I am another in a long line of folks annoyed by the pop-up error message named in the title. I cannot get rid of it. I followed the instructions for eliminating files in Launch Daemons and Launch Agents, restarted in Safe Mode, etc., and it is still there. I will be attaching screenshots of those folders, asking for help re what else I need to trash. Thank you for any assistance offered.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.1
So you want help identifying the junk?
top of the list is the first item in the first screenshot, Proton VPN. Fat lot of good it did protecting you from anything.
Poisoning Internet performance:
By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners. or a VPN that you installed yourself. The main reason is that they are relentless in scanning your files, non-stop, looking for things virus-like patterns in Everything. When completed, they do it all again.
The idea that a third party, with no special knowledge of the inner workings of MacOS, can somehow find a simple way to protect your computer — that is not already being done by MacOS itself — suggests that the MacOS developers are somehow "holding out on you". That is absurd.
You should remove any and all (other than Apple built-in) virus scanners, speeder uppers, optimizers, cleaners, App deleters or VPN packages you installed yourself, or anything of that ilk.
Third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive can ruin performance, but are not inherently dangerous.
Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community
Those windows are too short for all that’s installed here, and the full-screen images used here show too much else, and there seems to be a duplicate posting.
Please repost with (just) the three requested window screenshots, with the Finder windows set long enough to show all contents. I could list the files from this list, but there are almost certainly more junk further into that truncated Finder window. Which means the mess comes back again.
Background: About those "<app> will damage your… - Apple Community
Screenshots: Take a screenshot - Apple Support
launch Daemons:
anything that has no maker-name, only has a UUID -- a long string or numbers in its name, is junk, and can be removed with no BAD impact.
you have about ten of those together after Proton VPN in the first screenshot, and it looks like more below. They ALL should GO. including the one that starts with net.
I dunno what search protected is, but MacOS already does all the protecting you need, and the software behind that should go as well.
Launch Agents:
all three at the top with only UUIDs
com.BrowserActivityService and the item with only a UUID right below it.
Thank you folks for your replies. I was able to eliminate the problem files, and the pop-up is gone.
Pop Up Error message "BrowserActivityfld" will damage your computer
