Why "login items" notifications pop up while there's no app listed on startup or background?

I am convinced the the end user can't solve this issue!

Sure you can. You just have to completely uninstall the app you installed to do something for you, and has always done so in the background, but now you have been made aware it is actually doing the thing you wanted in the background.

Figuring out what the malfunctioning app happens to be can be difficult. It is one you had to install and enter your admin password.

You can’t “fix” it by disabling all notifications. You can’t “fix” it by disabling the background item you asked it to run when you installed it.

If you need the app that is repeatedly installing a background process causing the privacy notification, you need to ask the developer to fix their software.

Someone on another post suggested using the knock knock app. It took a few times of trying it, but it worked. I no longer get these notifications on start up.

My IT team told me to 1. reinstall system software (ugh) or 2. try to create a new user login (also time consuming). Will try those.

Just installed Ventura version 13.2.1. and problem of unwanted notifications solved! Good job, Apple.

I had the same problem with Google updater. I re-installed Chrome and it fixed it for me.

Jacobx wrote:

Actually etresoft is spot on - part of this issue and what produces extreme annoyance is that there isn’t a clear way to disable the repetitive notifications. Not a separate issue.

It appears that the repetitive notifications are the result of 3rd party software that is loading launch agents or daemons whenever an app is run, or at startup. I don't know if they are doing this in response to Ventura giving users the ability to disable these tasks, or if they simply don't know how the system works.

The problem is that there are different 3rd party apps that are doing this. There is no way to tell which ones are causing the problem. Sometimes users have their notifications setup to display virtually nothing. Other times, Apple's new interface only tells users that an app is running "open" or "osascript", which is totally useless.

The only thing that is certain is that anyone chiming in with a "me too" response on any thread that you didn't write, is a waste of time. It will not help in any way. It will only confuse the person who started the thread and confuse anyone else who comes by and reads it.

Literally all you have to do is ask about your own problem. Maybe post a screenshot. Maybe follow up with other information that is requested. People who do that get the problem fixed.

VideoGuy411 wrote:

Now we just need a solution. It's clearly an Apple update issue. No one had these problems until the update.

Apple certainly made major changes to both the technical implementation of launchd tasks, and more importantly, to the overall expectation between end users and 3rd party developers about how this system is supposed to work.

It's not really an "update issue". It's much bigger than that. Therefore, it is unlikely that Apple is going to simply roll back all these changes. There may be improvements in future updates, but that's strictly a guess. I can definitely say that I see no indication that any developers are complaining about this problem on the Apple developer forums.

In fact, very few people have this problem at all. Plenty of those people are finding solutions. They just aren't posting "me too" replies in threads like this. They are starting their own questions about their own problems. They are providing information about exactly what is happening and what changes they have made. In most cases, we are able to identify exactly what software is causing the problem. Uninstalling that software then fixes the problem.

If you aren't willing to do that. Then I'm afraid your only option is to simply wait for Ventura version 13.2 and hope it fixes the problem. It might. But then if it doesn't, you're back to square one.

mac-eng-212 wrote:

The fact that the suggestion here is 'deal with it, Apple unilaterally changed their API to ruin your experience, and you should learn to live with it' reminds me much more of a certain other OS that I ditched in favor of OSX years ago. You'd think they could recognize that 100+ of the same notification could easily be made one stationary stack in the UI.

I don't know where you got that idea. This problem can be solved, it just happens to be very difficult for anyone who doesn't have extremely detailed knowledge of how macOS and its launchd system works, which is practically no one.

The expectation isn't that users should "learn to live with it". The expectation is that users will stop using any apps that are causing this problem. These 3rd party launchd tasks are something that only exists on macOS, not iOS. Since macOS is rapidly behind phased out in favour of iOS, this is just this year's mechanism to clean out more of the old chaff.

Unfortunately, I do not know of any way for a normal end user to solve this problem. The "solution" is to uninstall the software that causes it. But it just so happens that software that causes this problem also just happens to be software that can be difficult or impossible to properly uninstall, at least for an end user. Various "app zappers" and "clean up" tools can make it easier, or can completely corrupt your system requiring a full hard drive erase and reinstall.

And I'm getting really tired of typing all this. You are totally correct. This is a nightmare.

Jacobx wrote:

My IT team told me to 1. reinstall system software (ugh) or 2. try to create a new user login (also time consuming). Will try those.

If you have an IT team at your disposal, they should be able to fix this for you.

I remove the apps in order to isolate the problem.

These are apps that I use on a daily basis as well including Zoom, Box, SnagIt.

Once fixed, I reinstall the apps and the Notifications have not returned.

I am using a new M2 Ultra Mac Studio running Ventura 13.4, I constantly receive these Login Items pop-ups. The system I am using has the entire Microsoft Office Suite installed as well as Google's Chrome browser. I also use a Macbook Pro that only has the Adobe Creative Cloud apps installed as well as Chrome and I never recieve these Login Items pop-ups. This leads me to believe it is something Microsoft related that is not working properly with Ventura.

Jay Gamel wrote:

What I would like to know is why apple cannot identify the offending app and include it in the notice. Obviously, the warnings are issued on a specific instance related to a specific app. I am not a programmer so I don't understand what prevents the app ID from being recorded and reported.

This entire new interface, and the notifications, are all part of Apple's effort to do exactly that. Apple, or perhaps NextStep?, didn't anticipate this back in 1989. Back when Apple purchased NextStep, they had no interest in this kind of issue. They were only interested in avoiding bankruptcy. To do that, they had to run classic MacOS apps. Nobody cared one whit about launchdaemons or login items back then. In technical, programmers terms, this is called "technical debt". If the only way to avoid your death is an expensive medical procedure, you'll take out a loan, regardless of the terms, to pay for it.

But then, something funny happened on the way to the funeral. Steve Jobs was like those doctors on the TV shows. He resuscitated the patient multiple times. And then he pulled a Jed Clampett, striking oil while shootin' at some food.

And now Apple is paying off that debt. Or rather, we are paying for it. 😄 Apple introduced an entirely new way to manage these items that works exactly as you describe. The problem is that 30 year history of legacy apps. It is expected that when people freak out over "Google LLC" and "Elmer Hasenpfeffer" on their computer and disable those apps. So, in order to survive, any developer relying on that old style of programming is going to have to adopt the new APIs. The plan is brutal, but effective.

i think its an Mac OS issue, i didnt start getting the pops-ups until i upgraded to the most recent version ventura 13.1

There are apps where you have to disable it in the app itself. Open the app and look at the menubar. Open the menu’s and see if you get the possibility to disable notifications

vanessaarroyo wrote:

I agree, apple needs to provide a solution.

After trying many things, I thought uninstalling extensions would be my final attempt at this. Unfortunately the notifications continue to pop up every few minutes!

Please see my note above. This issue is extremely misunderstood. I mean really, really bad. Very little is known about this, and virtually everything anyone has said is wrong.