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I dont know why but both Command-N and manually clicking open new window in the file menu of Terminal.app opens a new tab. Anyone encountered this before?

How can I make Terminal.app open new windows instead of a new tab?

oa-
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Lilypad
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    Thanks for posting this. I use a blank keyboard (Das Keyboard Ultimate) and noticed that Option+N kept creating new tabs instead of new windows. Thought I was going crazy. – David Stein Jul 19 '18 at 17:59

2 Answers2

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Yes, and this was very frustrating when I noticed it since I only ever use tabs in a browser, not to mention opening the tab bar resizes the window >:O

Go into System Preferences -> Dock, then make sure that "Prefer tabs when opening documents" is NOT set to "Always".

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djohns505
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    Oh my this was bugging me for a long time because the only app I use which honors this setting is iterm2 so I thought it was an issue in that app. Thanks! – quuxman Jun 08 '18 at 10:41
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    This behaviour changed between MacOS 10.12 and 10.13 by the way. I had this option set to Always in 10.12 and explicitly opening a new shell in a new window worked properly. This seems like a regression - why have two different commands if they're going to do exactly the same thing? – Timmmm Aug 23 '18 at 08:15
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    Oh my god, why apple, why ?!?!?!?!? This should be in terminal settings... whyyyy apple ?!? Thank you djohns505 !!!!!! – AlexD Oct 27 '20 at 04:28
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    Note for Big Sur users - this setting has moved to System Preferences -> General – roy650 Nov 16 '20 at 15:37
  • Note for Ventura users - it was moved back under Desktop and Dock – Maen May 09 '23 at 10:24
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You can press Option-Command-N to open a window even if you set always open documents in tab in Dock preferences (this is handy).

Fish Monitor
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    Perfect! This is exactly what I needed to know to update my applescripts, all without changing my system settings. – Nathan Hazzard Jan 25 '18 at 15:06
  • I'm so used to Command-N to open new window, I really want to get back to that (as of Big Sur in 2021). There's already Command-T to open a new tab, and I would use that if I wanted that. The problem is I don't see Option-Command-N in the Terminal GUI menu so I don't know how to assign a Keyboard shortcut from the preference panel to that, since it keys into drop down menu names the App uses. – clearlight Oct 12 '21 at 16:27
  • or hold option when clicking menu item. – palindrom Nov 21 '23 at 05:36