How to stop Preview from opening past documents

[southerndoc]

This seems to have come about with the macOS 12.2 update. When I now open a document with Preview, it brings up past documents that were open (if I didn't close the window). It even brings up documents that I've trashed and even emptied the trash.

Does anyone know where the setting is to stop this from occurring?

 

[chscag]

Preview -> File -> Open Recent -> Clear Menu.

 

[southerndoc]

Preview -> File -> Open Recent -> Clear Menu.

Do you have to do that every single time that you close Preview?

 

[chscag]

I don't think so. At least I can't remember having to do that each time.

 

[southerndoc]

Unfortunately, it's still occurring.

 

[rbwca]

I'm not seeing that behaviour on MacOS 12.2 If I open a file in Preview, and then Cmd-Q to quit, there are no files open when I restart Preview. The important part of your original post is "It brings up past documents (if I didn't close the window)". If you don't close the file, Preview keeps it open.

 

[chown33]

Try holding down the OPTION key when you quit Preview with windows open.
The next time Preview opens, it should be without the prior windows.

If you click the Close box on any open window with the OPTION key down, it should close all windows. This also works with the ⌘W key, i.e. hold down OPTION and press ⌘W, and all windows should close.

To see more actions affected by the OPTION key, hold it down, then click a menu and see what the menu-item names change to.

 

[southerndoc]

I'll try the option key. With previous macOS versions, I didn't have to do this. If I opened a document, it wouldn't open past documents + the document I intended to open. Now it does unless I close the window/document prior to closing Preview. I believe it's a bug. I don't close Word files individually when I close Word. If I had 9 documents open when I close Word, it saves them. When I reopen Word, it doesn't bring up all 9 documents. Preview does.

 

[deepdrop]

I hope it's ok if I ask a question that is similar, but not exactly the same as the OP's question. I usually leave Preview open. I use it often, so I leave the Preview application open but I minimize the documents and they reside in the right side of the dock, out of the way, but I can click on them to open them, OR I can click on Preview/Open recent documents/ and open them that way.
Suppose that Preview is open in the background, all my open Preview documents are minimized (maybe 3-4 total). Now, suppose I want to make Preview the active, "front" application. I click on the Preview app on the left side of the dock which brings it to the front, but it always opens one of the documents that are minimized in the dock. For some reason this bothers me.
I guess I could just click on the minimized document that I want to open, but for me it is quicker to bring Preview to the front, and use "open recent" to open a recent document, even if it is sitting in its minimized state on the right side of the dock. As I write this, it seems to make less and less sense as a process, but what can I say? It's how I do it.
Anyway, is it possible to click on the Preview app to bring it to the front, without having it open one of my minimized apps? Thanks for any help!

 

[LLMJ]

Try holding down the OPTION key when you quit Preview with windows open.
The next time Preview opens, it should be without the prior windows.

If you click the Close box on any open window with the OPTION key down, it should close all windows. This also works with the ⌘W key, i.e. hold down OPTION and press ⌘W, and all windows should close.

To see more actions affected by the OPTION key, hold it down, then click a menu and see what the menu-item names change to.

Hello, thank you for this tip! It works, but unfortunately I have to use this command every time I close preview, otherwise it opens all recent docs since the last time the command was used. Do you know if there is a workaround for this? Thank you in advance, Linda

 

[stevemiller]

in my case i don't think this is user error but legitimate macos bugginess. i've tried and the behaviour on my end is neither consistent nor repeatable. at complete random, opening an image in preview will also open some other image i'd previously had open (worth noting - not even the most recent. it can be any image that had previously been opened in preview). "close windows when quitting an application" - which should prevent this behaviour is checked, and having explicitly closed a photo before quitting has no impact on whether it will reappear on next launch of preview (even though this should not be the users responsibility given that setting)

further, this appears to be an issue with all apple apps on my machine. it feels like they tried to make this reopening behaviour a setting, but in fact just having implemented a buggy system that does it at complete random. it also happens in terminal where i will launch the app and sometimes get spammed with dozens of prior session windows relaunching.

in the case of terminal, its annoying. in the case of preview, this is kind of a privacy nightmare?

 

[joeblow7777]

in my case i don't think this is user error but legitimate macos bugginess. i've tried and the behaviour on my end is neither consistent nor repeatable. at complete random, opening an image in preview will also open some other image i'd previously had open (worth noting - not even the most recent. it can be any image that had previously been opened in preview). "close windows when quitting an application" - which should prevent this behaviour is checked, and having explicitly closed a photo before quitting has no impact on whether it will reappear on next launch of preview (even though this should not be the users responsibility given that setting)

further, this appears to be an issue with all apple apps on my machine. it feels like they tried to make this reopening behaviour a setting, but in fact just having implemented a buggy system that does it at complete random. it also happens in terminal where i will launch the app and sometimes get spammed with dozens of prior session windows relaunching.

in the case of terminal, its annoying. in the case of preview, this is kind of a privacy nightmare?

I see that this is a few months old, but I have the same issue.

It seems pretty random, so I haven't been able to pinpoint what causes it, but sometimes when I open something in Preview, previously opened documents or images will open as well, even though I had completely quit Preview, and in my settings, the option to "close windows when quitting an application" is checked.

