How to uninstall TuneUp

[neliason]

I made the mistake of trying TuneUp. I had used it before and found it helpful for cleaning up my iTunes library. I deleted the app and followed their own instructions as to how to completely delete the app (see here). Unfortunately their instructions are lacking. My system.log is flooded with the following message:

com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.tuneupmedia.TuneUpHelper): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.​

I have greped for com.tuneupmedia.TuneUpHelper in the following locations:

~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

Nothing was found. When I run 'launchctl list' sure enough there is a service com.tuneupmedia.TuneUpHelper.

So what on earth could be going on? How can I find out where this item is and stop it?

 

[willmtaylor]

Download AppCleaner and delete using that.

 

[neliason]

Download AppCleaner and delete using that.

Thanks for the suggestion. This app costs money. I don't object to spending money if the app is able to actually remove this annoyance. But I'm concerned it won't because this appears to be a tricky issue. I deleted all the plists with names associated with this app. When I grep the plists in all locations used to load daemons nothing is found. To be sure I'm no macOS expert, but based on my findings I don't see how this process is getting requested in the first place.

 

[willmtaylor]

Thanks for the suggestion. This app costs money. I don't object to spending money if the app is able to actually remove this annoyance. But I'm concerned it won't because this appears to be a tricky issue. I deleted all the plists with names associated with this app. When I grep the plists in all locations used to load daemons nothing is found. To be sure I'm no macOS expert, but based on my findings I don't see how this process is getting requested in the first place.

AppCleaner is free:
http://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

 

[neliason]

AppCleaner is free:
http://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

I had tried "App Cleaner" from the App Store. I ran AppCleaner and uninstalled the app. Unfortunately it didn't fix my problem. After a reboot the service is still trying to launch.

 

[willmtaylor]

I had tried "App Cleaner" from the App Store. I ran AppCleaner and uninstalled the app. Unfortunately it didn't fix my problem. After a reboot the service is still trying to launch.

Please follow my link and instructions. It's not the same app. If you won't do that, I have no reason to help you further.

 

[neliason]

Please follow my link and instructions. It's not the same app. If you won't do that, I have no reason to help you further.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Once you posted the link I realized you were referring to a different but similarly named app. I did run the app you suggested and running it didn't solve the problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

Since then I did notice a strange plist in '/Users/{me}/Library/LaunchAgents'. Its name is com.sourcesoftwarehub.AppTech.plist. It was created the same day I installed TuneUp. It had an argument for an executable '/Users/{me}/Library/Application Support/AppCommon/AppTech'. I've deleted the plist and the executable. Next time I reboot I'll know if it fixed it.

Thanks again.

 

[willmtaylor]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Once you posted the link I realized you were referring to a different but similarly named app. I did run the app you suggested and running it didn't solve the problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

Since then I did notice a strange plist in '/Users/{me}/Library/LaunchAgents'. Its name is com.sourcesoftwarehub.AppTech.plist. It was created the same day I installed TuneUp. It had an argument for an executable '/Users/{me}/Library/Application Support/AppCommon/AppTech'. I've deleted the plist and the executable. Next time I reboot I'll know if it fixed it.

Thanks again.

Do you have it still listed as a login item?

To check, go to System Preferences>Users & Groups>you as a user>login items

If still there, obviously delete.

 

[neliason]

Do you have it still listed as a login item?

To check, go to System Preferences>Users & Groups>you as a user>login items

If still there, obviously delete.

No, it's not listed as a login item.

I tried running 'launchctl remove com.tuneupmedia.TuneUpHelper'. The service isn't listed when I then run 'launchctl list'. But as soon as I reboot it is back.

 

[997440]

No, it's not listed as a login item.

I tried running 'launchctl remove com.tuneupmedia.TuneUpHelper'. The service isn't listed when I then run 'launchctl list'. But as soon as I reboot it is back.

Check to see if it's hooked into iTunes.
User > Library > iTunes > iTunes plugins

 

[chrfr]

No, it's not listed as a login item.

I tried running 'launchctl remove com.tuneupmedia.TuneUpHelper'. The service isn't listed when I then run 'launchctl list'. But as soon as I reboot it is back.

Have you physically looked in all the LaunchAgent/Daemon folders where you used grep? Those are the only locations that launchd will use so the file in question must be in one of those folders.
Failing that, download and run EtreCheck and post the results here. It will list all of the startup files on your computer in an easy to understand format.

 

[neliason]

Check to see if it's hooked into iTunes.
User > Library > iTunes > iTunes plugins

I don't see anything in that location other than Apple files and some Scripts I've added.
[doublepost=1489418047][/doublepost]

Have you physically looked in all the LaunchAgent/Daemon folders where you used grep? Those are the only locations that launchd will use so the file in question must be in one of those folders.
Failing that, download and run EtreCheck and post the results here. It will list all of the startup files on your computer in an easy to understand format.

Yes, I've manually examined each location I greped in Finder. I looked for file names matching the item and looked for any files modified on that date and time.

I ran EtreCheck and didn't find anything. I've attached the file.