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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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What is the proper way to stop and restart a service that is a "bundled daemon"?

There are some recent apps, e.g., Cisco Secure Client / AnyConnect VPN service, where the service cannot be stopped/started using the LaunchControl.app. For more control over what's running on the ...
HanSooloo's user avatar
  • 334
1 vote
1 answer
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no sound in plist on mac

I'm not able in my plist of sync to make a beep when finished. this my code of plist <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD ...
Oscardot's user avatar
4 votes
7 answers
1k views

Simplest way to create a clickable list in MacOS that will cause selected programs to run

I'm looking for something which runs under macOS that will let me do the following: Suppose I have a file called "program.list" with contents something like this: "Program 1" "...
HippoMan's user avatar
  • 390
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0 answers
16 views

How do I start a launch agent for an AD user?

I have a Launch Agent which is working fine for local Mac users. But it is not starting for AD user. As we start a LaunchAgent using launchctl bootstrap <gui/$user_uid> <plist path>. But ...
vishal kumar's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
324 views

How to stop sharingd, unsolicited, acceptance window from spawning and disappearing instantly every time the computer starts?

I have been living with this for a long time, but now (hope with your help) I am committed to solve it because it doesn't look quite normal. Why this window of this sharingd process, shows up at boot ...
nostromo's user avatar
  • 197
1 vote
1 answer
246 views

How to register some program "at login" for all users on macOS

I know I can use "Service Management" (SMAppManager) for the current user [or do the equivalent action via setup], but it only registers at login for the current user, but I need my app to ...
Aleksandr's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
733 views

Leave SSH daemon running permanently

I, for some reason, cannot seem to find a google search which actually answers this question. I have a mac, and I would like to have the ssh daemon running in the background at all times, so I can ssh ...
ExecutionByFork's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
62 views

Associate another filename extension with existing UTI

The macOS system recognizes various files as JavaScript. If the filename extension is .js, .jscript, .javascript or .mjs, the file's Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) is com.netscape.javascript-source and ...
Jim Danner's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

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 ...
Berkay's user avatar
  • 121
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

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 ...
Florian Wendelborn's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
43 views

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 ...
Frank's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
263 views

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'...
ylluminate's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
4k views

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\|...
Mr.'s user avatar
  • 185
4 votes
2 answers
790 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 ...
P i's user avatar
  • 1,785
2 votes
0 answers
267 views

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 ...
athena's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
6k views

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?
ylluminate's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
12k views

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 ...
lacostenycoder's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
425 views

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 ...
Joan's user avatar
  • 259
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

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 ...
t0dd's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
0 answers
38 views

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 ...
ylluminate's user avatar
  • 5,491
1 vote
2 answers
407 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 ...
thebilly's user avatar
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-...
Alex Martian's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
98 views

"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 ...
Bob Yoplait's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
13k views

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 ...
Shuzheng's user avatar
  • 1,561
16 votes
3 answers
14k views

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 ...
Shuzheng's user avatar
  • 1,561
0 votes
0 answers
546 views

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 "-//...
MacDeveloper's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
315 views

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 <?...
MacDeveloper's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
80 views

"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. ...
Sam's user avatar
  • 1,378
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

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 ...
user303582's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
8k views

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 ...
Labo's user avatar
  • 306
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

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 ...
Dave Yeaman's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
3k 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 ...
sgon00's user avatar
  • 2,404
3 votes
0 answers
1k 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....
Brett Zamir's user avatar
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 ...
DaveBurns's user avatar
  • 253
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 ...
Michael Ilie's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
988 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 ...
Jef's user avatar
  • 101
3 votes
3 answers
2k 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 ...
Thomas Tempelmann's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Error while changing the default application with which we open a file

Recently I've tried to change the default application with which a file is opened, by doing the following: Right click on the file Get info In "Open with", change to the application you want your ...
user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
98 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 ...
Ben Hyde's user avatar
  • 339
0 votes
1 answer
368 views

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?
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
170 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 ...
MrU's user avatar
  • 592
2 votes
1 answer
294 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 ...
Alec Jacobson's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
178 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 ...
Daniel J Clark's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
393 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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
23tux's user avatar
  • 181
1 vote
0 answers
3k views

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.
Juice's user avatar
  • 222
0 votes
1 answer
732 views

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 ...
MiB's user avatar
  • 488
1 vote
1 answer
113 views

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. ...
Shabble's user avatar
  • 111
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 ...
WendiKidd's user avatar
  • 135
141 votes
11 answers
132k 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 ...
wrossmck's user avatar
  • 2,416