Questions tagged [launch-services]

Launch Services is an API used by applications to open other applications or their document files similar to the way that the Finder or the Dock handles them.

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Why do I see “ln” listed in the login items? [duplicate]

I'm currently using macOS Ventura 13.1 on my i5 Macbook Pro 2020. After updating to this version, some unexpected behavior has arose, such as "Steam" added items that can run in the ...
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1 answer
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What’s com.apple.iomfb_bics_daemon in macOS Monterey?

I noticed in my boot logs that this service fails to start because the executable is missing. So, what is it supposed to do? I can’t find much about it on the internet besides that it was introduced ...
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1 answer
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Open a file according to its name

On my iMac I would like to open PDF files with Preview, while PDF files that have 'docuni' in the name (e.g. 'docuni1.pdf' or 'docuni2.pdf' etc.) I would like to open by default with Adobe Reader. Is ...
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keeprunning Launch Agent Not working specifically for Find My

I have been trying to make a plist launch agent to keep find my running. Following things online, I have this code: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist ...
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1 vote
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How to `kill -HUP` apps in macOS 12+?

Long ago it was relatively simple to kill and start some apps and processes in macOS by issuing a killall -HUP PROCESS_NAME. It seemed that most apps and processes respected the -HUP signal, but that'...
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1 answer
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Disable/enable launchd daemon/agents

There are several launch daemons/agents that start automatically and I wish they will not start automatically. I have listed some services by running $ launchctl list | grep -i 'safari\|siri\|photo\|...
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How to deregister Chrome from being a detected web browser by Launch Services in macOS?

I'd like to deregister Google Chrome from being a detected web browser by Launch Services in macOS. I've heard that it has to do with editing the app .plist, but I'm not clear on the details and it ...
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3 votes
2 answers
354 views

How to force macOS to open https://t..me/ links with correct Telegram client

I have 2 Telegram clients on my MacBook ^ /Applications/Telegram.app/Contents/MacOS/Telegram ^ /Applications/Telegram.localized/Telegram.app/Contents/MacOS Currently when I click a link, the first ...
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2 votes
0 answers
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Old bug: The application "Preview.app" is not open anymore

Since many versions of MacOS, I got different applications leaving a ghost version only visible at the Finder and Dock level but not at the basic Unix level. Here is the usual error message the Finder ...
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1 answer
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What service to restart after modifying /etc/sudoers for macOS to make changes active without reboot?

What's the service that needs to be restarted after modifying /etc/sudoers for macOS in order to make changes active without a system reboot?
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9 votes
1 answer
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Homebrew running service shows error, how to debug this?

When I run brew services list one of my services state shows err. brew services restart elasticsearch@6 for example stops and restarts with no error output and shows: brew services restart ...
3 votes
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Display srt file as text in QuickLook

On an old 10.12 MBP, srt files are displaying as text in Quicklook. But on another laptop under 10.15, they're not: I have the VLC file icon and can"t get a way to display the file content as ...
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1 answer
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How can I track down the process that started a VPN interface on Catalina?

This seems to happen each time I connect to a WiFi, the ipsec interface goes up with a PTP VPN config with description, VPN: ProtonVPN. I've deleted every ProtonVPN artifact I can find and still the ...
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1 vote
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How to reset available apps (what macOS sees as viable options) and test if they're are present options in 10.15.x Catalina?

I'm having some odd issues where, after moving to Catalina, some applications are not now being seen. This especially holds true for some (awesome) Epichrome apps. I've had some LSD crashes that ...
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1 vote
2 answers
246 views

How do I reorder the programs in the 'open with' window of a file?

