MacOS – Finder Plugins (was Launchd Configuration Puzzle)

findermacosstartup

New information:

I've realized that what I'm looking for are finder plugins (I should have realized that sooner), even though the parent PID is launchd. I still can't figure out where finder plugins are stored.

Some of the process names are:

Seafile FinderSync
Dropbox Finder Extension
Box Sync Finder Extension

Original post:

I'm going nuts trying to figure out how some processes are being automatically launched. The parent process is launchd (PID 1), but I can't find reference to them in any of the usual locations:

~/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/System/Library/StartupItems
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/StartupItems

I have also checked out cron:

/usr/lib/cron/tabs
crontab -l
sudo crontab -l

And ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist is empty.

Best Answer

The Finder extensions you are looking for are stored within their parent application bundles.

For example the Dropbox extension (called garcon.appex) is stored within the Dropbox application bundle at /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/PlugIns/garcon.appex (assuming Dropbox is installed to your default Applications folder).

If you open Activity Viewer, select Finder, click on the Information icon and select the "Open Files and Ports" tab you can see everything that is loaded into the Finder process. Including for example the Dropbox extension...

Screenshot of Dropbox application extension loaded into Finder

If the goal is just to disable application extensions you don't want to be loaded you can do this through the System Preferences pane called "Extensions". Or you can delete the parent applications, which will also delete the extensions.

Screenshot of Extension preference pane showing Finder app extension