How to find out what starts when your Mac starts

What starts when your Mac starts comes from four kinds of item: login items, background items, launch agents and launch daemons. System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions (Login Items on macOS 14) shows login items, and most of the other three from other developers, as switches. To see the file behind each one, and whether its program still exists, you look in three Library folders. To see what is running right now, you use Terminal or a tool that lists it all in one place.

This is worth doing once. Startup items build up as you install software, and knowing the list is the first step to a quicker start.

Four places things can start from

Apps and macOS use different routes, and each shows up in a different place.

1. Login items. Apps that open when you log in, with windows or menu bar icons.
2. Background items. Helpers and updaters that apps registered with macOS to run by themselves.
3. Launch agents. Background jobs that start for your account at login.
4. Launch daemons. Background jobs that start for the whole Mac at startup, before login.

Launch agents and daemons are settings files in folders, and System Settings lists most of the third-party ones under Allow in the Background. A fifth group, Apple’s own jobs, runs underneath all of this, belongs to macOS and is not listed there.

One distinction matters here. Starting up and logging in are different moments. Daemons can start at boot, before you type a password. Login items and agents start once you are logged in. If your Mac is slow right after the desktop appears, the login items and agents are your suspects.

Step 1: Login items and background items

Open System Settings, choose General, then Login Items & Extensions.

• Open at Login is the list of apps that open when you log in. Read it top to bottom. For each one, ask whether you want it open every time. A chat app you use once a week probably does not need to be.
• Allow in the Background is the list of helpers, launch agents and daemons, each with a switch. Names are often the developer’s. What Allow in the Background means in macOS settings explains what each switch does.

This is the best overview macOS gives you, but it does not always say which file is behind a switch, whether that item is running, or whether its program is still on the Mac.

Step 2: Launch agents and daemons

Open Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder, and look in these three folders one at a time:

• ~/Library/LaunchAgents for jobs that start for your account.
• /Library/LaunchAgents for jobs that start for every account.
• /Library/LaunchDaemons for jobs that start for the whole Mac at boot.

Each file is a job. Its name usually starts with the developer’s name, such as com.developer.product.plist. Open one in TextEdit if you want to see what it starts: look for the Program or ProgramArguments line. If you prefer Terminal, ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents lists a folder without changing it. Launch agents and daemons on a Mac, explained in plain English goes through what the lines mean.

Skip the /System/Library folders. They hold Apple’s jobs, and macOS protects them.

Step 3: What is running right now

The folders tell you what is set to start. Whether it is running is a different question. In Terminal, launchctl list prints the jobs launchd has loaded for your account, with a process number (PID) in the first column for the ones running and a dash for the rest. It is a long list of technical labels, and the command only reads. For the Mac as a whole, ps -ax lists every running process. Both are plain text, and neither changes anything.

You can also open the Force Quit window with Option-Command-Escape, which lists the apps that are open. It shows apps only, not background jobs, so it will not reveal helpers.

Step 4: See it all in one list

Checking System Settings, three folders and Terminal gets all the information, but it is slow and the result is a pile of file names.

Foreman puts the lot on its Startup Apps page. The page lists everything that opens at login or runs in the background: login items, launch agents and daemons, and the background items apps register. Items are grouped by the app each belongs to, so a company’s updater, helper and menu bar tool appear under one name instead of three unrelated files. Names are readable. Each item has a status: Enabled, Disabled, Program missing (the app was deleted), Off in System Settings and others. “Impact now” shows whether an item is running and how much it uses.

From there you can Disable or Enable an item. System-wide daemons ask for an administrator password. Items marked Program missing can be removed one by one, or all together with Clean Up Leftovers; the files go to the Trash. See How to remove login items left behind by deleted apps for that step.

Two permissions apply. Foreman reads login items through System Events, so macOS asks once if it may control it. To read the Allow in the Background switches it needs Full Disk Access, and without that it shows a note you can skip. Items registered through macOS’s own login items system can only be switched in System Settings, and Foreman opens it there. Everything Foreman reads stays on your Mac. It costs $12 once, with 24 hours free.

What to do with the list

Once you can see what starts, sort it into three piles:

• Keep. Things you use daily and things that protect you or sync your files: backup, VPN, security, cloud storage you rely on.
• Disable. Updaters and helpers for apps you rarely open, and chat or music apps you do not need open at login. Disabling is easy to undo.
• Remove. Leftovers whose program is gone.

If you are not sure about an item, search its name, or disable it and see whether anything stops working. Is it safe to disable startup items on a Mac? goes through what you lose.

A quick check you can do today

Spend five minutes on the first two steps. Open System Settings, read both lists under Login Items & Extensions, and write down anything you cannot name. Then look at the three folders once. You now know what starts on your Mac, and the list will make every later decision easier.