As I've become more comfortable with Panel I'm finding there are stretches where I don't need MC active and so I only need to run the server. I've check past threads (there hasn't been much discussion since around 2015) so I'm guessing most Mac users don't need the feature, but it does seem clear that things work a little differently than on Windows and I'd like to clarify what is taking place.
In the MC startup options I can choose "Run on Mac startup: Media Server." But when this is selected, the entire app (in my case MC 30) is placed into the system login items. So as one might expect, the entire app launches on a reboot. However, I do get the menubar icon that you would want to see for just running the server.
If I then quit MC 30, the menubar icon remains, and I am able to access my library using Panel, so all good. But in macOS Activity Monitor, the full app is still running and there is no evidence of "Media Server." So I guess what I need to know is if this is expected behavior and is this the correct/only way to go about getting the server to run alone (let the full app launch on restart, then quit it).
In the first hour or so of using this configuration, the desktop app has appeared without a menubar (so no ability to make it go away..even clicking the red X in the upper left has no result). I'll continue working with it and see what I can learn, but this obviously is not expected behavior.
Thanks