To stop an app opening at startup on a Mac, open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions (Login Items on Sonoma), select the app under Open at Login and click –. Helpers that run without a window are under App Background Activity (Allow in the Background on Sequoia). That list names developers rather than apps, which is where it gets harder.
Every app that opens when you log in, and every helper that quietly runs in the background, makes your Mac slower to start and uses memory all day. Many add themselves without asking.
There are two kinds:
- Apps that open at login, like Spotify or Discord, which open their windows when you start the Mac.
- Background items: updaters, sync helpers and launchers that run without a window. Apps install these, and macOS's "Background Items Added" notice is about them.
How do I remove login items on a Mac?
Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions:
- Under Open at Login, select an app and click – to stop it opening when you log in.
- Under App Background Activity, turn off the switches for helpers you don't want.
The catch is that background items are listed by developer, not by what they do: "Google LLC", "Microsoft Corporation", or a person's name. With a few of them, it's hard to know what you're turning off. Some apps have their own Open at login setting too, which can add them back.
Where are background items stored on a Mac?
Most helpers are small files in two folders. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder and look in:
~/Library/LaunchAgents: helpers for your account./Library/LaunchAgentsand/Library/LaunchDaemons: helpers for every user, often from VPNs, security software and device drivers.
Deleting files there isn't a good idea: the app may simply put them back, or stop working properly.
Questions
Why do apps still open at login after I removed them?
Usually the app has its own Open at login setting that adds it back, so turn that off in the app's settings too. Apps also reopen if Reopen windows when logging back in was ticked when you shut down or restarted.
How do I make an app open at startup?
Click + under Open at Login in System Settings and choose the app. Or right-click the app's icon in the Dock and choose Options › Open at Login.
Will removing startup apps make my Mac faster?
It makes startup quicker and frees the memory those apps would use all day. How much you notice depends on how many there were and how heavy they are.
See everything, with real names
Startup Items in MrFixable lists everything that starts with your Mac on one page:
- Apps that open at login, which you can remove and add back.
- Background helpers, with the name and icon of the app they belong to, the developer, and whether each one is running now. Turn one off and it stops now and at every login. Turn it back on any time.
- System services, the ones every user gets, shown so you know what's there. Changing them needs an administrator, so they're turned off in System Settings or by removing their app.
Turning off an updater doesn't break its app, though the app may stop updating itself until you open it.
See what's slowing your Mac now
To see which apps use the most processor and memory right now, System Stats in Menu Bar keeps CPU, memory and temperature in your menu bar, and shows the top apps with a click. See also how to open Task Manager on a Mac.