MacOS – Preview is closed in Mavericks when last window is closed

macospreview

I did the direct jump from Snow Leopard to Mavericks and there is possibility that I have missed some changes in the versions in between. Nonetheless, here is my problem:

When I open a document (e.g. an image) preview shows up and does its job. The problem is when I press the close button in the finder, the Preview is closed completely. In 10.6 Preview would remain open, indicated by little white dot bellow its icon in the dock. How can I keep Preview open and let it close only if I send a cmd+q?

Best Answer

You need to disable Preview's automatic termination.

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool TRUE && killall -HUP Finder

This is due to Lion's automatic termination which was introduced so that apps which have no windows open and are not performing a task can be quit to save system resources. Generally it's good to leave on, but if you really want to disable it, use the above command.

You can disable automatic termination in all apps by setting it in the global preferences.

defaults write -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool TRUE && killall -HUP Finder