How to prevent Preview from opening files when it launches

Quit Preview.

Navigate to ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState/

Quick way to get there…

  • From Finder...
  • Cmd ⌘ N for new window

  • Cmd ⌘ Shift ⇧ G for Go To…

  • Copy/paste ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState/

  • Hit Enter

Delete the entire contents of the com.apple.Preview.savedState folder.

Late Edit: I've noticed the Preview saved state folder is now an alias in more recent OSes; in which case when deleting the contents, don't also delete the alias. The original is in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState


There are two options for doing this without having to touch config files:

  • To do this one time only, you can hold down Shift ⇧ while opening any app to temporarily disable the "reopen windows on launch" feature
  • To disable this behavior for all apps indefinitely, open System Preferences, go to General, and check "Close windows when quitting an app" near the bottom.