When you restart or shut down your Mac, a confirmation dialogue box appears in the centre of the screen. By default, this box has a small option checked at the bottom that says “Reopen windows when logging back in.”
If you leave this checked, macOS will attempt to relaunch every single application and browser tab you currently have open the next time you start the computer. This significantly slows down the boot process and forces you to stare at a cluttered desktop immediately after logging in. Worse, if your Mac crashed because a specific app was frozen, reopening that same app upon reboot can trap you in a crash loop. You can disable this automatic reopening feature.
How to Stop Your Mac from Reopening Windows
There are two ways to handle this, depending on whether you want a temporary fix or a permanent habit change.
The Temporary Method (Per-Restart)
The easiest way to stop apps from reopening is to simply uncheck the box during the shutdown sequence.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner and select Restart… or Shut Down…
- Look at the confirmation pop-up box that appears.
- Uncheck the box labelled Reopen windows when logging back in.
- Click the blue Restart/Shut Down button.
Your Mac will boot up to a completely clean, empty desktop. However, macOS will remember this preference. The next time you restart, that box will remain unchecked by default until you manually check it again.
The Safe Boot Method (If Trapped in a Crash Loop)
If you accidentally left the box checked and your Mac is now stuck trying to reopen a frozen application upon login, you can bypass the resume feature entirely.
- Force your Mac to shut down by holding the physical power button for 10 seconds.
- Turn the Mac back on.
- When the login screen appears, click your username, type your password, but do not press Enter yet.
- Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard.
- While holding Shift, click the arrow button (or press Enter) to log in.
- Release the Shift key only when you see the Dock appear.
Holding Shift during login explicitly tells macOS to ignore the “resume windows” command for that specific session, allowing you to access a clean desktop and safely delete or update the problematic app.