I want to reorder (not change the default program) the programs suggested in the menu when I click on 'open with' for a file. I don’t want to add or remove programs, just sort them for easier ...
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

com.apple.quarantine attribute does not cause any warnings

I've read in several places I've found via search that quarantine flag results in a warning when app is tried to be run (and then flag is cleared): https://superuser.com/questions/28384/what-should-i-...
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"service" not showing up

I installed the GlobalProtect VPN on MacOS Darwin 18.7 I cannot remove it. It is attempting to start but does not succeed. It appears in the output of ps aux 518 5.6 0.3 6093596 112332 ?? S ...
14 votes
1 answer
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launchd: Confusion on semantics of bootstrap and bootout etc. after reading manual pages

I've read the following manual pages on launchd: launchctl, launchd, and launchd.plist. However, nothing is really said in these manual pages regarding what the launchctl boostrap and launchctl ...
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13 votes
2 answers
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Why does setting the hard-limit for maxfiles to "unlimited" using `launchctl limit` result in a hard-limit slightly above the soft-limit?

Why does setting the hard-limit for maxfiles to "unlimited" using launchctl limit result in a hard-limit slightly above the soft-limit? By setting the maxfiles limit using launchctl to launchctl ...
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0 votes
0 answers
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Adding and Deleting LSHandlerURLScheme from com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist is not immediately reflecting in Launch Services database

I am exposing an Mac OSX application by adding its bundle identifier and urlscheme in com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//...
2 votes
0 answers
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My launchAgent service is launching my application multiple times even if configuration has RunAtLoad true and OnDemand true(default) [closed]

My purpose is to launch my application during every login but is being launched multiple times. I copied my below plist file in to /Library/LaunchAgents and gave root ownership and chmod 600 <?...
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"Open with <application>" not working properly

I've noticed that when I try to open a file in any newly added applications, the application opens, but not the file. I've noticed this problem with multiple Wine versions, and also web-based games. ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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After rebuilding LaunchServices com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist remains unchanged. Why?

various quirks and derailments of LaunchServices have already been plentifully discussed here and elsewhere… I have recently excluded my external backup drive from Spotlight search and all seems to be ...
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3 votes
1 answer
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mds and lsd going crazy

I have noticed big peaks of activity of processes: mds mds_stores lsd mdworker (multiple processes) The console loops over two messages from mds: LaunchServices: Database mapping failed with result ...
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4 votes
3 answers
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Anyway to obtain list of Application that can open a file via Terminal?

In the finder you can control click on a document to get the contextual menu, this has 'open with..' with a submenu of all apps that can open that document. Is there a way to get this list via ...
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Shove installed a launch daemon or agent popup window, what is it?

Please check the following screenshot: Today, I suddenly have this popup window warning. I have no idea what it is. Basically I have three questions. (1) Is this BlockBlock app warning? I have no ...
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3 votes
0 answers
892 views

Preferred way to set default application by content/MIME type from the command line [closed]

Per https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/9883/206073 , default file opening by content type should be set via LSHandlers -> LSHandlerContentType in com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices....
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

Huge TM backups - LaunchServices csstore file too big?

For years, a typical TM backup for me is around 200MB. For the last week or two, it's grown to about 1.2GB even if I haven't been using the machine. I finally dug into why using tmutil compare and ...
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2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Unable to open CSV file

I have a reasonably sized CSV file (40 Megabytes). I know that some apps won't work with certain encodings, and that they will throw error if the encoding isn't ASCII. But its alarming that even ...
5 votes
1 answer
900 views

How to 'unregister' a file type / MIME with launch services

I'm working on a document based application in Cocoa, the file is a bundle type (a folder which the Finder shows as a single file much like an application.) I had everything working perfectly but ...
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3 votes
3 answers
1k views

Find specific apps by name, getting their version, via command line

For a support information gathering tool, I like to be able to look up several apps by name (or rather by their bundle ID) and fetch their versions. I don't like to use the find command for this as ...
3 votes
2 answers
93 views

How do I clear the application used to open a file, i.e. set it to none

When you double click a file the finder will select an application to open it with. What it's going to do can be viewed in the file's info panel. You can change it there too. Viewing some files ...
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1 answer
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How to make .docx files open in Pages by default

Is there a way to make .docx (Word) files open in Pages by default? How do I do it?
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1 vote
1 answer
164 views

Unknown event opening Skype periodically

Recently Skype has been opening itself or placing itself into focus, regardless of what app is running or on focus. This happens every half an hour to hourly. It's has gotten really annoying, and I ...
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2 votes
1 answer
227 views

How to debug .app that only successfully launches from Terminal?

