Even more warndialogs: MacOS 26 Petzen apps that run in the background

“Your Mac has realized that this app was not ended as expected and is still running”. This warning text appears in MacOS 26 TAHOO if certain processes of an app continue to run in the background after the termination command. Apple drawn attention to this on the sidelines of the WWDC.

Mac developers are supposed to clean up processes

All app processes should be ended as soon as someone decides to close the app, according to the note In a session for data protection in app development. An Apple employee emphasized apps that start processes via Fork, Exec or Posix Spawn again when ending.

MacOS 26 “recognizes heuristic” whether such processes continue – and then warns the user. This gets the options that only allow it once or always or forced the app. No further details were mentioned.

Testers of the first beta of MacOS 26 Tahoe describe the warning as irritating. It appears, for example, when you close apps such as Apple Mail or the configuration surface of tools such as the VPN client Wireguard or the Firewall Lulu. The latter two in particular are specifically designed to run continuously in the background. In the beta warndialog, the operating system points out that these apps have access to “sensors or personal data” in the background – “even if they don’t seem open”.

More and more warndialogs in MacOS

It is not the only new warndialog that Apple is planning for MacOS 26 Tahoe: access to the clipboard also has to be explicitly nodded off by the user in the future. For the time being, it remains open how this looks in the final version of the operating system, which is expected to appear in September. At iOS, the introduction of demand was bumpy and initially led to a constant fire from largely unnecessary warndial fan. In recent years, Apple has always integrated new inquiries and warnings into the operating system, which professional users are increasingly annoying and is often difficult for beginners to understand.