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How to delete background login apps in settings for uninstalled apps? They are showing up on my login item list.

EugW

EugW

macrumors P6
Original poster
Jun 18, 2017
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Earth (for now)
I don't remember what Gary Mathews is, but I think it was part of an app I installed and then uninstalled years ago. And Avast was gone last year IIRC. Yet, the background apps are still there. How do I get rid of them?

Screenshot 2022-10-24 at 3.24.52 PM.png


Also, it would be good to get rid of the Google Updater too. And why is OSMessageTracer showing up?
 
You may want to use a free trial of AppCleaner to get rid of what sounds like leftovers.
 
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WildSky said:
You may want to use a free trial of AppCleaner to get rid of what sounds like leftovers.
Click to expand...
I wasn't aware of AppCleaner, thanks. I had seen other cleaner applications, but most of them seem to be junk. However, judging by posts online, AppCleaner is quite different.
 
EugW said:
I wasn't aware of AppCleaner, thanks. I had seen other cleaner applications, but most of them seem to be junk. However, judging by posts online, AppCleaner is quite different.
Click to expand...
I used it recently for the first time after seeing @Fishrrman recommend it a few times. It worked well. Unfortunately the subscription and the one-time fee are pretty high IMO.
 
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At this point, an app cleaner probably will not help, unless you still have those app(s) installed.

That screen now reports LaunchAgents/Daemons, so can go to these places and see if any plists defined for those items:

  • ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  • /Library/LaunchAgents
  • /Library/LaunchDaemons
In the case of Google Updater, that is pretty persistent as it gets re-installed anytime Chrome starts (and others probably: Chrome is only Google app I use, so can't enumerate their other programs that might install that).
 
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Same here. Apple software developers doing great things the past couple of years…
 
NoBoMac said:
At this point, an app cleaner probably will not help, unless you still have those app(s) installed.

That screen now reports LaunchAgents/Daemons, so can go to these places and see if any plists defined for those items:

  • ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  • /Library/LaunchAgents
  • /Library/LaunchDaemons
In the case of Google Updater, that is pretty persistent as it gets re-installed anytime Chrome starts (and others probably: Chrome is only Google app I use, so can't enumerate their other programs that might install that).
Click to expand...
That's great, and that was the answer. :)

Screenshot 2022-10-24 at 9.41.40 PM.png


I didn't have the option in Ventura to see ~/Library using "Show View Options" from the Finder in the home directory. I could have sworn it was there in Monterey. Anyhow, it was easy to get there using the dropdown list from OPTION-Go in the Finder. The Google Updater was there, but since it gets reinstalled each time I just left it there. The Avast and Gary stuff was in /Library.

BTW, the Gary Mathews process was for Volta.

As for OSMessageTracer, supposedly it's legit and from Apple, but I'm wondering why it's showing up here and is listed as from an unidentified developer.
 
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It's kind of annoying to have some things in this panel like "OSMessageTracer"
 
EugW said:
I didn't have the option in Ventura to see ~/Library using "Show View Options" from the Finder in the home directory. I could have sworn it was there in Monterey.
Click to expand...

From Terminal, chflags nohidden ~/Library

Or use Terminal to examine that.
 
Toss- said:
It's kind of annoying to have some things in this panel like "OSMessageTracer"
Click to expand...
Not obviously anything to do with Apple. It is not in my list (5 pages on my 27" screen).

This list is going to really scare people. What bothers me:
  • We are going to get lots of questions about the items and whether they are malware.
  • People will turn things off what they don't recognise and not realise they are background tasks essential to the operation of apps.
Apple should not have mixed up the background tasks identified by app with those just identified by the developer's (certificate?) name.

Question: Why do a few (and only a few) have an 'info' button which takes you to its location in the file system.
 
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The info button appears on software not signed with a developer id certificate (the "unidentified developer" ones).
 
WildSky said:
I used it recently for the first time after seeing @Fishrrman recommend it a few times. It worked well. Unfortunately the subscription and the one-time fee are pretty high IMO.
Click to expand...
There is the "One time" option to purchase without a subscription.
Look carefully at the Store choices ...
I requested a discount coupon from Support to purchase and received it. They are very kind.
 
OKonnel said:
There is the "One time" option to purchase without a subscription.
Look carefully at the Store choices ...
I requested a discount coupon from Support to purchase and received it. They are very kind.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm aware of that option. That's what I meant when I wrote "one time fee."
 
MacGizmo said:
Regarding the AppCleaner discussion... make sure you're using AppCleaner from FreeMacSoft. It's 100% free. There is another app out there also named AppCleaner that charges $ for the same features, and that's probably not the one that I, and many others here, recommended in other threads.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this tip and I'm one of the folks that didn't realize there was another app with the same name and pleased to know there's a free utility for this. The other one is from nektony.com and is named App Cleaner and Uninstaller.
 
WildSky said:
The other one is from nektony.com and is named App Cleaner and Uninstaller.
Click to expand...

AppCleaner is great for getting rid of most apps. But the nektony App Cleaner and Uninstaller has a wider feature set as well as a different style of interface. I have both.
For removing a relatively simple self contained app, I use AppCleaner.
App Cleaner and Uninstaller allows me to explore what is installed including all the little extras (e.g. helper and background apps) that get come with many apps.
 
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gilby101 said:
This list is going to really scare people. What bothers me:
  • We are going to get lots of questions about the items and whether they are malware.
  • People will turn things off what they don't recognise and not realise they are background tasks essential to the operation of apps.
Click to expand...

For sure.

For example, I've got a login LaunchAgent, does a bunch of things including removing Google Updater. Updated Chrome to latest version today, invoked it and got this potentially scary (for some) message.

Upside, for those that know, nice to get the notification of "hey! they installed extra stuff!" and can investigate off that. Or in this case, toggle it off.
 

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    updater.png
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Bringing this one back from the dead...

Had a "no duh!" moment over the weekend re: Chrome LaunchAgents specifically and applicable to others:

Instead of constantly messing with them, trying to stop them from launching, just lock out the program from doing what it tries to do. In the case of Chrome:

Code: 
cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
echo "" > com.google.keystone.agent.plist
echo "" > com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist
chmod 000 com.google.*
chflags uchg com.google.*

Remove the contents of the plist, remove all privileges from the file, change the file's flag to make it unchangeable. In this case, will stop Chrome from re-installing and running updater.
 
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