nic wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2024 at 1:53pm:


When you enable any Syncing, BookMacster registers BkmxAgent as a *service* with macOS.  macOS has a list of such services which persists through shutdown and restart.  When you log in to your Mac, ist starts all of these registered services.

nic wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2024 at 1:53pm:


You are correct about not starting BookMacster.  The fine print under Allow in the Background in System Settings > Login Items and Extensions explains this, although in confusing general terms.  It says that the listed apps can add background items to perform tasks.  Often, but not always, that item is a constantly-running process such as BkmxAgent, which you can see in Activity Monitor.  Other such  items may be processes which only run momentarily when certain triggers occur.  Other items may be some type of magic which Apple has not invented or publicly released yet.   Apple likes to keep their options open.  That fine print text is trying to cover all possibilities with as few words as possible.

By the way, before macOS 14, these Allow in the Background items were not exposed to the user at all, which I thought was a security flaw, so I think the Allow in the Background list is a good improvement.

Hello again, Bruce.

You should quit BookMacster after it is configured for syncing among the built-in bookarks of web browsers.   Hiding BookMacster is an option for users who choose to land bookmarks into BookMacster directly.  Although you can do both, it is most sensible for users choose one and never do the other.