen on fresh installs so it does look like a bug, and DrCoop already posted a fix in this thread so if it's annoying you then you should try that.
Click to expand...

I'll throw some additional information into the mix. 2016 15" MacBook Pro i7 16GB ram, this was my first Mac and I've done fresh installs at each major os release. I never once noticed this "auto-terminate" behavior, even after a 10.14 Mojave fresh install last fall. Because my Mac has got really glitchy lately, I decided to do another fresh install, this time of 10.14.4 Mojave. After this install, the auto-terminate feature seemed to be enabled.

Very odd and poor code control in my opinion.
 
djshack said:
This is not a bug. I recall Apple introducing this sort of functionality as a feature a couple versions of MacOS ago. I've always had it happen (not consistently) with Safari, and occasionally Mail. It seems the Messages implementation is new to Mojave.

Ah... I found this article explaining Apple introduced "automatic background quit" in 10.7.
Click to expand...

omg thank you
GvKmOms.png
 
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I had to post as I am having the same issue here but I had it both with Mojave and Catalina. @maverick808 posted that this issue does not happen on fresh installs....this is incorrect. I just bought a 2019 15” MBP and since I first opened it I have had this issue. Updated to Catalina and issue remains.
 
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