LoginItem failing to launch on Ventura RC

Question

Created Oct ’22

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I have a helper app that controls a menu status item which the user can choose to enable and have launch at login. I've been using the SMLoginItemSetEnabled() API for this for a while, with my helper app located in Library/LoginItems within my main app bundle, and it's been working just fine.

On macOS Ventura (I'm running 22A379, the RC build) I can't get the login item system to launch my helper app. Looking through the console when I try enabling the login item, the most interesting message I see is from the "smd" process, which prints out the following (com.fatcatsoftware.PowerPhotosMenu is the bundle identifier of my helper app):

copyJobWithLabel for label com.fatcatsoftware.PowerPhotosMenu failed with error 113: Could not find specified service

I even tried switching over to the new SMAppService() API, but with the same results. Neither API returns an error when called, and my main app shows up in the new login items list in System Settings, so it seems like it's registered fine, there's just something failing trying to actually launch the app. I had not gotten around to testing this on previous Ventura betas, so I don't know if it's new with the latest build or if it's been this way for a while. Everything works as expected when running on Monterey.

Anyone have any idea what the problem might be here?

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’22

Have you tried testing this on a ‘clean’ machine? That is, install a fresh copy of macOS 13.0rc on a new machine (I typically use a VM for this sort of thing), install your app in the Applications directory, and then see how it fares.

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Answer 2

bwebster OP

Oct ’22

Thanks for the reply. I haven't tried with a completely clean Ventura install, but I did try with a newly created user account, and got the same result there as well. I just saw a new Ventura build pop up too, I'll give it a try and see if it's any different.

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Answer 3

Platskies OP

Oct ’22

I think I'm in a similar situation - I remember my login item launching fine in earlier macOS 13 betas, but it seems like this has started happening around the RC versions of macOS 13.

I've made sure to remove any duplicate copies of the app that the system could potentially search for login items within.

Once I did that, it seemed like the system was now trying to launch the copy of my login item that resided directly within my product's build folder (i.e. .../Build/Products/Debug/<TeamID>.MyLoginItem.app). I found that deleting this copy caused the system to start using the one inside my app's Contents/Library/LoginItems directory. Not the most ideal solution but it worked for me.

Using macOS 13.1 Beta (22C5033e).

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