In my case, I had a login item that wasn't in either my user preferences (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist
) or the system preferences (1~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist`), so none of the prior answers helped.
It turns out, I had something in /Library/StartupItems/
. In my case, it was MySQLCOM
, presumably put there by an old version of the MySQL installer (I've since then installed a more recent version via Homebrew, which does not put anything in that location). I had deleted that version, but the StartupItem remained, pointing to a now non-existent application.
I deleted MySQLCOM
, restarted, and the Unknown item was gone.
So, check that folder, and see if you have anything unexpected that could be pointing to an application you've since deleted. Also, check ~/Library/StartupItems/
, though on my Mac, that folder does not exist.
But follow the other suggestions (looking at com.apple.loginitems.plist
and loginwindow.plist
), as well, as this Unknown problem can have multiple causes.