Recently, my Dropbox.app stopped launching correctly. If I double-click on the app or try to launch via spotlight, the app just silently dies within a second. I see it show up in Activity Monitor, but ...
2 votes
2 answers
150 views

Launch different apps based on file name (other than the extension)?

I'd like to have different apps handle .jpg files based on a naming convention I'll use for the .jpg files. Specifically most will go to Xee, but ones containing thumb should instead cause VLC to be ...
4 votes
1 answer
352 views

What are the services Apple's Firewall considers essential?

I'm trying to determine what Apple's Firewall considers essential services. Apple's Firewall has the following settings available: A search of Apple's site does not reveal a support document on the ...
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5 votes
1 answer
3k views

Accidentally unloaded all launchctl daemons and now can't boot [duplicate]

While trying to set up some services (OS X 10.10 Yosemite), I accidentally did a sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ and the screen was frozen immediately. Now my Mac doesn't boot ...
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How to run an application as a system service?

I'd like to be able to run Plex media server in the background even when not logged on. This is something I could easily setup in Windows but I can't figure out if this is possible in OSX.
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Settings for CalendarAgent, Mingler and iCalExternalSync services

I have the dreaded issue with recurring sync service processes wreaking havoc on my MacBook Pro with O S X 10.9 Mavericks and stealing my CPU cycles for no apparent good reason. Usually with a 3 month ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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Viewing/Changing App paths used by `open -a foo.app ...`

When using open -a iTerm.app SOMEPATH from a shell-script or Emacs eshell command, it appears to launch a different instance of iTerm than the one in /Applications/iTerm.app that I'd expect. ...
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3 votes
3 answers
1k views

My macbook thinks .as files are zip files (and they won't open in XCode)

I've got some old .as files from a project I was working on on a different mac a long time ago. I was trying to open one of them just to try and remember something. But for some reason my mac thinks ...
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134 votes
11 answers
121k views

Replace Text Edit as the default text editor

I've seen questions like this which don't quite solve my problem. I'd like to make Sublime Text 3 the default file viewer/editor for all files that currently use textedit. Most of these files can be ...
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2 votes
1 answer
212 views

Keynote 6 Hijacking Launch Services?

I find Keynote 6 in Mavericks to be both a step backwards and a step forwards from Keynote 5. It has some neat new transitions and all, but the iOS-ification (simplification) of the interface, as well ...
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2 votes
1 answer
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How can I prevent "Open With..." from accessing external drives?

Frequently, when I try to open the (10.9) Finder's "Open With..." menu, I experience a delay that appears to be due to connected FireWire drives. This delay is very long when the drives need to spin ...
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6 votes
3 answers
15k views

What does lsboxd process do on os x?

My firewall asked me for a connection from lsboxd (module com.apple.ls.boxd, ) to one another computer in my network to the port tcp 548. What does it do? I found that it is a part of sandbox ...
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2 answers
293 views

Any way to "right-click->open" application using application launcher or AppleScript?

I'm an avid launch service (Quicksilver/Launchbar) user, and have been frequently stymied by Gatekeeper… The default "Open" actions behave like double-clicking an application package, which is ...
2 votes
1 answer
135 views

Quarantine alert for Skim

I'm on Mountain Lion. Every time I double-click on a pdfd (pdf bundle) document, I get the alert saying that I'm opening Skim for the first time (which is, of course, false). I've completely disabled ...
7 votes
1 answer
13k views

Why is a command line change to ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist not effective immediately?

When the Info window of Finder is used to associate files of a particular type with an application: the preference is effective immediately. When Terminal is used to make a comparable addition to ~...
10 votes
4 answers
8k views

Programmatically/Script-atically changing the default Open-With setting

Is there a way to change what app opens a file type programmatically/with a script? Basically, sometimes I'm working on a web site, and I want to set all web files to open with a text editor (*.php, *...
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