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New MacOS user - help - apps running but no windows

T

titanium69

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 5, 2016
45
217
Malta
Hey,
Disclaimer: I´m a completely new mac OS user but windows power user.

On my dock i have apps showing as running (the little dot under them) but when i 3 finger swipe up I have the message of no windows. As a windows user this makes no sense to me. However for mac is it the case that I have the apps running in the background but no active windows? If this is true what is the point of having an app running but no windows. Is this the equivalent of running the background for MS windows? If so what would be the point of certain apps running in the background like notepad... its not like it´s gonna receive messages or updates.
 
If an app supports multiple documents (such as a word processor or browser) then it'll keep running when the last window is closed. Perhaps you closed one document, ready to open another, so it wouldn't make sense to make you quit and relaunch the app. Only single-document apps, like System Settings, are supposed to quit on close.
 
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Hi, Titanium69 – Nermal is correct! From the macOS User Guide:

Closing one or all windows for an app doesn’t quit the app—it remains open (indicated by the small dot below the app’s icon in the Dock). To quit the app, press Command-Q.
Click to expand...

(Good luck with the Mac!)
 
To add to the above.

On the Mac, some apps DO close when you click the red button or choose "quit" -- these are apps that usually have only one window, such as disk utility.

HOWEVER...
Many (most?) apps stay "loaded and running", even if you close all document windows.
This works on the simple apps (like TextEdit) and the big ones (like MS Office).

Yes, this "feature" is very different from the way Windows works.
Even so... you'll get used to it quickly.
 
What is the point? Apps take less than 1 second to launch from scratch anyway... why do i need something to remain using RAM/CPU & battery without having a window open for it?

Help me understand because i´m quickly losing my patience with this os.
 
Remember that "different" does not mean "bad". I too used to get annoyed by this behaviour when I first switch to Mac, but now that I'm used to it I find Windows to be the strange one.

Some apps take several seconds to load (for example, take a look at this recent thread about Word), and consider that the decision was made in the era of floppy disks, when load times were much longer than they are now. Keeping an app in memory until you explicitly say "I have finished with it" gives you more control over the computer, vs. it unloading an app just because it "thinks" you don't need it again.
 
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One will use more battery by constantly relaunching a program than leaving it running. There are ALOT of things happening when a program is launched: read from disk, load resource files/libraries, finish linking program to libraries, allocate memory, create/initialize/map windows for the program, "phone home" to see if authorized (where applicable), and so on.

The idle program is not getting in the way. Launch Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app to see what's going on. For example, there is a tab for "Energy" and you can see that pretty much anything not actively being used is using almost zero energy.
 
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It should be pretty easy to adapt your Windows skills to using Mac OS. I’m strictly a Mac user since ‘87. As the saying goes, “I don’t do Windows”. However I am quite comfortable using a Windows machine when certain needs arise, or when helping other Windows users with their computers.
 
There was a time when inactive apps quit automatically after some time of inactivity. I think it was called "app nap"? I always hated this feature - as if I opened an app it means I want to to be open regardless of what the OS thinks about it - so I always disable the app nap.

But from this discussion, it looks like it's not the case anymore, that is there's no app nap?
 
Another thing of interest would be to go into System Settings -> Desktop & Dock and enable "Close windows when quitting an application" (macOS versions differ on where this is, what version do you have?)
 
zevrix said:
There was a time when inactive apps quit automatically after some time of inactivity. I think it was called "app nap"? I always hated this feature - as if I opened an app it means I want to to be open regardless of what the OS thinks about it - so I always disable the app nap.

But from this discussion, it looks like it's not the case anymore, that is there's no app nap?
Click to expand...
I use the free utility Quitter. I can tell it to quit or hide certain apps after a period of inactivity. It runs in the background and has a small icon in the menu bar where I can edit its settings. Works very well and I've had no problems with it.

My day-to-day setup is to have a few spaces on my main monitor, each occupied by a fullscreen app/window, plus one with the desktop and lots of smaller apps and utilities like; Mail, Notes, Calender etc. Many of these I set to hide after a few minutes, so that when I return to the desktop space, it's usually nice and tidy and not cluttered with these apps even though I've recently used them. I like it that way. Kinda like Stage Manager, but better IMO.

Btw, I always recommend the excellent videos of Macmost on Youtube for people wanting to get into mac. Great resource.
 
Thanks for all the info. Lately I`ve been snappy and the macbook drained battery a little too fast for the basic web browsing I did so I am a bit pissed about that too (sent it back in fact).

getting a replacement and will continue learning. Thanks everyone!
 
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