Disable Logcat (DDMS) & Run Console automatically opening on any activity

Question

I monitor my logcat from outside Android Studio (logcat-color open beside my emulator on another screen/workspace) and would like to stop the Android DDMS view from opening within Android Studio automatically. It takes up screen real estate that I'd prefer to keep for my code.

I know that I can remove the view entirely but I'd like to retain access to it for the times that I use it for linking directly to a problematic line of code quickly.
I can filter the logcat output to only show 'error' level but that isn't a great solution as I'd be constantly changing filters to get at the surrounding log entries if there were a problem I wanted to trace.

The same is true of the Run Console. I'd like to stop it opening too.

Is there a way to have access to these two views without them opening any time there's activity? I've looked through the settings but can't find any likely candidates to modify.

Answer 1

First, to get rid of the logcat opening on run, go to Run -> Edit Configurations... on the main menu (or via the toolbar dropdown), then uncheck the Show logcat automatically option in the Logcat tab.

Next, unfortunately there is no way to permanently prevent the run window from popping up when you run, but there is a workaround that mostly does the job once you get used to it.

Basically, when the run window pops up do NOT close or minimize it using the buttons, rather resize it down to the bottom (i.e. grab the top of the window and drag down until it is gone). This way, even though it activates when running, it will not show. Clicking on it (once, or sometimes twice) restores it to it's previous size.

Also note that whenever you access one of the tool windows in the same area as the run window it will reset and you will need to resize it down again. Not ideal, but it works okay.

Once you get used to always dragging it down to close it, the run window becomes much less of a pain.