How to remove software starting automatically on MacOS that is not listed in Login Items

Question

How can I remove a program that is starting automatically on MacOS?

I have already opened System Settings -> Login Items, but I can’t find it there.

Answer

If you can’t find it in Login Items, then you need to check the LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents.

In particular you need to open the following folders:

• /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
• /Library/LaunchDaemons
• ~/Library/LaunchDaemons
• /Library/LaunchAgents
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Tip: from Terminal, you can type open ~/Library/LaunchAgents (or similar) to open a specific folder in Finder. Then you can sort the items by Date Modified to see the most recent items (in case you recently installed something that you want to remove).

Once you find the startup item that you want to remove you can simply delete the file or, better, move it to another folder (in this way it is disabled but you can easily restore it).