How to Stop Spotify from Opening on Startup on Mac

I love that feeling when my favorite apps automatically pop up when my Mac starts up, e.g. Slack, Apple Mail, and Skype — saving me time manually opening them.

But, I hate it when some apps add themselves to the auto-login list in a “sneaky” way, one of which is Spotify — the music streaming app we all use on our phones.

What’s more annoying is: you can NOT locate Spotify in the “Login Items” list — which means you are unable to remove it in the normal way (System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items)

Well, I love Spotify, the app is amazing! However, I don’t like it auto-starting up on my Mac since I don’t use it that often. You know, the Mac is mostly for work and when I’m in work mode, I usually prefer to run Brain.FM is a fantastic music app that helps me focus.

In this article, I’ll show you two quick ways to stop Spotify from opening on startup, and since I’m using a MacBook, the tutorials below are for macOS users only.

Method 1: Disable Spotify on CleanMyMac

I’ve been using CleanMyMac on my MacBook Pro for several years, and I am quite happy about the convenience it brings. I’m by no means a computer expert, so I appreciate third-party apps that make it easy to solve problems.

CleanMyMac X (the latest version of the app), is mainly designed to free up disk space on Mac but it also integrates a handful of utilities that each helps solve a specific issue for you.

I can use CleanMyMac to stop Spotify from opening on startup in just a few steps. Note though, the app isn’t freeware, it does offer a free trial version with certain functional limitations.

Step 1: Download CleanMyMac X and install it on your Mac.

Step 2: Launch the app, go to Optimization > Login Items, there you should see this file “Spotify. app Login Item”.

Step 3: It should show as green saying “Enabled”, simply click it to disable.

That’s it. Now Spotify won’t automatically launch itself when you start up your Mac.

Don’t want to download one more app simply to disable/uninstall another app? No problem, use the second method I’m going to introduce.

Method 2: Disable via Spotify Preferences

Step 1: Open Spotify on your Mac, input your username and password and hit the green “Login” button.

Step 2: On the top left corner of the Mac menu bar, click Spotify > Preferences.

Step 3: Scroll down on the Settings page until you see “Show Advanced Setting”, and click to expand it.

Step 4: Under “Startup and Window Behavior”, click on the dropdown and select No.

That will do it. Now Spotify will not open on startup after you log into the computer.

Final Words

Usage is very important to app developers, while I understand they want to put their apps in front of our eyeballs as much as they can, in my opinion, it would be nice if they ask our permission to do so instead of just adding themselves to the auto-login list — this slows down Mac startup as well as drains Mac’s battery.

If you are new to Mac, make sure you take some time to look into the apps in Login Items and remove those you don’t want to automatically startup.

Anyway, the methods above should work with other “sneaky” apps besides Spotify. Any further questions about the matter, leave a comment below.