It's a little problematic to never know what personal documents or images might pop up on my screen when I open a file...

 

[dandeco]

I agree with the concerns. It also happens with QuickTime Player. Generally I have to make sure I close a document and make sure it opens to the "open file" window before quitting Preview and QuickTime Player. Sometimes I may open up a far less sensitive document or whatever before doing what I mentioned, just to be on the safe side.

 

[chown33]

There is a system-wide setting for this.

Prevent apps and windows from reopening on Mac - Apple Support

Apps and their windows might automatically reopen when you log in to your Mac or open each app. Here's how to control this behavior.

support.apple.com

See the headings "Prevent windows from reopening when you open an app"
and "Other solutions".

Also see:

Quit apps on Mac

On your Mac, quit apps to keep from using significant energy or to make sure they don’t reopen when you restart your computer.

support.apple.com

After the setting has been turned off, you may be able to enable it for a specific app by holding the Option modifier key while choosing Quit from the app menu, or Option-⌘-Q. I don't know if all apps support this automatically, or whether it's something an app's developer has to do.

As I noted above, the Option key often provides alternatives to menu items. Hold down the Option key while the app's self-titled menu is displayed, and see if the name of the Quit menu item changes.

 

[stevemiller]

There is a system-wide setting for this.

Prevent apps and windows from reopening on Mac - Apple Support

Apps and their windows might automatically reopen when you log in to your Mac or open each app. Here's how to control this behavior.

support.apple.com

See the headings "Prevent windows from reopening when you open an app"
and "Other solutions".

Also see:

Quit apps on Mac

On your Mac, quit apps to keep from using significant energy or to make sure they don’t reopen when you restart your computer.

support.apple.com

After the setting has been turned off, you may be able to enable it for a specific app by holding the Option modifier key while choosing Quit from the app menu, or Option-⌘-Q. I don't know if all apps support this automatically, or whether it's something an app's developer has to do.

As I noted above, the Option key often provides alternatives to menu items. Hold down the Option key while the app's self-titled menu is displayed, and see if the name of the Quit menu item changes.

Just noting, as mentioned many of us have disabled these settings and the behaviour persists. And QuickTime and preview are first party apps and should follow the OS setting, there is no additional spot to override and ask for old windows to reopen that I can find. In fact this issue only happens with first party apps for me.

Finally, holding shift or rebooting to safe mode between sessions do not seem like reasonable workarounds to expect of a user on a regular basis.

Personally, this feels like a poorly implemented system and it would be nice if Apple took some accountability for making things like this work better. The down side is that since it’s frequent but not perfectly repeatable, I’m sure it’s not as likely to get fixed even if we report it.

 

[chown33]

Just noting, as mentioned many of us have disabled these settings and the behaviour persists. And QuickTime and preview are first party apps and should follow the OS setting, there is no additional spot to override and ask for old windows to reopen that I can find. In fact this issue only happens with first party apps for me.

Finally, holding shift or rebooting to safe mode between sessions do not seem like reasonable workarounds to expect of a user on a regular basis.

Personally, this feels like a poorly implemented system and it would be nice if Apple took some accountability for making things like this work better. The down side is that since it’s frequent but not perfectly repeatable, I’m sure it’s not as likely to get fixed even if we report it.

Sometimes a setting gets into a weird state. Try toggling the setting, then toggling it back. Historically, one would also need to quit the app and relaunch it for a setting change to take effect.

If that doesn't work, the only other thing I can think of is that the file which stores the setting (probably somewhere under ~/Library) might be damaged or have weird permissions. I'll have to think about a strategy that might reveal which file the setting might be stored in, so someone with a stuck setting could remove the file.

EDIT
One way to find out whether the stuck setting is only on one account or is stuck for everyone would be to make a new Mac account in Users & Groups. Don't use an Apple ID for login, just make it a simple password login. The reason for this is you don't want it syncing to any stored iCloud settings.

If the new account can be configured to have the setting enabled and disabled correctly, and it persists between logins of that account, as well as reboot, then that suggests the problem lies only with the original Mac account.

If someone tries this, please post results.

 

[stevemiller]

Sometimes a setting gets into a weird state. Try toggling the setting, then toggling it back. Historically, one would also need to quit the app and relaunch it for a setting change to take effect.

If that doesn't work, the only other thing I can think of is that the file which stores the setting (probably somewhere under ~/Library) might be damaged or have weird permissions. I'll have to think about a strategy that might reveal which file the setting might be stored in, so someone with a stuck setting could remove the file.

EDIT
One way to find out whether the stuck setting is only on one account or is stuck for everyone would be to make a new Mac account in Users & Groups. Don't use an Apple ID for login, just make it a simple password login. The reason for this is you don't want it syncing to any stored iCloud settings.

If the new account can be configured to have the setting enabled and disabled correctly, and it persists between logins of that account, as well as reboot, then that suggests the problem lies only with the original Mac account.

If someone tries this, please post results.

yeah i could see that as a possible way to isolate if there's a corrupt plist or something. for me it'll still be hard to test on a fresh account since it can be very intermittent, sometimes days or more between occurrences and i need my main account to get work done. but i'll consider setting it up to see if i can catch the behaviour.