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2009-03-19 10:15:52

Restore iTunesHelper to OSX Login Items

Maybe some of you, like me, get a little click happy at times. I was today when I was extremely frustrated that Skype decided to open every time I log in. Of course, there was no option in Skype's preferences to turn off autostarting. Let's go where common sense would put a startup item; the options for my user account (sigh).
So after opening the System Preferences, clicking Accounts, clicking my username, and then clicking Login Items, there it was staring me in the face. There were some other items that I didn't want starting either, so I just started clicking the minus button to remove them. Well, I clicked too many times and removed the iTunesHelper app. Not a big deal, right, you'll just go into the Applications directory and add it back. Wrong! Despite iTunesHelper.app being it's own program, it's not easily locatable. Here's how I went about getting it back.
From a terminal:
<slonkak@apple0-2> [~] sudo find / -name "iTunesHelp*" -print /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.icns ^C <slonkak@apple0-2> [~]
So that's why you can't find it! It's packaged inside of iTunes. As the first line of the `find` results show us, iTunesHelper.app is contained within iTunes.app. So let's go get it back!
  1. Open up Finder
  2. Go to the Applications folder
  3. Scroll to iTunes
  4. Right click iTunes and select "Show Package Contents"
  5. In the new window that appeared, open the Contents folder
  6. Open the Resources folder
  7. Scroll to iTunesHelper
  8. Drag iTunesHelper from the Finder window into the Login Item list in your System Preferences window
  9. Check the "Hide" box for iTunesHelper
That's all there is to it. Now that you know applications can be packaged inside of other applications, you'll never be confused again ;)

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4 comments


2009-03-19 10:39:09


Matt Simmons says...
Nice! I didn't know you could package Mac apps inside of one another. Nifty trick and good find!

2009-08-27 15:38:23


simon drake says...
Why can't all help sites be as clear as this. Fantastic

2009-08-27 16:28:05


slonkak says...
I'm glad you found it useful. Anything to break out the *nix skills on the Mac!

2012-08-22 21:51:51


Ariston Saputro says...
Using the latest iTunes (OS is still ion though) the iTunesHelper is located in MacOS folder instead of Resources folder.

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