Comments on: Turn Off Resume on a Per App Basis in Mac OS X Lion with defaults write

By: April

April — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:17:33 +0000

THANK YOU, this has been the bane of my existence in Lion; the only application in which it’s been extremely useful is TextEdit, but Preview and Safari have been awful.

By: Carroll

Carroll — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:10:08 +0000

The latest version of TinkerTool (4.7) has added the resume option for individual apps.

By: Lior

Lior — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:11:14 +0000

Hey guys, this doesn’t work for me…
My finder keeps closing all my windows after restart, even though I have open windows after restart…
I really miss SnowLeopard. I want NONE of the apps to resume and Finder to keep all my windows open after restart. Anyone?

By: Matthew Perkins

Matthew Perkins — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:18:59 +0000

this is handy if you want to turn off resume for all apps, just run in terminal:

for i in $(ls ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/); do name=$(echo $i | sed ‘s/.savedState//’); defaults write $name NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false; done

By: TjSnake

TjSnake — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:03:52 +0000

I tried this. I tried RestoreMeNot and both didn’t work. Can anyone help? I don’t want to disable whole function I just want to block some apps. But neither Terminal commands and RestoreMeNot work. It does on another computer.

By: HateResume

HateResume — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:00:38 +0000

I want this disabled on ALL apps. I just find it extremely annoying, not helpful at all. I’ve gone to System Pref–General and turned it off.

But this doesn’t turn it off.

Anyone else have this problem? The general system-wide disable just doesn’t function.

By: Frederic

Frederic — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:46:36 +0000

A few complements about how to disable the resume feature on a app basis:
- if you execute the “default write …” command when the app is not running, there is chance that the next time you start it the last open window(s) will be resumed again, but if you close and reopen the app they will not appear (I had the problem with Preview.app)
- if you execute the command while the application is running, you will not have this problem (again, it was the behaviour I got with the Preview.app)

- when modifying the resume behaviour for an application stored in /Applications, instead of using a string like “com.apple.Preview” to specify the domain you want to modify, you can use the “-app” option with the name of the application as found in /Applications (without the .app extension; compare: com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX vs -app “QuickTime Player” — (single or double) quotes are mandatory when the app name includes some spaces, or use backlash instead)

By: Haravikk

Haravikk — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:49:07 +0000

Thanks for posting this tip!

However, I’ve found an interesting case; TextEdit! It doesn’t save its window state in ~/Library/Saved Application State, so locking that folder won’t stop it. In addition, the following command does nothing:
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

This means that TextEdit has Resume functionality without actually using the normal behaviour for the feature, very annoying! Anyone know how to stop TextEdit without turning Resume off completely?

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:22:48 +0000

I tried this with Microsoft Word and it doesn’t work :/

By: How do I stop preview and such from ever opening recently closed files. - MacNN Forums

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:53:53 +0000

[...] Originally Posted by BigWheel88 Is there a preference somewhere where I can stop the Lion behavior in some apps that opens files I did not manually close before quitting the app such as Preview? Is this the auto save feature? I would also like to turn that off also if it is a separate thing. I do not use time machine so I dont think the auto save is on but cant find a specific setting in the pref panes. I put this is Apps because I dont know if it an OS thing or app level thing. I realize I can just close the file before quitting the app, but i dont want to as I have never had to before Lion. If I want a recent file i will got to the file menu and use "open recent". Thanks There is a preference for that, however it is for all applications so unless you use a "defaults write" terminal command it's all or nothing. If you don't want to turn it off for any apps, just make sure all the windows are closed before quitting the app. If you want to turn it off for all apps, go to the General panel of System Preferences and under the "Number of recent items:" section uncheck the box next to "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps." If you want to turn it off for only some apps, then follow the instructions posted here. [...]

By: will

will — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:07:22 +0000

option+command+q rather than just command q disables that app you close from resuming where it was left off..

just an alternative to terminal for those who don’t fully understand it and how you can permanently damage your system from misuse

By: Easily Manage OS X Lion’s Resume Feature for Every Application with Resuminator

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:04:46 +0000

[...] apps, but don’t want it enabled for others. Up until now, you’ve had to issue either app-specific defaults write commands or lock saved states folders, or just disable Resume [...]

By: The Problem with Resume mcgvr

The Problem with Resume mcgvr — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:10:21 +0000

[...] This too can also be completely turned off in System Preferences. Alternatively, Resume can be turned off per-app via some Terminal hackery. [...]

By: Apple lion problem with excel - MBClub UK

Apple lion problem with excel - MBClub UK — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:09:33 +0000

[...] new app I haven't looked at this article just yet because I do not have any issues as yet but this may be the solution to your [...]

By: clasqm

clasqm — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:59:17 +0000

Have try this right now. Preview is driving me insane reloading a dozen PDFs I’m all done with.