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Updated on GitHub 4 months ago (see history)

How to make sure app is not running in the background on macOS

How to make sure app is not running in the background on macOS

Requirements

  • Computer running macOS Catalina or Big Sur

Caveats

  • When copy/pasting commands that start with $, strip out $ as this character is not part of the command
  • When copy/pasting commands that start with cat << "EOF", select all lines at once (from cat << "EOF" to EOF inclusively) as they are part of the same (single) command

Setup guide

Heads-up: following steps illustrate how to make sure “Adobe Creative Suite” is not running in the background, but same logic should apply any app.

Step 1: find app launch agent and daemon bundle identifier prefix

$ ls -A1 {,~}/Library/LaunchAgents /Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchAgents:
at.obdev.LittleSnitchHelper.plist
at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist
com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a23d420d.plist
com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist
com.adobe.GC.AGM.plist
com.adobe.GC.Invoker-1.0.plist
com.adobe.ccxprocess.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons:
at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist
com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist
com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist
com.adobe.acc.installer.v2.plist
com.adobe.agsservice.plist
com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist
local.pf.plist
local.pmset.plist
local.spoof.plist
org.virtualbox.startup.plist
org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist
/Users/sunknudsen/Library/LaunchAgents/:
com.adobe.GC.Invoker-1.0.plist
local.borg-wrapper.plist
org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist

com.adobe

👍

Step 2: disable app launch agents and daemons

Heads-up: don’t worry if you see “Could not find specified service” warnings.

BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX="com.adobe"
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/{LaunchAgents,LaunchDaemons}/$BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX*.plist
launchctl unload -w {,~}/Library/LaunchAgents/$BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX*.plist

Step 3: disable app extensions

Open “System Preferences”, click “Extensions” and disable app extensions (if any).

core-sync

Step 4: add kill-apps helper to .zshrc

Heads-up: following step assumes macOS is configured to use “Z shell” (running echo $SHELL should return /bin/zsh).

cat << "EOF" >> ~/.zshrc
# Kill apps that match string
function kill-apps() {
IFS=$'\n'
red=$(tput setaf 1)
normal=$(tput sgr0)
if [ -z "$1" ] || [ "$1" = "--help" ]; then
printf "%s\n" "Usage: kill-apps string"
return 0
fi
printf "%s\n" "Finding apps that match “$1”…"
sleep 1
processes=($(pgrep -afil "$1"))
if [ ${#processes[@]} -eq 0 ]; then
printf "%s\n" "No apps found"
return 0
else
printf "%s\n" "${processes[@]}"
printf "$red%s$normal" "Kill found apps (y or n)? "
read -r answer
if [ "$answer" = "y" ]; then
printf "%s\n" "Killing found apps…"
sleep 1
for process in "${processes[@]}"; do
echo $process | awk '{print $1}' | xargs sudo kill 2>&1 | grep -v "No such process"
done
printf "%s\n" "Done"
return 0
fi
fi
}
EOF
source ~/.zshrc

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Usage guide

Make sure “Adobe Creative Suite” is not running in the background

$ kill-apps adobe
Finding apps that match "adobe"…
46639 /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Desktop Common/IPCBox/AdobeIPCBroker.app/Contents/MacOS/AdobeIPCBroker -launchedbyvulcan /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro 2020/Adobe Premiere Pro 2020.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Premiere Pro 2020
46645 /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Creative Cloud Libraries/CCLibrary.app/Contents/MacOS/../libs/node /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Creative Cloud Libraries/CCLibrary.app/Contents/MacOS/../js/server.js
46653 /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud Experience/CCXProcess/CCXProcess.app/Contents/MacOS/../libs/Adobe_CCXProcess.node /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud Experience/CCXProcess/CCXProcess.app/Contents/MacOS/../js/main.js
46655 /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro 2020/Adobe Premiere Pro 2020.app/Contents/MacOS/LogTransport2.app/Contents/MacOS/LogTransport2 86E222CE52861AEA0A490D4D@AdobeID 1 0 NOVALUE NOVALUE
Kill found apps (y or n)? y
Password:
Done

Done

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Contributors: Sun KnudsenSun Knudsen
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