Perpetual "Background Items Added"

Since upgrading to macOS 13.x, I've received a sequence of Background Items Added notifications with every restart. Permission for all these is enabled under General > Login items: Allow in the Background:



Nonetheless, every time I restart, I get another round of notifications. Obviously this is nothing like fatal, but nonetheless, I'd like to suppress the superfluous warnings about things that aren't problems.

Mac mini, macOS 13.1

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 3:30 PM

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266 replies

Jan 6, 2023 8:16 AM in response to etresoft

Then I don't understand the "fix" that someone previously suggested. Maybe it was you, but I can't see the discussion now. (I'm not a regular forum user and unfamiliar with navigating it.) Bottom line: What's the solution/fix for this situation? I'd appreciate as much step-by-step instruction as you are willing to provide. I am a long-time Mac user so not ignorant, just ignorant or solving this issue. Thanks!

Jan 6, 2023 9:44 AM in response to Michael12000

Michael12000 wrote:

What's the solution/fix for this situation?

No clue.


This thread is now at 7 pages. At this point, any attempts to find out more about the problem or diagnose what might possibly be causing it will only result in more thread-jacking, misinformation, and insults.


If you have a problem, then you need to start your own question and fully describe your problem.

Jan 6, 2023 10:30 AM in response to Michael12000

Michael12000 wrote:

Then I don't understand the "fix" that someone previously suggested.

For some, it is a fix because they don’t use the software anymore and didn’t know it was still running. For some, it is a fix because it stops the notifications, and they have no idea it breaks the app they installed. And, there are apps that install completely superfluous stuff that runs in the background of, and stopping that doesn’t affect the app at all. Printer manufactures are notorious for bundling a bunch of useless background processes, and deleting them does not stop you from printing.




Jan 6, 2023 1:09 PM in response to r bryan

Is there any workaround for disabling this unhelpful notification feature entirely? I've effectively lost 25% of my screen real-estate by upgrading to Ventura. I'm glad I have other monitors and feel for those who don't.


  • Notifications persist on any desktop (despite "stage manager" being the star of this OS, I can't use that feature at all because it's blocked by this waterfall of notifications)
  • My workflow for taking screenshots is impacted because the screenshots notification is blocked. And the stack that contains new screenshots of course is also underneath them as well.
  • I can't access any desktop icons on the right side of my screen including stage manager
  • I can't access my *regular* notifications because they are under the "Background Items Added", and at this point notifications on my machine have lost all meaning
  • Attempting to dismiss the massive list of notifications by swiping incurs an embarassing loss of FPS, and clicking the x also takes at least two seconds to register.
  • I can't work from anywhere but my desk with my external monitors and am dreading having to travel


I'm able to get the notifications to stop by removing the launchagent that's causing it, but I need it for work -- the notifications loop infinitely for processes I've intentionally symlinked into the library folder so that they boot with my Mac (in this case, local postgres).


Deleting the LaunchAgent plist files is not an option (As others have mentioned, *if I didn't need to run them in the background, they wouldn't be there*)


Ventura is the worst OS upgrade experience I've had os far on a Mac in the past ten years (for a plethora of reasons, but this one takes the cake)


What Product Manager at Apple weaseled this obnoxious notification system through QA?

Jan 6, 2023 3:06 PM in response to chirs666

chirs666 wrote:

I'm able to get the notifications to stop by removing the launchagent that's causing it, but I need it for work -- the notifications loop infinitely for processes I've intentionally symlinked into the library folder so that they boot with my Mac (in this case, local postgres).

If you have a specific problem with a specific file, you should start your own thread about it. This one is officially a dumpster fire.

Jan 6, 2023 7:14 PM in response to chirs666

What Product Manager at Apple weaseled this obnoxious notification system through QA?

I have but a few background items, but none of them produce any notifications. As a test, I removed one and reinstalled. As expected, I received a notification, but that was it. I tend to think this is the fault of the apps, but only because there is a slight bit more evidence in that direction, nothing conclusive.


There appears to be a global freak-out about privacy, and this is probably just one of many “solutions” to come. Europeans were apparently so completely in the dark about browser cookies that we must dismiss a notification on every site we visit. I can’t fathom how someone doesn’t know that cookies are used, but the ignorance of their existence must have been on epidemic proportions all across Europe to result in the unconscionable and exhausting abundance of notifications I am forced to dismiss repeatedly.

Jan 9, 2023 3:27 AM in response to Barney-15E

Well, the solution here is just stupid. For me the issue started with this tiny, unknow app called Steam - after starting it I get stupid notification about "background item" every **** couple of minutes even if I close the app...

I get the notification and it's actually nice to have but it should be displayed ONCE...


As for the cookies - you would be surprised how ignorant people are.. even after couple of years with the banner they still may not have a clue... I'm actually glad there is GDPR and I can easily reject cookies for the site (though some stupid websites bury reject button quite deep, which is illegal…) but it should be a browser configuration (keep all, keep funcional, reject all)…

Jan 10, 2023 5:19 AM in response to TheTimeTraveller

TheTimeTraveller wrote:

How is this a fix? I need my LaunchAgents to run at startup. As a developer, mySQL service needs to run when I start my mac. I can't be manually running it each time, it's annoying! Apple has been adding more bugs and breaking things that were working fine lately.

It isn’t and never was. You should start your own question for your specific problem. Anyone posting here in this thread is simply saying, “I just want to complain, try random hacks, and never get my problem fixed.”

Jan 10, 2023 2:24 PM in response to AstroBike

AstroBike wrote:

Above notifications keep appearing again and again even though I uninstalled the Microsoft Edge.

How did you uninstall it? Lots of people just drag apps to the trash. Some people swear by "app zappers" or "clean up" apps. Some people diligently research the correct uninstallation procedure for each 3rd party app.


All options may be wrong.

Perpetual "Background Items Added"

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