How To Stop App Opening At Start Mac
- How To Stop Apps From Opening On Startup Mac Catalina
- How To Stop Apps From Opening On Startup Macbook Air
- How To Stop Apps Opening At Startup Mac
- How To Stop App Opening At Start Machine
What are startup items?
Startup items, or login items, are services and applications that launch every time you start your Mac. These are applications that sneak into startup items without notice, never asking if you need or want them there. This way you may end up with a dozen apps launching as soon as you turn on your Mac, weighing heavily on its processor and memory capacities and slowing it down. Such items can increase your Mac’s startup time and decrease its performance.
Plus, sometimes when you remove an application or a service, it leaves a login item with a broken link. These broken login items are completely useless, cause unwanted messages, and waste your Mac's resources (because they look for non-existent applications). Whether you're running macOS Catalina or El Capitan, or earlier — it's all the same, so just read on.
One of the apps that typically open at Mac’s login automatically is Google Chrome. However, if you prefer using other browsers, having Chrome in the apps startup list is not necessary. The detailed guide below will show you how to remove it from login items and stop wasting time waiting until your Mac boots all apps in the background. The best way to make Mac apps default to opening in full screen mode is by changing your app usage behavior a bit, combined with an adjustment to a Mac OS system setting. The end result will be that, at least with many apps that support full screen mode, they will relaunch directly into full screen mode on the Mac. If you find that your Mac doesn’t start as quickly as it used to, or your mouse is non-responsive when first turning on and logging in to your computer, you should check for unnecessary launch items. Stop these programs from running on startup, and you might speed up your Mac’s launch process significantly. Delay Mac startup apps. If you don’t want to disable startup items, you may instead want to know how to edit startup programs Mac doesn’t need immediately. An app named Delay Start can – well, delay the start – of apps at startup. Instead of an app activating immediately, you can set some to spin up on a delay. If you’d like to stop an app from automatically starting, follow steps 1-3, and highlight the app that you wish to remove and click the ‘-‘ sign to remove the app. If you’d like an app to startup in hidden mode, then check the Hide box next to the name of the app under the Login Items tab.
So, let's go over how to take control of login items, and how to get rid of unwanted, broken or hidden startup items.
How to disable startup programs?
Do you want to stop programs from running at startup? There’s an easy way to remove programs from startup and get your Mac to load faster on launch. The fastest way to turn off startup items on Mac is an app like CleanMyMac X.
- Download CleanMyMac for free.
- Launch the app.
- Open Optimization tab.
- Click on Login items.
- From the list of apps, disable the ones you don’t need on startup.
- Done!
How To Stop Apps From Opening On Startup Mac Catalina

How to change startup programs manually?
Disabling Mac startup programs is possible manually. Therefore, if you have some time and would like to do it yourself, follow the steps below.
Your login items are listed in settings. One of the easiest ways to control startup items is inside System Preferences > Users & Groups.
- Open System Preferences.
- Go to Users & Groups.
- Choose your nickname on the left.
- Choose Login items tab.
- Check startup programs you want to remove.
- Press the “–” sign below.
- You’re done.
- If you need to add an item back, press “+” and choose the app you’d like add.
- Then restart your Mac to see the changes.
How to fix broken startup items?
Broken Mac startup files are left there because some part of apps are left on your Mac long after you’ve moved the app to the Trash. To get rid of these parts and to fix your startup, you’re going to need CleanMyMac again. First, you need to check if they’re among startup items and disable them if so. You can do it following the instructions above. Then you need to remove app leftovers. CleanMyMac works fine on macOS High Sierra and earlier OS.
- Launch CleanMyMac.
- Choose Uninstaller tab.
- Scroll through the list of apps.
- If you spot any app that you’ve deleted, check them.
- Delete the app leftovers you’ve chosen.
You can also find and remove broken login items with the help of System Junk module:
- Choose System Junk tab.
- Click Scan.
- Review details and click Clean.
Finally, you need to clean your macOS startup items through launch services:
- Open Maintenance tab.
- Choose Rebuild Launch Services.
- Hit Run.
- Done.
Once you do it, all broken app data on your Mac will be fixed.
Remove daemons and agents from startup process
If speaking of files, first go to the system folder /Library/StartUpItems. Here you’ll find all the startup files that are being launched with the system. You can delete the login item you think is necessary if you’re totally sure what you are doing.
Also, the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder contains a bunch of preference files that define how the application that is being launched along with the system should work. You might want to delete some of these files as well if you know you don’t need them and removing them is safe.
The /Library/LaunchAgents contains preference files responsible for the apps that launch during the login process (not the startup).
How To Stop Apps From Opening On Startup Macbook Air
The above-mentioned folders contain app-related files. However, you can also check system folders to review whether you need some of the system applications to be running on startup:
How To Stop Apps Opening At Startup Mac
- /System/Library/LaunchDaemons - note that besides preference files this folder contains other important system items that are recommended to keep untouched.
- /System/Library/LaunchAgents - most probably, you won’t also find anything worth removing in this folder, however, keeping this location in mind might help you find files related to a problematic app that causes troubles on Mac startup. If you have a problematic application that messes about on login, you can try to trace it back from this folder.
But, if you’re looking for simple ways to remove login items, we suggest using a professional Mac utility. Download CleanMyMac X for free and make unwanted and broken login items a thing of the past.