How to stop apps from opening at startup on a Mac

What starts with your Mac

• Login items: apps, documents or servers that open in front of you when you log in, listed under Open at Login.
• Background items: helpers, updaters and services that run without a window, listed under Allow in the Background.
• Launch agents and daemons: the files behind most background items, in the LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders.
• Apps from your last session: apps that were open when you restarted, which macOS reopens if you ask it to.

Remove apps from Open at Login

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General, then Login Items & Extensions.
2. Under Open at Login, select the app you don't want to start with your Mac.
3. Click the − button below the list. The app stays installed; it just doesn't open by itself any more.

For an app in the Dock, there is a shortcut: Control-click its icon, choose Options, and clear Open at Login.

If an app keeps coming back

Many apps, such as Spotify, Teams, Zoom, Dropbox and Steam, add themselves again from their own settings. Open the app, find its settings (usually ⌘ ,), and turn off the option called something like Open at login, Launch at startup or Start automatically. Then remove it from Open at Login once more.

If apps you were using reopen after every restart, that is macOS restoring your last session, not a login item. When you choose Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu, clear Reopen windows when logging back in before you confirm. macOS remembers the choice.

Turn off background items

Under Allow in the Background, each switch lets an app do work while it isn't open, such as checking for updates, syncing files or keeping a menu bar icon running. Turn off the ones you don't need. The app itself still opens and works; only the part that runs on its own stops.

An entry often shows a developer's name rather than an app's. Click the Info button (ⓘ) next to it to see the items behind it, and Control-click one of those to show it in Finder.

Keep on the items for backup, sync, password managers, VPNs, security software, and drivers for your mouse, keyboard or audio interface, unless you know the app works without them. When an app adds a new background item, macOS shows a Background Items Added notification; it is worth a look if you didn't just install something.

Find launch agents in your Library

Some launch agents, often from older apps or apps you already deleted, don't appear clearly in Login Items. To see all of them, open Terminal and run this command. It only lists, it doesn't change anything:

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

Each file starts one program, and its name usually says whose it is, such as com.google.keystone.agent.plist. To stop one of your own launch agents, in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, open that folder with Go › Go to Folder in Finder, move the file to your Desktop and restart. If something stops working, move it back. Files in /Library run for every user and need your password to move; leave them alone unless you know which app they belong to.

If a launch agent has a name you don't recognize at all, it may be adware or malware: see how to remove malware from a Mac.

Skip login items once

To log in one time without anything opening, hold Shift while you click the login button, and let go when the Dock appears. If your Mac logs in automatically, hold Shift when you see the progress bar during startup. Nothing is changed for the next login.

If your Mac is fast this way and slow otherwise, something that starts with it is the cause. Turn your login items back on one at a time to find it, and see how to speed up a slow Mac for the other usual causes.

Manage startup items with Tidy My Mac

• Startup Items lists every launch agent in your Library with the app it belongs to, turns any of them off with one switch without deleting it, and measures how long your Mac takes to start, so you can see whether it helped.
• Background Services shows the system-wide agents and daemons that run for every user, with whether each one is running.
• Tidy My Mac tells you when an app adds a launch agent, daemon, privileged helper or login item, and the Uninstaller removes agents left behind by apps you already deleted.

Apps that open at login are kept by macOS in a list only System Settings can change, so for those, Startup Items takes you straight to the Login Items page.