Numerous Mac users are repeatedly encountering a bug in macOS Ventura that throws up Login Items notifications for various background app processes every time they start up their machine, even when the processes in question have been disabled.
If notification previews are disabled (via System Settings -> Notifications -> Show Previews) the annoying notifications appear as “Login Items.” If previews are enabled, the notifications are labelled “Background Items Added” and contain the message “[app/process name] added items that can run in the background. You can manage this in Login Items Settings.”
Curiously, there is no option in System Settings -> General -> Login Items to remove background items added to macOS by installed apps. Users can only disable listed items by toggling switches. Doing this however seems to have no impact on the notifications, and in some cases can cause more to appear.
Scouring the complaints across Reddit, Twitter, Apple Support Community discussions, and various other app-specific forums, app processes such as Google Updater, Adobe CC Helper, and Dropbox are repeatedly cited as culprits, but these only appear to be referenced more often because they are popular apps with background processes. Almost any third-party background process can seemingly be referenced in the persistent Login Items notifications.
It did this when updating from 13.0 to 13.1 WHY
— ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ (@Quinten0508) November 8, 2022
In all but a minority of cases, trashing or uninstalling the related apps does not fix the problem, and if the notifications do subsequently disappear, reinstalling the app usually brings them back. Some users have even erased their Mac and reinstalled macOS Ventura to defeat the bug, but are then hesitant to install the associated apps.
Only a few users have been successful at ridding their Mac of the notifications by carrying out the following actions, although caution should be applied and users do so at their own risk.
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- Open Finder, then select Go -> Go to Folder… in the menu bar.
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- Copy and paste the following address into the input field and press Enter: ~/Library/LaunchAgents
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- A Finder window will open at the LaunchAgents folder. Show the items as a list organized by name, then search for the app or developer name associated with the process that’s causing the Login Items notifications.
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- Delete the .plist file, then empty the Trash.
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- Restart your Mac.
- If the above steps don’t work, look in the ~/Library/LaunchDaemons folder. If there are launch daemons in there associated with the app/developer, delete those too, empty Trash, and restart.
Based on reports, the bug has been around since early beta versions of macOS Ventura, but there have been more frequent incidences reported on Macs running macOS 13.1 and later. Apple is seemingly aware of the problem, but has not commented.
I’ve been trying to stop Microsoft Edge from doing this, too! Can’t find any settings anywhere in Edge to stop it. All I see to be able to do is remove it from Login Items…but then it’s back at login again! Very frustrating. I didn’t consent to this.
— Jeff (@gank41) November 10, 2022