macOS 27 - my faceless bg-only app now appears in the Dock - how to get rid of that?

Question

Created 6d

Replies 3

Boosts 0

Participants 3

My macOS app Find Any File contains another app inside its Resources folder. It's a background-only app that checks if the user presses a hotkey, in which case it launches my app.

Since macOS 27, when the hotkey app is running, it appears in the Dock with a "Running in Background" subtitle.

That's totally not wanted. How do I make it not appear in the Dock? I've got both "LSBackgroundOnly" and "LSUIElement" set to true in the Info.plist, to no avail.

Answered by Thomas Tempelmann in 905989022

It's a plain bg-only app that I use it as a Login Item, i.e. I use the old APIs to add it to the Login Items. Worked well since 2011 :)

Changing the NSApplication activationPolicy had no effect, BTW. Anything launched thru LaunchServices, no matter its policy, appears to be appearing in the Dock now, even if it's a Login Item. Apple didn't appear to make an effort to filter out such apps from the new "let's warn the user about these bg apps" mode. I found a few complains on reddit where people had several of these unwanted Dock icons (while still wanting the bg app to keep working).

BTW - what would be the correct place for a Login Item app? The LaunchItems surely isn't it, because that has unwanted side effects if it's not a SMAppService. MacOS folder?

I've now asked Claudia and she updated my code to use the SMAppServices API in macOS 13 and later, while keeping the old method pre-13. Works! Just released a new beta that should do it: https://findanyfile.app/beta.html

Answer 1

Etresoft OP

6d

My macOS app Find Any File contains another app inside its Resources folder.

Executables shouldn't go in the Resources folder.

What kind of artifact is this? Is it a launch agent? A login item? Are you changing the NSApplication activationPolicy?

Answer 2

Thomas Tempelmann OP

5d

Recommended

It's a plain bg-only app that I use it as a Login Item, i.e. I use the old APIs to add it to the Login Items. Worked well since 2011 :)

Changing the NSApplication activationPolicy had no effect, BTW. Anything launched thru LaunchServices, no matter its policy, appears to be appearing in the Dock now, even if it's a Login Item. Apple didn't appear to make an effort to filter out such apps from the new "let's warn the user about these bg apps" mode. I found a few complains on reddit where people had several of these unwanted Dock icons (while still wanting the bg app to keep working).

BTW - what would be the correct place for a Login Item app? The LaunchItems surely isn't it, because that has unwanted side effects if it's not a SMAppService. MacOS folder?

I've now asked Claudia and she updated my code to use the SMAppServices API in macOS 13 and later, while keeping the old method pre-13. Works! Just released a new beta that should do it: https://findanyfile.app/beta.html

Answer 3

Etresoft OP

5d

what would be the correct place for a Login Item app?

Contents/Library/LoginItems/

Here is some documentation, and some older docs.

The LaunchItems surely isn't it

I'm not aware of that folder.

Another option would be to convert this to a Launch Agent. Launch Agents can be kept alive if they crash, or run on a schedule. And they have a few other neat tricks like XPC. It can be a bit tricky to setup.