Prevent “Avid Link” from launching automatically

Recently I installed a a trial of Sibelius from Avid Software. Since then an Avid software management application (called Avid Link) automatically loads every time I start my computer.

Avid Link provides no option for disabling this obnoxious feature. What’s more, the app doesn’t show up in the list of macOS Login Items list (found in System Preferences, under Users & Groups), so it can’t be disabled there either. The genius morons (to put it politely) at Avid have decided on our behalf that anyone using any of their applications must always have their licensing, update, messaging, etc., application running on their computer. Wankers.

I see online that people have been complaining about this for years. Previously the application was called Avid Tools. That too would launch automatically, and that too invoked complaints, and people trying to figure out how to disable it.

There’s a simple solution. You’ll need to open Terminal.app and execute the following command:

sudo defaults write /Library/LaunchAgents/com.avid.avidlink.plist RunAtLoad -boolean false

You’ll be prompted for your macOS user password. Enter that, and hit enter. That’s it. Done deal.

What this command does is modify the file /Library/LaunchAgents/com.avid.avidlink.plist such that the RunAtLoad variable is set to false. This, in effect, tells macOS to not launch Avid Link at system start-up.

Problem solved.

Let me know if the comments below if this works for you, or not.