launcher doesn't reopen after launching minecraft on java

i open the launcher and I run Minecraft. it works fine. I close it later on and do other things. when i come back i reopen the launcher but it doesn't open.
i check activity monitor and it either shows the launcher running or that its not responding. and each time I want to reopen the launcher I go through the progress of force quitting the launcher via activity monitor because my mac thinks it's not running.
my friend has this same problem. can this be fixed sometime? thanks