Is there a way to run applications in the background that don't support it

Software
#1

Hi everyone, long time listener, first time caller.

Relatively new to the Mac ecosystem, but loving it, and learning lots of productivity tips on the way. One of those tools is Alfred. I’m a big user of the ‘Quit all apps’ command, but I’ve got a problem. There are some apps that really should run as processes (I mean in the menu bar, sorry if I’m not getting the terminology right) which run as docked apps (Caster from Ginger Audio, Totalmix which runs my Audio interface and a settings app for the same audio interface).

When I run the ‘Quit all apps’ command from Alfred, it quits all the running apps (quite rightly). However, I then have to restart those apps, and it’s something of a faff. Sure, I could run a bunch (thanks to Rosemary Orchard for that tip) but I’d rather do it more elegantly. I’ve emailed the developers of the apps, and while they’re working on that, it’s not imminent any time soon, so I’m looking for workarounds. My coding skills are nonexistent, I still find Github a bit intimidating, so I’d need something fairly plug and play.

Thanks for any help.

Michael

#2

Welcome to the forum. There is an app called QuitAll that may work for you. You can try it for free. It’s also on SetApp if you have a subscription to that.

#3

Oh, that’s like the opposite of Bunch. Thanks so much! I’m going to have to get a SetApp subscription I think. It really does look useful. That’s great, thanks again

#4

SetApp is of good value to me. Many others don’t like to “rent” software.

Re: QuitAll - you can choose which apps to never quit. If you do try QuitAll and you have any questions, please post.

#5

I’m trying it out now, it’s great. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you happen to know if it works with Alfred?

#6

That, I don’t know. I do not use Alfred. :grinning:

#7

No problem at all. Thanks anyway, much appreciated. I’ll go and do some digging.

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#8

Actually, just for the benefit of those reading, there’s a new(ish) Alfred automation that does this without the need for third-party software. I’m just in the process of getting it to work now. If you’re not an Alfred user, the QuitAll seems like a good solution to this problem.

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#9

You can use SwiftQuit (https://swiftquit.com/) which is completely free and allows you to do the same things as QuitAll.

You can choose to quit all apps by default but add certain exclusions. That should solve your issue.

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