15

After installing Snow Leopard my map network drive application didn't work any more. No problem, but it left an unknown login item that is grayed out and cannot be removed the normal way (also in administrator mode).

Does anybody know how to remove this grayed out unknown login item?

2
  • 1
    Please share if you did find a solution, I have the same problem and don't know how to solve it.
    – deadalnix
    Nov 21, 2012 at 22:18
  • After all those years the problem still isn't solved. And I've just encountered it. I'm afraid the only thing which will help is reinstall. This is some serious, rare bug which wasn't fixed for all those years :/
    – koras
    Sep 28, 2017 at 16:45

6 Answers 6

8

You can try editing the following plist file directly:

/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist

You will need to use Property List Editor to open this plist file, then you should be able to delete the item which corresponds to the grayed out item.

3
  • Could be easier just to right-click on the item (in the login items list) and choose "Reveal in Finder"; and then trash it from there.
    – user172028
    Nov 8, 2012 at 10:38
  • I have the same issue as described above and the item isn"t in that file.
    – deadalnix
    Nov 21, 2012 at 22:16
  • 8
    For me, the unknown item is not in that plist, and right-clicking does not bring up the "Reveal in Finder" context menu (though it does for the other items). Jan 23, 2013 at 16:03
8

There's a posibility that it's located in the Managed Preferences folder.

Look under /Library/Managed Preferences/USERNAME/loginwindow.plist

8

First of all, on the nature of this "UNKNOWN". One of the places where OS keeps a record of login items is loginwindow.plist. The items are stored in a dictionary as name/kind/path values. If one of the applications adds an item not following the pattern it's displayed as "UNKNOWN".

Most probably this record came from network user account software (Active Directory or similar). You can open /Library/Managed Preferences/your-user-name/loginwindow.plist to double check (XCode or TextWrangler can do that). Under AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary you should see a list of login items. If one of them doesn't follow name/kind/path structure it will be displayed as UNKNOWN. In my case, I have the following:

<dict>
    <key>AuthenticateAsLoginUserShortName</key>
    <true/>
    <key>MCX-NetworkHomeDirectoryItem</key>
    <true/>
</dict>

For a network user account it's impossible to get rid of "UNKNOWN" login item, as loginwindow.plist is created anew on each login.

2
  • 1
    This appears to be the case for me. Is there no way to prevent it from being created on each login even if I'm an administrator on my computer? Aug 26, 2016 at 5:09
  • @CliftonLabrum I wasn't able to find it. I think this is the way AD works on Mac.
    – mikryz
    Aug 26, 2016 at 16:00
0
  1. Unlock the golden Lock icon on the left bottom corner first.

  2. Now all the Login Items on the list should be all available to edit.

  3. Highlight the items that was grayed out before, use the "minus" button to delete them. Make sure to uncheck the items from the list first.

  4. When you're done, lock the golden lock icon on the left bottom corner.

3
  • 3
    See the original post: "it left an unknown login item that is grayed out and cannot be removed the normal way (also in administrator mode)."
    – robo
    Dec 6, 2012 at 10:10
  • Yeah, not helpful. Jan 23, 2013 at 16:04
  • This was actually the correct solution for me. An item was grayed out and I was unable to remove it. Had to click the lock first.
    – Doc
    Jul 25, 2014 at 19:27
0

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.

0

You can try to find unknown items in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist or /Users/$username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist, and then try to delete the items, use plist. If you can't delete the items, just delete the file, it's ok.

1
  • It's only ok to delete that file if you don't want any of the login items it contains to actually be launched during login. Dec 27, 2017 at 22:06

You must log in to answer this question.