MacOS – How to disable Adobe Core Sync app on OS X from being launched automatically

adobelaunchdmacos

I have noticed a lot of Adobe processes are running in the background at start up on an OS X 10.11.4 (15E65) machine with Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) installed.

To get rid of this, I removed everything with "*adobe*" in the filename from the directories used by launchd, which are: ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /System/Library/LaunchAgents, /System/Library/LaunchDaemons.

It's not a bad idea to browse these directories manually just to get aware of what is – or could be configured to be – launched automatically on your machine.

However, using this approach I got rid of all Adobe processes but one with the process name Core Sync Helper. The process' UID is me, not root.

Using the OS X activity monitor to get more information about this process it tells us that its parent process is launchd. The process' path is:

"/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud/CoreSync/Core Sync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ACCFinderSync.appex/Contents/MacOS/ACCFinderSync"

How does Adobe get this process to be launched automatically?

And how to stop it from being launched automatically?

Update:

According to YoshiBotX's answer, I used launchctl list as well as the App launchControl to find the service that launches the Core Sync Helper. To do so, I search for a service with adobe, accf or core*sync in its name. Unfortunately, there is no such service with an obvious name. All services on the system are by com.apple.... or from a third-party App that hasn't any relation to Adobe.

Also, launchctl list lists the PID of each Label. But the PID of the running ACCFinderSync process is not listed there at all. However, as mentioned before, its parent process is still launchd so I wonder how this can be.

Update 2:

Using launchctl I was able to gather more information about the service using its PID (omitted lines marked as ...):

macy:~ jens$ sudo launchctl procinfo 352
...
com.adobe.accmac.ACCFinderSync = {
...
com.adobe.accmac.ACCFinderSync.apple-extension-service
...
com.adobe.accmac.explinder
...
ACCFinderSync
...

But these aren't service which I can remove using launchctl.

Update 3:

Based on chiggsy's answer I was able to find more traces of the service (omitted lines marked as ...):

$ sudo launchctl print gui
    com.apple.xpc.launchd.user.domain.501.100008.Aqua = {
    ...
        unmanaged processes = {
    ...
            com.apple.xpc.launchd.unmanaged.ACCFinderSync.352 = {
                active count = 5
                dynamic endpoints = {
                    "ACCFinderInnerExtensionHost2" = {
                        port = 0x59a8f
                        active = 1
                        managed = 0
                        reset = 0
                        hide = 0
    ...
        externally-hosted endpoints = {
             0x59a8f    U   A   ACCFinderInnerExtensionHost2
    ...

$ sudo launchctl print user
    com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.user.501 = {
    ...
        endpoints = {
    ...
             0x59a8f    U   A   ACCFinderInnerExtensionHost2
    ...

$ sudo launchctl print system
    com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.system = {
    ...
        subdomains = {
    ...
            com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.ACCFinderSync.352
    ...

But that still did not help me to disable it.

Update 4:

kirb nailed it!

Best Answer

You can disable this Finder Sync extension from the System Preferences → Extensions pane (grey puzzle piece icon) – just untick Finder under the app name in question.

Then log out and back in (or restart if you have more than one user logged in to your Mac)

Extensions preferences

In OS X, the Finder Sync extension point lets you cleanly and safely modify the Finder’s user interface to express file synchronization status and control. Unlike most extension points, Finder Sync does not add features to a host app. Instead, it lets you modify the behavior of the Finder itself.

Extensions are parts of an app that are able to integrate with certain core components of the OS. Finder Sync extensions in particular enable tighter integration with Finder by way of sync status badges, and allowing buttons to be added to the toolbar, sidebar, and right click menus.

OS X keeps a database of all known apps on your computer, and this also includes any extensions (.appex bundles). When Finder launches, it queries this database for Finder Sync extensions and launches them. For security reasons, each extension lives in its own process.

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