Setapp has insidious and scary behavior.

[Fantastic_Duck]

I have a very annoying issue, and to be honest, now it's become infuriating.
I'm hoping other people with similar issues can see this post and hopefully we can get resolution.

I downloaded, via CleanMyMac X, something called Setapp. This is a well known app, kind of like a pseudo Mac App Store.

I have noticed that in the right cick contextual menu, in the "Open With" dialogue, a bunch of apps nowhere on my system.

When I select one of these apps to open, say a MP3 file, I get a message that the app can only be got thru a Setapp account.
I have deleted this awful program long ago, yet these apps still show up on the right click menu.
I've tried deleting manually, the "com.apple.LaunchServices.plist". Restarting, and nothing.

Then I used Onyx, generally clearing caches, etc.....and though they seemed to go away, they have returned.

I've located these things in my preferences folder. and deleted them, restarted the FInder, and nothing.

This seems to be almost malware, a virus.
Contacting Setapp was fruitless. This seems to be a not su horrible issue, but being that a few of these apps on the menu have been reported as Malware mules, I am concerned by the sneakiness of them being on the menu. What could be executed in the future?

And help is appreciated, and Ill keep trying.

Here is the link to a page I hope will help.

https://mac-how-to.gadgethacks.com/...es-customize-open-with-menu-mac-os-x-0157100/

 

[acmf]

Hey,

Setapp representative here.

The "Open With" menu behavior is related to app teasers getting in the way. Teasers are small preview apps with screenshots and short descriptions that we use to showcase the app collection outside the main app. You'll find them stored in the /Users/Shared/Setapp folder. These teasers are also recognized by macOS as normal apps and placed in the Open With menus as a side effect to this functionality.

To prevent them from populating the menu (and from appearing in Spotlight search results), Setapp has an option in Setapp Preferences to have the non-installed apps removed from search results.

As for the uninstalling part – the desktop client for Setapp is installed as a service with the backbone process active to get the apps licensed and updated. Trashing the main app does not remove Setapp from your Mac entirely. To get Setapp uninstalled from your Mac, please reinstall the desktop client (to get the main app running) and select Help -> Uninstall. This will remove everything, including the app teasers.

If reinstalling Setapp is not an option, please reach out to us at support@setapp.com for a dedicated uninstaller built and signed by Setapp. This also will give us a chance to locate your previous requests to check why contacting Setapp was fruitless.

 

[KALLT]

LaunchServices will add any applications to the “Open With” menu automatically as soon as they are indexed by Spotlight. This by itself is normal behaviour and pretty harmless. Upon deleting an application, the reverse should happen. It is not normally needed to rebuild the LaunchServices database.

The .plist files in the Preferences directory of your library were created when you had the Setapp installed. They store user preferences. These files are not removed when you drag an application to the bin.

You can probably use apps like Find Any File or EasyFind to locate Setapp content. I assume that they would have revealed those dummy apps mentioned above in /Users/Shared/Setapp and maybe other leftovers if you search by name. If these apps are still there, then LaunchServices will find them and re-add them to the “Open With” menu.

 

[Fantastic_Duck]

Hi Kallt.
Thanks for your information. I've used your suggestion for another issue (OpenEmu and it's self associating with various file types). VERY helpful information. Thank you again. I used the method suggested by acmf, the SetApp representative who replied.
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Hi acmf and thanks for your help.

I have tried this and it worked.

I must state emphatically that this method chosen by your developers and management is awful. This method is intrusive, and almost seem like a way to "suggest" and app to purchase. It can, and has evidently, in my case, led to confusion, frustration, and worry.

Bad choice.

I will avoid Setapp from now on.