How to quit Finder on Mac

Finder is the one app on your Mac that doesn't have a Quit option. Right-click the Dock icon — no Quit. Hit ⌘Q — nothing happens. Apple deliberately omits it, treating Finder as part of the operating system rather than a normal app. But with one defaults command, you can add the Quit menu item back and quit Finder like any other app.

Why would you want to quit Finder?

There are a few legitimate reasons:

• Troubleshooting: Finder sometimes gets stuck — windows stop refreshing, the sidebar goes blank, Spotlight stops showing file results. A full quit-and-relaunch often fixes these issues more cleanly than killall Finder.
• Memory: On a Mac with limited RAM, Finder can hold onto a surprising amount of memory, especially after you've browsed large folders of images or videos. Quitting it frees that memory immediately.
• Using a Finder alternative: Apps like Forklift, Path Finder, or Commander One can replace Finder for day-to-day file management. To stop Finder from appearing on top, you need to actually quit it.
• Clean state: If you're doing any scripting or automation that involves file system events, starting with a fresh Finder can eliminate noise from cached state.

Enable the Quit Finder menu item

Open Terminal (you can find it in Applications › Utilities, or search with Spotlight using ⌘Space) and run:

# Add "Quit Finder" to the Finder menu
defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool true

# Restart Finder to apply
killall Finder

After Finder relaunches, you'll see Quit Finder at the bottom of the Finder application menu (the one that says "Finder" in the menu bar). You can also press ⌘Q while Finder is the active app, just like any other application.

How to quit and relaunch Finder

Once the menu item is enabled, quitting Finder is straightforward:

1. Click the desktop or a Finder window to make Finder the active app.
2. Press ⌘Q, or go to Finder › Quit Finder in the menu bar.
3. Finder closes. The Dock icon stays, but the windows disappear.

To relaunch Finder, you have several options:

• Click the Finder icon in the Dock — it relaunches immediately.
• Open Spotlight (⌘Space), type "Finder", and press Return.
• Run this in Terminal: open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app

A note on auto-relaunch

macOS is designed to keep Finder running. Several actions will automatically relaunch Finder even after you've quit it:

• Opening a file from another app (like double-clicking an attachment to reveal it)
• Plugging in an external drive
• Certain system events that require the desktop to be available

This is expected behavior. Quitting Finder gives you the option to have it stopped — it doesn't permanently prevent macOS from relaunching it when something needs it.

How to undo it

If you want to go back to the default behavior (no Quit option in Finder), run:

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool false
killall Finder

The Quit Finder item disappears from the menu after Finder relaunches, and ⌘Q stops doing anything while Finder is active.

Compatibility

This works on macOS Ventura (13), Sonoma (14), and Sequoia (15). The QuitMenuItem key has been part of macOS for a long time — it's a well-documented and stable setting, not an undocumented hack.