~/everything-else/macOS startup service and daemons
Updated Feb 26, 2021

🗂 macOS startup service and daemons

Reference to find and stop annoying applications and services that auto-start on login or auto-restart when killed.

launchd

• LaunchDaemon items run with system privileges
• LaunchAgent items run in user context after login

launchd auto-loads from the following locations:

• ~/Library/LaunchAgent
• /Library/LaunchAgents
• /Library/LaunchDaemons
• /System/Library/LaunchAgents
• /System/Library/LaunchDaemons

Notice that /System/ is protected by system integrity checks, so it’s unlikely that’s where apps registers.

List services: launchctl list

Dump launchd state: launchctl dumpstate

cron

List cron jobs for user: crontab -l

Helper applications

Some applications bundle a helper application that manages to start despite not having a launchd plist in the locations above.

Try: find /Applications/ -name 'LoginItems'