There is an unknown item in my "Login Items" list

Select it and press the minus key to remove it

It’s most likely something that was placed there and then deleted from the drive. If desired, control-click it and show it in the Finder, or choose Go to Folder from the Finder’s Go menu, provide ~/Library/Preferences/ as the path, find the com.apple.loginitems.plist file, select it, and press the spacebar; one of the entries there will list its path.

(140774)

Neil covered that well.

I have the same issue of orphaned entries in he "Login Items" pane. I cannot ctrl-click the entry to use Finder. The minus sign is greyed out only for the unknown entries. To top it off when I look for the com.apple.loginitems.plist it's gone as well. I did a pretty good search but still couldn't find it. Anyone have an idea where my file might be hiding? Or why it's hiding? Showing all hidden files didn't help either.

Would you post a screen shot of your log in items please.

Screen shots

Three screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Let me know if you need any other info.

I am the current user of course. The names of others have been redacted.

This shows the minus sign greyed out when I select the item Unknown.

And finally we have the minus sign active while another item is selected.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this with me.

You are welcome. Try control - clicking on it. That gives me a Show in Finder option.

Control clicking it doesn't give me anything either. That was one of the troubleshooting steps I mentioned doing in my first post. I tried every step I could find at least 5 times. I think this may be related to my MacBook being part of my corporate network. Just a hunch though.

Long shot. Try restarting the computer to see if the login.plist is regenerated.

Hi,

He didn't find it the first time as he looked in the wrong place.

@ A_C_S

IN a Finder window hold down the ALT key whilst using the Go menu and select the Library that Appear in the list.

This is the Hard Drive name/Users/your account/Library (or ~/Library for short)

You were looking in Hard Drive/Library (not the same place)

8:43 pm Monday; November 7, 2016

Ah, thank you, Ralph. You are correct. I was looking in the wrong spot. I did find my com.apple.loginitems.plist finally. Trashed it. Rebooted. Checked System Preferences and the Unknown entry is still there and I still cannot remove it. The .plist doesn't list it, that I can tell, so I'm not sure what to try next.

HI,

Thanks for the Pic.

It says it is an Alias in the first <key> part.

The second staggered bit might denote what it was an alias of

LLS Shared List items are the things listed by Apps as "Recent Items"

The number each app has of these is controlled by System Preferences > General and the number Drives, Documents and Servers. In this Case Documents references to the ability to save something - so Messages Saves iChats documents

What is not clear is where the binding item was that might or might not still have a Shared List item.

The other thing I notice is that the name does not quite follow those of others i have seen.

This in the Console App one com.apple.Console.LSSharedFileList.plist

The app name come first.

It might provide you with enough info.

You could delete the plist and then put Google Chrome back in the list

10:12 pm Thursday; November 10, 2016

I've deleted that file a couple of times now and it keeps coming back. Only now all my personal settings have been reset on every app we have. That got old real quick.

Caffeine has been installed for a long time. I never go in and adjust it at all. It opens at log on, and in the background preventing sleep. I've never uninstalled it either. This is strange. Oh well. At lest I know what the entry is for now.

Thanks,

Aaron C. Shaad

Cloud Engineer | Strategic Projects