Google LLC Running in Background on Mac

My assumption is that it is related to the fact that I have my Google calendar and Email synced to my Mac. As far as I know it uses OAuth to log in to Google Account. OAuth tokens expire and need to be refreshed periodically, so it runs a daemon in the background to do that, to make sure the email and calendar are properly synced.

Uninstall all their software AND remove every single file and folder with the name Google in it from these folders:

Application Support (both system and user)

Library (both system and user)

LaunchAgents

LaunchDaemons

ClarenceBeaks wrote:

• Being a bit pedantic there but for the user profile directory I actually meant: -

/Users/[user profile name]/Library/LaunchAgents

That is correct.

To be completely clear:

~/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchAgents

... are the folders to be examined.

🙂

Because Google, like many app developers, wants to load up your Mac with such [autostart?] items to make using them "easier" and thereby more likely to buy into their system.

If you have no aversion to that, and to Google doing things on your computer you're not even aware of, then you have your answer.

This happened to me too. It added itself without any action on my part, and without any Google crud open, to my knowledge. How can I determine what added it, so that I can remove it with prejudice?

Update:

Ran `sfltool dumpbtm`

#3:
                 UUID: E3C582DB-F60F-43FA-9A38-2325000511D8
                 Name: GoogleUpdater
       Developer Name: Google LLC
      Team Identifier: EQHXZ8M8AV
                 Type: legacy agent (0x10008)
          Disposition: [enabled, disallowed, visible, notified] (9)
           Identifier: com.google.GoogleUpdater.wake
                  URL: file:///Users/<snip>/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.GoogleUpdater.wake.plist
      Executable Path: /Users/<snip>/Library/Application Support/Google/GoogleUpdater/Current/GoogleUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/GoogleUpdater
           Generation: 2
    Parent Identifier: Google LLC

Clearly I was unsuccessful in my earlier attempt to logically draw the reader to his or her own resolution. The solution is to uninstall Google.

It's not as though they make it a secret. You can even Google it.

With that notification, Apple is doing its best to inform the user that he or she willfully infested his or her Mac with Google, and is presumably at peace with such an overt act.

If you delete the files, Google will just replace them and automatically enable them, not unlike malware.

Mine was installed when I had to install Malware bytes for a moment when a hacking company disguised as "McAfee" intruded. I don't use any virus programs because apple takes care of that in the installed OS. Exception might need malware bites from time to time.

I ran "Malware Bytes" and don't need after I found hacker in file system and removed the malware folder. Then uninstall "Malware.dmg" and Google LLC disapears from startup items. Note: you will have to delete "file:///Library/LaunchAgents/com" for what uses the "Google LLC" per your system.

Thank you Apple Forums and the awesome helpful Mac users on the forum. Everyone go here first, don't google, Ha ha.

RebelHumans

This Chrome trash thing is super annoying, to keep spamming even after disabled in Notifications and Login Items.

I suspect that GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app that running invokes it, so I killed it, no messages so far

to check if any similar processess are running:

ps aux | grep -i google 

to kill it:

pkill GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent # not sure it will work, I killed it using Process ID

or

kill -9 `ps aux | grep -i google | awk '{ print $2 }'`

or

pkill <PID>

I hope that disabled 'Google Update' in Login Items would prevent it from starting again on next boot, but Im not sure and likely Chrome will start it anyway at some point (I'm not even using Chrome everyday, I just use it occasionally to test something)

Is anyone here familiar with the app "Little Snitch"? It's above my head, but it might be a good tool to see what "Google LLC" is doing.

Actually, it comes as gift with any Google software you install, although it has absolutely no reason to be there AND you cannot turn it off from within the software itself.

What worries me most is that apple allows them to add without user input these kind of things but to remove them you need to input your password, how is it that you need to input your password and they do not need user input to allow this!!!

manklar wrote:

What worries me most is that apple allows them to add without user input these kind of things but to remove them you need to input your password, how is it that you need to input your password and they do not need user input to allow this!!!

You needed to input your password when you installed Google.

but they do not need it when they change the settings (the settings here changed not that long ago, I have had chrome for way to long) so yeah and no. Your answer doesnt do justice to what I said. Apple should require your password when these settings get change by them without any notification at the time. Just like when you are to remove them from it

Buy into their system? A bit like Microsoft buying up games companies so they 'Pavlovian condition' your children into liking their brand. Not to mention all the business-social media, github and all that. We are gradually getting owned.

This Google 'invasion of privacy' is synonymous with Microsoft Behaviours which caused me to abandon that vendor (almost) entirely. I've been a supporter of Google until recent weeks until the fiasco with YT (wanting me to remove an adblocker so I can watch content that has been monetised by 'content creators' that plagiarised the works of well-known artists). It's become a disgrace.

What else does apple allow that we don't know about?

It's in the Terms of Service (TOS)

I'll wager that somewhere in the voluminous TOS document we all scroll through when we install Chrome, we agreed to allow Google to do these things.

Unfortunately, I use my Mac for work and the company's default browser is Chrome. More and more, I experience websites that don't function properly on Safari (or even MS Edge). You MUST be running Chrome. It's like the earlier days of US and state government (and higher education) sites requiring Internet Explorer to function properly, even while the US government was suing Microsoft for monopolistic practices. So, I have to have Chrome installed.