Inspiring

Question

Quitting Photoshop on Close

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 4, 2023
6 replies
6426 views

I see several posts regarding issues when trying to close Photoshop and it wont close. The advice is to Force Quit the app. What I am trying to understand is different. Simply, with all other apps on a Macbook, when I "close" the app using the red dot or menu, the app closes/quits. There is no process running for that app. However, with Photyoshop, either as a LR plugin or standalone, closing the app results in Photoshop still active in the dock. I can close it manually, but searching to understand why it doesnt quit when closed and clear the dock. Note that its not processing anything.

macOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

M

MaryScaia

Participating Frequently

There is a difference between 'close' and 'quit' on a Mac. Close means that you close the window and the app remains running. If you want to quit the app, you must 'quit' it by clicking on the app name and choosing Quit Photoshop.

Jeff Arola

Community Expert

From the macOS User Guide:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/quit-apps-mchl834d18c2/mac

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Hello, the apps that quit with the red button are single-windows ones.

J

jamesgerbocAuthor

Inspiring

I just got back and posted aa response above with screenshots. I'm starting to understand but still puzzled. Please see above.

gener7

Community Expert

Clicking the red button in the upper-left corner closes the workspace window and any open document windows, but not Photoshop. The menu is still at the top indicating Photoshop is still active. If you click the Ps Dock icon, the workspace (toolbar, and panels) return. However since your documents were closed with the workspace, you have to re-open them again.

So use Photoshop > Quit from the menu bar or its' shortcut Cmd-q to properly exit Photoshop.

If that does not respond, hold down the Option key and long press on the Ps Dock icon to get the "Force quit" option in the icon menu.

Ps 2023/MacOS 12.6.3

J

jamesgerbocAuthor

Inspiring

I posted a response above with screenshots and hoping you see it. There are still unexplainable inconsistencies in my mind. Thanks for taking time for this.

gener7

Community Expert

I understand your confusion with how various Adobe programs close, but someone reminded me that Adobe programs are not developed under one roof by one team, but in many locations and each team would have their own reasons. Non-disclosure agreements hide those reasons from those of us outside the programming staff.

That's why it's better just to stay away from the red button and use Cmd-Q to exit all single and multiple window MacOS progams if you want that consistency.

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

You're right, clicking the red button top left of Photoshop's main window closes the window but does. not quit the application.

I THINK that's normal mac behaviour.

[granted some mac apps do it]

The red button quit is like a Win thing, clicking the X quits on Win.

My habit for many years is to either quit from the menu, or from the dock icon. Or command Q of course.

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Could you please post screenshots?

The red button can be used to close a document, but has no relevance for the application itself in Photoshop.

Which menu item are you referring to with »when I "close" the app using the red dot or menu«? File > Quit?

J

jamesgerbocAuthor

Inspiring

In ANY application except Photoshop, when you close the application it quits the application. When I am done working in Photoshop and start other tasks I find Photoshop still running and must once again close it from the toolbar.

Screenshots are not going help. It's simply to your comment above. Why doesnt the app completely shutdown when you close, exit or quit it like other apps, including Lightroom?

Thanks,

Jim

Sent from Outlook Mobile

J

jamesgerbocAuthor

Inspiring

When I close (via red dot) LR, it asks if I want to quit, and the icon goes away. When I close (via red dot) PS, it closes but the icon stays in the dock. Why the inconsistency? Why doesnt PS ask if I want to quit, and quit? Why does Bridge just quit when I close it?
By @jamesgerboc

Again, the logic makes sense and is consistent to Apple and Adobe programmers, but not to users:

Lightroom Classic asks you if you want to quit mostly because you might be in the middle of working with 300 files from different folders (e.g. in a collection), so if you accidentally press Command-Q or click the red dot the app quits and you have to remember what you were doing with those 300 files, so it asks you before going away in the middle of your work, and that’s good.

Photoshop does not ask you if you want to quit for several reasons: You usually work with one or two documents, but typically not tens or hundreds at a time like you might in Lightroom. Photoshop has a Save command, so if all changes are saved you lose nothing if you quit, and if some changes are not saved it will ask you if you want to save before quitting, so that’s already covered.

Bridge is not an image editor like the other two. It’s mostly a file browser like the Mac Finder desktop. Similar to the Finder, Bridge does not maintain open unsaved documents or do direct image editing, so it also has no need for a Save command, so no work will be lost if it quits at any time, so it doesn’t ask you. (You could argue that Bridge should ask you because it can be used intensively on many images like Lightroom Classic.)

Thanks Conrad. I know you are correct and I trust the same, but to your comment... that it makes sense to programmers, not users... here is my problem. You are asked to quit LR because of possibly many documents but you are not asked in PS even though you may have spent days editing one image? Pick a workflow for all Adobe products. You mention LR does not have a SAVE and PS does. Again, that makes no sense. They both are editors. I use Lightroom and CameraRaw. They do the same thing! In addition, when I use PS as a plug-in and shutdown LR, LR closes but PS stays open, even though I saved the PS image back into LR. Thats just silly. These applications are very mature and widely embraced in the creative community. But I am new to them and the inconsistecy is troubling. Learning Photoshop is a nightmare because it is not inuitive. When you try what makes sense it doesnt work. The many, many, many shortcuts are like...click on CTRL+R to move LEFT instead of CTRL+L. Its maddening. But this issue of closing or not I was hopeful was related to Preferences/Settings or a programming mistake. I had no idea there would be other reasons.

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