Why an app keeps reopening after you quit it on a Mac

An app that keeps coming back after you quit it is almost always being started again by something else: a login item, a background helper the app installed, or macOS itself reopening your windows when you log in. Quitting only ends the program. It does nothing about whatever is set to start it. The fix is to find what is doing the starting and switch that off, and the steps below go from the most common cause to the least.

First, work out when it comes back, because the timing tells you which cause you have.

• It returns after a restart or a login: a login item, or the Mac reopening windows.
• It returns a few seconds after you quit it, with no restart: a helper or background service is relaunching it.
• It returns when you open something else: another app is launching it on purpose, such as a chat app opening a call tool.

Cause 1: it is a login item

Many apps add themselves to the list of things that open when you log in. You quit the app, restart the Mac, and there it is again. To check, open System Settings and choose General > Login Items & Extensions (Login Items on macOS 14). The list under “Open at Login” is every app that opens when you sign in. Select the app and click the minus button to remove it.

Below that list is a second one, “Allow in the Background”. These are not apps that open a window. They are helpers that apps have registered to run quietly. If the app you keep seeing has a switch there, turning it off stops its helper from starting. Apps sometimes stop working properly with that switch off, so turn off one thing at a time and see what changes. There is more on what that switch means in what Allow in the Background means in macOS settings.

Some apps also have their own setting, usually called something like “Launch at login” or “Open at startup”, inside their own preferences. If the app has one, switch that off first. It is the cleanest way, because the app removes its own entry.

Cause 2: a helper restarts it the moment you quit

If the app reappears within seconds, with no restart, look for a background program that watches it. Apps that keep something running all the time, such as a sync tool, a screen recorder’s controller, a VPN client or a menu bar utility, often install a launch agent. A launch agent is a settings file that tells macOS to start a program for you, usually at login, and it can carry a setting called KeepAlive, which means: if this program stops, start it again. With KeepAlive set, macOS starts the program again each time it stops, so quitting it only works for a moment.

You can look for these yourself. In Finder, choose Go, then Go to Folder (Shift-Command-G), and open ~/Library/LaunchAgents. Each file there belongs to a program that starts for your account. The file names usually include the maker’s name, which makes it easy to spot the app. The same kind of files for every user on the Mac live in /Library/LaunchAgents, and background programs that run for the whole Mac sit in /Library/LaunchDaemons.

Please do not delete these files by hand if you can avoid it. If the app has an Uninstall option or a setting that says “run in the background”, use that. The correct way for an app to stop is for its own settings to tell the helper to stop. Dragging a file to the Trash from here can leave an app half broken, and you cannot easily tell which entries are safe to remove. For the bigger picture, see launch agents and daemons on a Mac explained in plain English.

A quick way to test the theory, for an app with a Dock icon, is to quit it and watch the Dock, or press Option-Command-Escape to open the Force Quit window, which lists open apps. If the app is back a few seconds later, something is relaunching it. If it stays gone, the cause is a login item or window restore rather than a helper. (Menu bar apps do not show in the Dock or the Force Quit window, so for those, watch the menu bar.)

Cause 3: macOS reopens your windows

If the app returns only after a restart, shut down or log out, and it comes back with the same windows you had open, this is macOS doing what it was asked. When you choose Restart, Shut Down or Log Out, the confirmation box has a checkbox, “Reopen windows when logging back in”. When it is ticked, every app that was open comes back at the next login, whether or not it is a login item.

The simple fix is to untick that box before you restart, or quit the app before you shut down, and it will not return. A separate setting in System Settings under Desktop & Dock, “Close windows when quitting an application”, decides whether an app brings back its old windows and documents when you open it again. It does not stop the app itself from opening at login. The checkbox at shutdown is the one that matters here.

A related case is an app that you did not quit but closed the window of. On a Mac, closing the last window usually leaves the app running, and its Dock icon keeps a small dot underneath. It has not reopened. It never quit. Press Command-Q to quit it.

Cause 4: another app launches it

Some apps open other apps on purpose. A chat app might open a video call tool. A download manager might open the app that handles its files. A browser extension can open a helper app. If your app returns only when you use something else, that is the pattern. Look in the first app’s settings for an “open with”, “integration” or “helper” option, and turn off the link.

Finding the entry with Foreman

The trouble with the steps above is that they are spread over several places, and a launch agent file name does not always make clear which app it belongs to. Foreman is a Task Manager for macOS, and its Startup Apps page puts everything that opens at login or runs in the background into one list: login items, launch agents and daemons, and the background items apps register. Entries are grouped under the app they belong to and given readable names, so the app that keeps coming back is easy to find.

Each entry has a status, such as Enabled or Disabled, and “Impact now” shows whether it is running right now and how much it uses. To stop the app from returning, find its entry and choose Disable. If you change your mind, choose Enable. System daemons need an administrator password.

Two details are worth knowing. If an entry reads “Program missing”, it is a leftover from an app you already deleted, and Foreman can remove it, with its files going to the Trash. That is covered in how to remove login items left behind by deleted apps. And items an app registered through macOS’s own login items system can only be switched in System Settings, so for those Foreman opens System Settings for you instead.

Foreman’s Services page lists the background services (launchd jobs) for your account and for the system, running or not, with Start, Stop and Restart, so you can see whether a service with the app’s name is running. The Processes page helps too: each app’s helper processes sit under it, and the row opens to show them, so you can see what the app runs alongside itself.

Foreman costs $12 once and is free for 24 hours, so you can try it on this problem before deciding.

If it still comes back

Work through this short list.

1. Turn off the app’s own “launch at login” setting, then remove it from Login Items & Extensions.
2. Turn off its switch under Allow in the Background.
3. Untick “Reopen windows when logging back in” before you restart.
4. Check the app’s menu bar icon. Some apps keep a menu bar helper running whatever you do with the main app. Quit the helper from its own menu.
5. If the app has an uninstaller or a “remove helper” option, run that rather than hunting for files.

If an app is truly unwanted, uninstall it properly. Dragging it to the Trash can leave its launch agents and helpers behind, still set to start at login. Then look at the Startup Apps page for anything marked “Program missing” and clear it out.

Last, if none of this stops it, the app may be one that the Mac depends on. Parts of macOS, such as the Dock, are restarted by the system on purpose if they stop, and that is normal, not a fault.