Background items on your Mac: see what keeps running

What are background items on a Mac?

macOS starts background programs through launchd, the system process that launches everything else. An app registers a small file with launchd that says what to run and when: at login, every few minutes, or all the time. Those files come in two kinds:

• Launch agents run as you, in your login session. They live in ~/Library/LaunchAgents for your account alone, or /Library/LaunchAgents for every user.
• Launch daemons run as the system, for every user, before anyone logs in. They live in /Library/LaunchDaemons.

Most are harmless and some are useful. But they pile up: an app you tried once can leave an updater running for years. And because launchd starts them without being asked, a launch agent is also where malware puts itself so it comes back after every restart. System Settings shows many of these as switches under Login Items & Extensions, but not what each one runs or whether it is running right now.

Every service in one list

Background Services reads launchd directly and combines what it finds:

Each service shows a readable name and its full label, its state (Running, Stopped, Disabled or Not loaded) and, while it runs, its process ID. Running services come first. A service that is on disk but not loaded still gets its row, so nothing hides by being idle.

The services that ship with macOS are hidden by default, because stopping one breaks whatever system feature it backs. Tick Show macOS services to see them too, and use the search field to find a service by name or label.

Stop, disable or start

Stop ends a running service now. Disable tells launchd not to start it again, and Enable undoes that. Start loads a stopped service. Disabling uses launchd's own switch rather than renaming files, so the Startup Items list always agrees with it.

Launch daemons are shown but read-only: changing them needs an administrator password, which this section doesn't ask for.

Know when something new installs itself

With Tell me when an app adds a background item on in Settings, which it is by default, Tidy My Mac watches the launch agent and daemon folders and /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools, and checks the login items and background services apps register with macOS every minute and shortly after an app opens. What was already there when you turned it on never alerts; only new or changed items do. Items added while the app was closed are reported the next time it opens.

The notification names the app, says what the item will run and who signed it. A program with no valid signature from a known developer gets a clear warning, since that is unusual for real software and common for malware. From the notification you can Show the item, Disable a login agent, Scan with Antivirus, or choose Don't Tell Me Again for This App.

Read on your Mac

The list is built from launchd and the folders above, on your Mac. Nothing about the services you have is sent anywhere; the Privacy Policy covers what the app reads. Full Disk Access lets it read the system configuration that describes them.