16

I'm a developer, but it is more of a user-centric question.

How can one "unregister" a Finder Sync (or any other, presumably) OS X / macOS App Extension so that it disappears from System Preferences > Extensions?

I've removed the app that's hosting it (FinderSyncTest), but it still shows here:

How to remove 10.10 Application Extension

5 Answers 5

5

I found my extensions in:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ShareKit.framework/Versions/A/PlugIns

Delete FinderSyncTest.appex, restart Finder, and it should be gone.

3
  • Unfortunately, this is not the case here.
    – qdot
    Oct 24, 2014 at 11:21
  • Try running "locate FinderSyncTest" from Terminal. Good chance you'll find where the extensions are located.
    – dejuknow
    Oct 24, 2014 at 22:35
  • It didn't work for me for my project..... Any other way to find? Jul 27, 2016 at 11:59
4

Did you create this extension yourself?

I found that after creating, building, and testing an extension I created that there was some data that lives here:

/Users/$USER/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData

that I needed to blow away and then relaunch the Finder (which can be done with Force Quit) to get the extension to "die"

1
  • 1
    Yes I created my own, but it does't exist there, I removed all the files in DerivedData, but still see whole bunch of extensions. Jul 27, 2016 at 12:00
3

Another answer in addition to my previous one: if your extension is actually runnable (i.e.: it doesn't crash when started via System Preferences -> Extensions), find the extension in your Activity Monitor, double click the process, then go to the "Open Files and Ports" tab. You'll see the path of your extension listed.

2

I found my location via the "Open Files and Ports" location in Activity Monitor mentioned in the other answer.

This lead to the location:

/Users/USER/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives/2018-10-09/MyApp 10-9-18, 9.35 PM.xcarchive/Products/Applications/MyApp.app/Contents/PlugIns/MyAppFinderSync.appex/Contents/MacOS/MyAppFinderSync

This archive was 10 days old and I'm not sure why it would have been running. I've been deleting my app since that date, and I believe the extension was being removed from System Preferences.

I deleted the archives in that location, and the app extension no longer runs (which it was doing before). However, it's still listed in System Preferences. Still looking for a way to fully delete.

Edit: I started running a new version of the container app, from /Applications/. About 10 minutes later, I went back to System Preferences and toggled the Extension on/off and back to on. This launched the new version of the Extension and everything appears to now be working normally.

0

You need to remove it from DerivedData and restart the finder. I use DevCleaner, a free utility on the app store to deal with that:

screenshot of devcleaner

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