How to Change Mac Startup Apps in macOS

Wondering how you can stop an application from starting every time you start your Mac? Want to have specific apps auto-launch? Find out here how to change (add or remove) macOS startup apps on a Mac (using three methods and including launchctl).

First, Ancient Olympic Pankration Wresting Had Two Rules

Explains Philostratus the Elder:

these things [punching, clinching, choking, etc.] are all permissible in the pancratium—anything except biting and gouging.

Philostratus the Elder

Preventing an application from coming up at startup on a Mac seems like a struggle? You are about to clinch and choke your MacBook?

Here are some rules to allow applications to auto-start—or set up rules to prevent that:

Add Startup Apps on a Mac: Launch a macOS Program Automatically

On macOS Monterey 12 and Earlier

To add an app to your startup items using macOS Monterey 12 and earlier:

1. Select the Apple logo in the menu bar.
2. Choose System Preferences….
3. Open the Users & Groups category.
4. Highlight your macOS account.
   Who am I? You will usually find your account under Current User.
5. Go to the Login Items tab.
6. Click + at the bottom.
7. Find the program you want to launch automatically and click Add.
8. Close the Users & Groups preferences window.
   

Change Startup Apps using Drag and Drop

Drag and drop: You can also add applications to the list of Mac startup items by dragging and dropping them to the Login Items list from any Finder window.

Remove Startup Applications from a Mac

To prevent a program from being started automatically whenever you boot up or log in to your Mac using macOS:

1. Open System Settings and go to your Login Items. (See above.)
2. Highlight the application you want to stop from starting automatically.
   Only one: While you can highlight more than one application, only the last one you added to the selection will be removed.
3. Click the – button (with a tooltip of Remove the selected item from the list.) at the bottom.

In addition to this personal location, applications that open automatically can be found—and disabled—in the following locations:

Edit Startup Programs using “StartupItems” Folders

To prevent an application from launching automatically at startup:

1. Open the ~/Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems folders in Finder.
   Go there fast: You can open any folder fast in Finder using Command Shift G.
2. Remove any applications found there to prevent them from automatically opening at startup.
   Deprecated: These folders were used in past versions of macOS to configure startup items; their use is discouraged, but macOS will respect items found there.

Change Mac Startup Applications using Launchd and Launchctl

To prevent applications and background processes (“daemons”) from running automatically using launchctl:

First, find the relevant Finder folders:

1. Open the ~/Library/LaunchAgents , /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders in Finder.
2. Find the items that are run in the background automatically depending on the folder:
   ~/Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchAgents: run when a user logs on (a specific user, i.e. you, in the former and any user in the latter case);
   /Library/LaunchDaemons: run in the background as a system process.

Now, disable unwanted Mac startup items using launchctl:

1. Open a Terminal window.
2. Type launchctl bootout gui/501 .
3. Drag and drop the startup item you want to disable from the Finder window onto the Terminal window.
   Example: To disable the Google software update (keystone) agent, for example, the command line could read
   launchctl bootout gui/501 /Users/username/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist.
4. Press Enter.
5. Double-click the startup item’s .plist file in Finder to open it in TextEdit.
   Right click: You can also right-click the file and select Open With | TextEdit from the context menu.
6. Highlight the service name listed between <string> and </string> in the <dict> section of the file for the key Label.
   Example: For the Google update service (com.google.keystone.agent.plist), highlight com.google.keystone.user.agent.
7. Press Command C.
8. Back at the Terminal window, type launchctl disable gui/501/.
9. Press Command V.
   Example: For the Google update service, the command line should now read launchctl disable gui/501/com.google.keystone.user.agent.
10. Press Enter.
    

The service is now disabled and cannot be run. You can move or delete the corresponding .plist file if desired.

(How to change startup applications on a Mac tested with macOS Sonoma 14.3, Ventura 13.1, Monterey 12.3, Big Sur 11.0 and Catalina 10.15; originally published June 2018, updated February 2024)