Make it a preference to disable Photoshop from automatically becoming the active application when a document opens.

​@kklost 

Hang on. Disregard what I said in the other post. I did what I should have done right away: I tried it. You can already do what you want.

I launched a Photoshop action on multiple files from Bridge, watched it start, and then I opened Firefox. Firefox stayed open and in focus in the foreground, while I could see the batch action continuing and finish in the background.

Have you tried putting Photoshop in another Space (Desktop)?

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/work-in-multiple-spaces-mh14112/mac

​@NB, colourmanagement Sorry your explanation is not at all what I’m referring to.  Let me explain further.  I have a batch of images on my desktop, I right click and open them in PS, I have Scripts Events Manager setup on “Open Document” to run an action that duplicates the background layer, auto select the subject, and create a mask on that layer.  Photoshop will run this on all the images that I choose to open at once (lets say 10 images). While this automation is running I can’t work in any other application like google chrome for example, because each time an image opens in PS and is running the automation it is bringing PS to the front as the active application I’m “working” in even though I want to be in Google Chrome with PS running this all in the background.

Hi,

The application that is associated with a certain filetype (e.g. all JPEGS) is an operating system level (mac OS in your case) option.

It’s set like this: 

If you control click on an example of the filetype that’s auto opening in Photoshop and select “get info” you’ll see 2 options, one is to open that file using one of various aplications chosen from the displayed list, with an additional option to “Use this application to open all documents like this one”. (Look like this must have been set to “Photoshop” previously on your Mac) 

Since it seems your system has been set to always open the filetype you're using with Photoshop, every file of that type has previously been marked with ‘open with Photoshop’ default behaviour, you're going to have to globally reset that filetype preference to another app, e.g., globally set all JPEGs to open in Preview. 

So now you're seeing that it's all at once or one at a time!

Now if you want to open a file of that type with Photoshop, you’ll need to control-click on the icon and select open with Photoshop. That behaviour is saved, just for the file you're currently dealing with. 

I hope this helps

neil barstow colourmanagement - adobe forum volunteer, 

colourmanagement consultant & co-author of 'getting colour right'

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