Amphetamine | Toothpicks Support Portal

Enable Launch at Login

Amphetamine has a preference to control whether it should launch every time you log in to your Mac. This setting can be found in Preferences → General → Launch Amphetamine at login

Troubleshooting

Is Amphetamine installed in the right place?

Amphetamine must be installed in the /Applications folder on your Mac for launch at login to work. Move Amphetamine to the /Applications folder to resolve this issue.

Does more than one copy of Amphetamine exist on your Mac?

Another common cause of this issue is that you have multiple copies of Amphetamine installed on your Mac (or did at one time). A system service called Launch Services keeps track of all of the locations of the apps that are supposed to launch at login on your Mac. If you have more than one copy of an app on your Mac, it can really confuse LaunchServices. To fix this issue, follow the steps listed below.

Before you begin the process of troubleshooting this issue, know that this is a multistep process that involves using the macOS command line. If you are uncomfortable with this, an easy workaround to solve this issue is to not use Amphetamine's Launch at login preference, and instead, manually add Amphetamine to your account's login items. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.

1. In Amphetamine's Preferences, on the General tab, uncheck the Launch Amphetamine at loginpreference, and then quit Amphetamine

2. Launch Terminal.app from /Applications/Utilities

3. In a new Terminal window, enter the following command and press the return key on your keyboard: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -dump | grep "Amphetamine" | grep "path"

The output from this command should reveal the location of all copies of Amphetamine installed on your Mac that Launch Services is aware of. Only one copy of Amphetamine should exist on your Mac. Delete any duplicate copies of Amphetamine, leaving one one copy installed in /Applications.

Note: Bundled within Amphetamine.app is another app called AmphetamineLoginHelper.app. Do not delete this. Only one copy of Amphetamine.app and AmphetamineLoginHelper.app should exist on your Mac.

4. Reboot your Mac, and log in to your user account

5. Launch Amphetamine, go to Preferences → General, and check the Launch Amphetamine at loginbox

6. Log out of your user account, and then log back in

If Amphetamine is still not launching at login, you need to reset Launch Service's database.Doing this may result in you needing to re-setup other apps to launch at login. 

7. In Amphetamine's Preferences, on the General tab, uncheck the Launch Amphetamine at loginpreference, and then quit Amphetamine

8. Launch Terminal.app from /Applications/Utilities

9. In a new Terminal window, enter the following command and press the return key on your keyboard:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill

10. Reboot your Mac, and log in to your user account

11. Launch Amphetamine, go to Preferences → General, and check the Launch Amphetamine at loginbox

12. Log out of your user account, and then log back in