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a process called

"/usr/libexec/gamecontrollerd" and

"/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/UniversalAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/AXVisualSupportAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/AXVisualSupportAgent" and

"/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ViewBridge.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/ViewBridgeAuxiliary.xpc/Contents/MacOS/ViewBridgeAuxiliary"

recently auto starts at boot time as a passive listener of my key tap events after I upgraded to Big Sur. It was not the case in Catalina.

How do i revert back these processes to disabled state? Everytime i force quit these processes, it comes back as a passive listener on my keyboard tap events. #KeyLogger

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4
  • 1
    i can confirm this issue » objective-see.com/products/reikey.html
    – Lupo
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 19:44
  • How do you know they are a passive listener to key tap events?
    – Michael Ozeryansky
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 10:03
  • @MichaelOzeryansky as Lupo pointed out in the comment above it might have been via the tool ReiKey. The two macOS processes will not show up if you have set "Ignore Apple Programs" in the settings.
    – retrovertigo
    Commented May 10, 2021 at 23:46
  • Why would you want to disable processes which are part of the OS?
    – Integer Poet
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 17:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Regarding gamecontrollerd: This process showed up on my machine after installing Big Sur, no history of it running on my machine prior.

Edit: After future research I found the post linked below. I tested the response from the first user and found it to be correct. Gamecontrollerd runs when certain programs are launched (example: Chrome) and should die after the given program is exited.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252046047

As a side note, if a process respawns after you've absolutely killed it (kill -9 PID), it has a parent process. The parent process can be found with the command ps -o ppid= PID.

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2
  • I don't use Chrome, for me it was Spotify.
    – Michael Ozeryansky
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 1:00
  • 1
    Apparently any Electronjs app may launch it. The question is why would it do that and if it's not necessary, how to stop without using launchctl for example...
    – magnump0
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 18:10
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As noted over in the discussions.apple.com thread, you can use launchctl to keep gamecontrollerd from launching. It's a big hammer, be careful.

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