Login Items and Background Apps on Mac: What to Keep

Written for macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe.

Every app that wants to do something without being open needs a way to start on its own. Updaters check for new versions, sync clients watch your files, keyboard tools wait for input and VPNs keep a connection ready. macOS gathers most of these in one place, and on a Mac that's a few years old the list is usually longer than you'd guess. This guide explains what each kind of item is, which ones to keep, and how to review them without breaking anything. If you're removing an app altogether, see how to completely uninstall apps on Mac instead.

#Key takeaways

• Everything you need is in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. Start there, not in Terminal.
• Open at Login apps launch visibly when you log in. App Background Activity items run invisibly, with no window.
• App Background Activity is the newer name for Allow in the Background, which macOS 13 to 15 used.
• Switching an item off is reversible. Deleting its files by hand isn't, so do that last.
• Leave security, backup, cloud sync and input-device helpers on unless you've removed the app.

#What are login items and background items?

macOS has three related ideas, and they're easy to mix up:

Apple describes App Background Activity as letting apps "perform tasks when the app isn't open, such as checking for software updates or syncing data." Since macOS 13, apps can register these helpers through a system framework, and the helper itself can live inside the app bundle. That's why newer apps don't always leave a separate file in a Library folder.

#Why did "Allow in the Background" disappear?

It didn't go away; it was renamed. On macOS Ventura, Sonoma and Sequoia, the section was called Allow in the Background. On macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27 Golden Gate, the same list appears as App Background Activity. Older guides, and many app vendors' help pages, still use the old name.

macOS 26 also added a related prompt. If an app starts background tasks that keep running after you quit it, macOS asks whether to allow them to stay active. Choose Allow for apps whose job continues in the background, like backup or sync, and decline for apps that have no reason to keep working once you've closed them.

#How do you review login items safely?

1. Open the settings. Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Login Items & Extensions. You need to be an administrator to change these settings.
2. Trim Open at Login. Look down the list and ask whether you need each app the moment you log in. Select the ones you don't and click the Remove button (the minus sign). The app stays installed; you can still open it whenever you want. A yellow warning triangle means the item was moved or deleted and won't open anyway, so remove it.
3. Review App Background Activity. Each entry has a switch. Turn off items for apps you've uninstalled or no longer use. Some entries are listed under the developer's name rather than the app's, so a company name you don't recognise may belong to an app you do use. Click the info button, where shown, to see which files the entry includes.
4. Leave managed items alone. Entries marked as managed by your organization come from a device management profile on a work or school Mac. Only your administrator can change them.
5. Check Extensions while you're there. Further down the same page, the Extensions section lists add-ons such as Finder, Quick Look, Sharing, File Providers and Network Extensions. Click the info button next to a category to turn individual extensions on or off.
6. Restart and test. Restart the Mac, then check that the apps you rely on, such as backup, sync, your password manager and keyboard or mouse tools, still behave normally.

#Which background items should you keep?

Switching off an updater is a trade-off. The app may stop checking for security updates until you open it. If you turn one off, update that app manually from time to time.

#How do you see what's running with launchctl?

Terminal gives a fuller, read-only view. This lists the jobs launchd has loaded for your user account and changes nothing:

launchctl list | head

The output has three columns:

• PID: the process ID if the job is running right now, or - if it isn't.
• Status: the last exit status. A negative number means the job was stopped by a signal, so -9 means it was killed. That's common and usually harmless.
• Label: the job's name, normally in reverse-domain form such as com.example.agent.

To hide Apple's own jobs and see only third-party ones:

launchctl list | grep -v com.apple

Labels that start with application. are ordinary apps you've opened, which macOS also tracks through launchd. They aren't login items. Note that this command shows your user's jobs only. System-wide daemons run in a different domain, so seeing them in full needs administrator access. For a detailed, read-only dump of everything registered as a login or background item, Apple documents sfltool dumpbtm. Its output is long, but it's useful for working out which app owns a mysterious entry.

#Where do launch agent and daemon files live?

Classic launch jobs are defined by .plist files in these folders:

You can look without changing anything:

ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents /Library/LaunchAgents /Library/LaunchDaemons

If an entry keeps coming back after you've switched it off and removed its app, find the matching .plist file by its label, move it to the Trash and restart. Only do this for files that clearly belong to software you've removed.

#What should you not do?

• Don't delete .plist files you don't recognise. Look up the label first; it might belong to a driver or security tool you rely on.
• Don't touch anything in /System/Library. It's Apple's, and macOS protects it.
• Don't run launchctl unload or bootout on jobs you don't understand. Switching an item off in System Settings does the same job more safely.
• Don't switch off security software to speed up startup.
• Don't remove everything at once. If something breaks, you won't know which item caused it. Apple's own approach is to change one thing at a time and restart.

#When does a background item point to a bigger problem?

If the Mac starts slowly or misbehaves right after login, try Apple's routine. Remove all Open at Login items, restart, then add them back one at a time, restarting after each, until the problem returns. The last item you added is the likely cause. Starting up in safe mode is another quick test, because it stops login items and extensions that macOS doesn't need from loading. If the problem disappears in safe mode, a third-party item is the likely suspect.

#Keeping background apps under control

Most leftover background items come from apps that were deleted but never fully uninstalled. When you remove an app, look for a tool that shows every related file, including helpers, before anything moves, and sends it all to the Trash so you can undo it.

Freshist's Apps tool finds all related files per app for you to review before removing, and its Status view lists the processes using the most CPU, power and memory right now. See how it compares or the Help & Docs.

#Related guides

• How to completely uninstall apps on Mac
• Is manual fan control safe on a Mac?
• Mac slow after the macOS 27 update?
• Mac Library folders explained

#Sources

• Apple Support: Change Login Items & Extensions settings on Mac
• Apple Support: Remove login items to resolve startup problems on your Mac
• Apple Support: Use safe mode on your Mac
• Apple Platform Deployment: Manage login items and background tasks on Mac
• Apple Developer: Creating Launch Daemons and Agents
• Apple Developer: SMAppService
• macOS manual page: man launchctl