Why does clicking the close-window button in Anki on macOS quit the application?

Anki Help
1

it should just close the window like other applications

2

An easy workaround is to just use Cmd+H if you like that behavior.

3

Which window are you closing? If you close the main window of the app – Decks list, study screen – it will close the app.

4

Apple’s interface guidelines say that “In most cases, applications that are not document-based should quit when the main window is closed.”

You can see this in many of the built-in apps like Photos or System Settings.

6

Unlike Photos or System Settings, Anki functions like Safari or Finder with multiple windows. Since I edit and study simultaneously, closing the main window shouldn’t quit the app or clutter the Dock, and hiding hides everything. Command + M doesn’t minimize secondary windows (e.g., the CSV import dialog), and there’s no Window menu item for macOS’s window-tiling shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are inconsistent—adding cards depends on the active window, and deleting requires globe + Forward Delete, which external keyboards often lack. Anki’s design feels more Windows-oriented than macOS-native.

7

Well it is not about single or multiple window, it’s about being document-based or not. Anki is arguably not document-based. (There is the possibility to switch between multiple profiles, but a single user does not usually frequently switch between profiles for most Anki-based workflows.)

The other things that you argue can be true, but not really related to the initial question in the OP. Anki is neither Windows-oriented nor macOS-native, it’s a multiplatform application built on Qt, a multiplatform GUI framework. You’d expect it to behave like other Qt-based applications, if anything.

8

Thanks for the detailed reply, I hope that in the future there will be a macOS native fork for Anki