How To Stop Apps From Automatically Opening On Mac
(Updated on 11/6/2017)So, here’s a quick question: how long does it take for your Mac to start up? A minute? Two minutes? Five? Or just too long? One possible reason your Mac may be slow out of the blocks is that it’s trying to launch a slew of programs all at the same time.
- How To Stop Apps From Automatically Opening On Mac Pro
- How To Stop Apps From Automatically Opening On Macbook Pro
The first setting, regarding closing windows when quitting apps, will affect every application on your Mac. However, it won’t automatically make every app open in full-screen mode. You’ll need to set that up individually within each app. Other apps will, however, open in the last state you left them in. May 07, 2013 To see a list of all the programs your Mac opens automatically, click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen, select System Preferences, click the “User & Groups” icon (it’s under the “System” heading), pick a user (you, most likely), and finally click the “Login Items” tab.
Also, be sure all apps are up to date in the Mac App Store, please. If you continue to experience the same behavior, I'd like to have you boot up into safe mode. It’s a way to start up your Mac so it performs certain checks and prevents some software from automatically loading. Apps can start at login through two obvious ways: they are launched by the system at login, or the program automatically adds itself to the login items. Open System Preferences, then navigate to “Users & Groups.”. To remove the app, click on the – button. By doing this, it will stop the apps from opening on startup in macOS Mojave. Close the Users & Group Settings window and the System Preferences window. Now when you start your Mac computer next time, the removed apps will not open automatically. See also: How to Change Terminal Color and Font in.
Now, some of these programs might be actually be ones that you do want to launch automatically, such as the Safari web browser, or Apple Mail. But other, not-so-necessary programs may be piling up in your Mac’s “login items” list, too—ones that set themselves to launch automatically without asking first.
Another factor that may be slowing down your system is the Mac’s “Resume” feature, which re-opens any and all apps you had running when you shut down your Mac. That could lead to a crush of apps all trying to launch themselves at startup.
Last but not least, you may have specific programs on your Mac with “Launch at Startup” settings that you’ll need to find and disable.
Now, if you’re the patient type, waiting a little longer for your Mac to boot up so that your programs appear just as you left them might be a fair trade-off.
But if you’d rather shave a few seconds—or even minutes—off the time it takes for your Mac to settle down after hitting the power button, read on.
1. Cross items off your Mac’s “Login Items” list
Your Mac launches a series of programs each and every time it starts up. Some of these programs are critical for the smooth operation of your system; others, not so much.
To see a list of all the programs your Mac opens automatically, click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen, select System Preferences, click the “User & Groups” icon (it’s under the “System” heading), pick a user (you, most likely), and finally click the “Login Items” tab.
You should now see a list of everything your Mac is launching (or trying to launch, anyway) whenever it starts up.
Some of the items will be easy to identify—in my case, I’ve got Dropbox and Google Drive (the handy file-sharing apps) listed, as well as something called an “Eye-Fi Helper” (an app that lets my Mac receive wireless images from my digital camera) and “AirPort Base Station Agent” (which keeps tabs on my AirPort Wi-Fi base station).
To delete these or other startup items from the list (but not from your Mac, mind you), just select them and click the “-” button at the bottom of the list.
2. Keep “Resume” from re-launching previously open apps
Don’t get me wrong—”Resume” is one of the handiest Mac features, especially for those of us who like to pick up in Safari or the Calendar app right where we left off.
But if you don’t want Resume relentlessly re-launching all the apps you had open when you last shut down your Mac, you can stop it from doing so.
The next time you select Shut Down or Restart from the Apple menu, take a closer look at the window that pops up; in addition to the “Cancel” and “Shut Down” or “Restart” buttons, you’ll also see a checkbox labeled “Reopen windows when logging back in.”
Click the box to clear out the checkmark, and the only apps that’ll re-launch the next time your power on your Mac are those listed in the Login Items menu.
How To Stop Apps From Automatically Opening On Mac Pro
3. Check for program-specific “Launch at Startup” settings
So, you emptied the “Login Items” list and turned off the Resume feature, but there’s still a program that’s launching itself at startup. What gives? Well, it could be that the stubborn program has its own “Launch at Startup” setting.
Open the program, make sure it’s the active app on your desktop (just click its window if it isn’t), then find its Preferences menu; generally speaking, you’ll find it under its main menu in the Mac menu bar (like “Spotify” in the case of Spotify).
Once you’ve opened the program’s Preferences menu, look around for a “Launch at Startup” setting. If there are lots of different Preferences categories, start with “General,” then try “Advanced.” (In Spotify’s case, I found a “Open Spotify automatically after you log into the computer” setting under its “Advanced” settings.)
Found the “Launch at Startup” (or the equivalent) setting? Go ahead and disable it, then rinse and repeat for any other programs that are still launching themselves when you turn on your Mac.
Related posts:
There might be some programs you installed on your Mac which start up automatically every time you switch on your Mac. For example, Skype or Hotspot Shield. We don’t need each of those to start up by itself at login and here’s a simple way to disable them.
Ease of use is the best part about Mac’s operating System. Most operations are intuitive and a few clicks via simple interfaces are all that take to configure the Mac. That’s one of many reasons why we love the Mac computers.
Here are the steps to disable apps from starting up automatically at login:
Head to System Preferences and click on Accounts.
/timetracking-app-free-mac.html. Clockify is a web-based time tracker and Mac-compatible time tracking software. It’s the only time tracking program that’s truly free, no matter how many projects you have or how big your team is. Clockify is primarily a browser app, but you can also install it on your Mac OS X as a native desktop app to make time tracking more convenient.
Click on the Login Items Tab as shown in the screenshot.
Here you can find a list of Apps which currently start automatically every time. The ones that have the checkbox selected are ones which start but hide themselves. For example, iTunes Helper is not seen by the user when he starts up.
To delete an app from starting up automatically, select the App and click on the Minus(-) button. You can always add them again by clicking on Plus(+) button or start Apps manually.
In the example here as you can see for yourself, I have disabled PdaNet and Hotspot Shield from starting automatically at login.
Wasn’t that simple enough? Keep subscribed to our blog for more interesting and helpful Mac and iPhone tutorials.
Also read: How to Install Windows on Mac System using Bootcamp