Stop Facetime loading at startup

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the help and am now all sorted and am not afraid to admit that as in most cases it's just a case of being new to Mac and completely duh !!

First .. my name was not in the Finder Sidebar .. so, after some research, went to top left corner next to the apple logo to 'Finder' then 'Preferences' 'Sidebar' and ticked my name to add it. Of course I'm not saying all this for your benefit but for the next duh bloke like me who comes along.

So, once I'm in there I can follow your trail and delete the files in library. Unfortunately, just like tplen 1 above it didn't help :-(

However.. good news.. all is now fixed .. how.. just examine how duh I think I am and study. Open Facetime.. go back up to the top left next to the little apple logo and click on 'Facetime' and then .. wait for it ... yes.. 'turn off facetime' :-) done.. as easy as that..

Hope this help some other newbie in time to come and hope you will help me in time to come.

Cheers.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

You might need to redo the View settings after an update.

Try this step.

1. Open the Apple Menu. . ...
2. Click on System Preferences….
3. Click on Users & Groups. It's near the bottom of the dialog box.
4. Click on the Login Items tab.
5. Click on the application (facetime) you want to stop from opening at startup. ...
6. Click on _ beneath the applications list.

Hope this can help you.

Hi Matt,

I appreciate what you are saying but the fact is Facetime does not start on my computer when I boot up, so it is not something intrinsic in 10.9.2. It must be some setting on your computer.

Looking around the help sites there have been instances were removing the plist file for Facetime has cured this problem, you could try that, it will make a new plist when/if you start it up.

About the other suggestion, are you logged into Facetime or like me you don't use it and it just keep starting up at boot time?

/Users/[your account]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.facetime.plist

After removing it, reboot.

It might also be worth checking to see if the same issue happens in another OS X user account. It could be useful for isolation.

I've got a fresh install of 10.9.2 with no inhertited preference settings. I've never logged into Facetime either.

I keep getting the same issue (original firewire iSight opens Facetime whenever plugged in or the privacy iris is unlocked).

Deleting the preference files (in ~/Library) as discussed here does nothing. There isn't a camera setting in Facetime, Image Capture or System Preferences (so far as I can tell), and 10.3 and 10.4 era suggestions of looking at iChat AV preferences are obviously outdated.

Does anyone else have other ideas?

I am also having this problem once i updated the apple security software, i cant seem to get rid of this at all everytime i turn my mac on it asks for my facetime password without me even loading the app. is this a bug with the update? or an easy way of getting rid of this?

I updated my software lastnight, just wondering if this is a bug? as you may have this crop up alot

I also found after a recent Mavericks update that Facetime was starting automatically - I never used Facetime and didn't remember ever configuring or being asked a question about it.

Turning off Facetime and removing it from the Preference LIbrary as decribed above did not solve the problem.

What I did find was that somehow it was added to my Login Options ??

Removing it from Login Options solved it...

Glenn Barber

Hi Math

I've also followed the instructions about removing the plist file, but after I've removed it and rebooted, it just returns, and the file "com.apple.facetime.bag.plist" has returned to the preference folder. I can't even login to facetime with any passwords connected to my mac mini, or my email account. My HP monitor doesn't even have a **** camera! Any ideas?

Mark.

I did the recommended things many different ways and it is still popping up on restart and user switching. I tried to remove the app and I was not allowed and got a warning that facetime is required by OSX.

Is there some detailed steps of how to actually stop this or how to remove FaceTime all together.

Go to Finder, Applications.

Then in the search box for Applications type in FaceTime.

The FaceTime application will appear.

Click twice to open.

Go to the top bar of the screen reading FaceTime and click on it.

The dropdown will give you an option to sign out.

Click sign out.

Ditto for iMessage but you have to hunt for the "sign out" option

Worked for me. If Facetime is on your dock, right click the icon and you should get a menu that includes Options. There you should see "Open at Login" and if there's a check mark, it opens. If you left click on "Open at Login", the check mark should get removed and Facetime won't start up at login.

I don't want FaceTime at all; just messages on my MacBook Pro 2014 mid I don't like seeing myself online and I don't to feel like I am in the Jetson's TV show on a video prompter. Messages are less distracting. Why do they come together as a combo? Sometimes it feels like Apple and Google are always forcing things on us...choices we want choices we are free!

It is perhaps not on my system due to me never signing in, can you sign out and see if that cures it.

The reason I said turn it off is this is in my preferences.