I can't figure out how to stop IPCServer process from running

[Vyszalaks]

I run Steam on a Mac. What's more, I don't have enough space to run it on the main computer, so I set it up on an external hard drive. Every time I close the app, I try to eject the drive and can't ("volume is in use"). I first ran " lsof | grep /Volumes/[myDrive] " in Terminal, which told me a process in the Contents/MacOS package of Steam was still running, and that process was IPCServer. I then ran top to get a PID, then tried kill and killall commands to stop IPC from running as it was (from what I could tell) the thing preventing me from safely ejecting. But each time I ran the commands, all that was accomplished was top showed IPCServer running in a different PID subsequently, like instead of killing it it forced it to run under a different ID. I can't seem to end IPCServer. I don't want to force eject partly because I want to avoid corruption, and partly because I need to find a suitable solution so I don't have to wrestle with my drive every time I go to eject after playing Steam. I know, I know, it's my fault for trying to play Steam on a Mac Air, but if anybody's having a similar problem/has found a solution and wants to share it, I'd be inclined to think you were an awesome person.

[Sonderbehandlung]

This is an INTRUSIVE PLAGUE! The reason you can't get rid of it it's because it inserted itself like a virus into the dylib cache, and from there it's being called.

I have just opened my steam, turn the automatic start OFF, emptied my dylib cache using Onyx and rebooted the system.

But once you start Steam it process will AGAIN be intrusively enough and reinserted into the dylib cache and the problem is back!

So to me it is like this:

[psalm57@Thessalonians] [~/Desktop] # rm -rf /Applications/Steam.app/
[psalm57@Thessalonians] [~/Desktop] #


BO GONE VIROTIC ABOMINATION! I need not steam... nor it's intrusive daemons.

[Yevhen]

This worked for me:

launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool

[Patches]

Originally posted by Yevhen:

This worked for me:

launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool

Did the trick for me too. Thanks!

[SoldierCrazyMan]

...

[simonharry]

Did we ever hear anything from Steam on this? Still happening, August 2017 now, 10.12.6 - and I am not even sure 10.13 will run 32-bitprocesses anymore. What is IPCServer doing?

[MaxVitu]

Originally posted by Vyszalaks:

I run Steam on a Mac. What's more, I don't have enough space to run it on the main computer, so I set it up on an external hard drive. Every time I close the app, I try to eject the drive and can't ("volume is in use"). I first ran " lsof | grep /Volumes/[myDrive] " in Terminal, which told me a process in the Contents/MacOS package of Steam was still running, and that process was IPCServer. I then ran top to get a PID, then tried kill and killall commands to stop IPC from running as it was (from what I could tell) the thing preventing me from safely ejecting. But each time I ran the commands, all that was accomplished was top showed IPCServer running in a different PID subsequently, like instead of killing it it forced it to run under a different ID. I can't seem to end IPCServer. I don't want to force eject partly because I want to avoid corruption, and partly because I need to find a suitable solution so I don't have to wrestle with my drive every time I go to eject after playing Steam. I know, I know, it's my fault for trying to play Steam on a Mac Air, but if anybody's having a similar problem/has found a solution and wants to share it, I'd be inclined to think you were an awesome person.

[Vyszalaks]

Originally posted by simonharry:

Did we ever hear anything from Steam on this? Still happening, August 2017 now, 10.12.6 - and I am not even sure 10.13 will run 32-bitprocesses anymore. What is IPCServer doing?

I didn't hear anything, no. Between then and now, I got a new hard drive, and this drive has shown no issues like what I experienced, but I don't know if that means the drive itself was the problem, as I am running the Steam program on my laptop now, and instead installing the program files (the Library) on the external drive.

[simonharry]

Thanks. Good to hear; though the helper still seems to run after the first time Steam is started on MacOS (and still a 32-bit app).

[_H3X1C]

Originally posted by Yevhen:

This worked for me:

launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool

Thank you. Turned my i7 into a sluggish mess...Valve need to fix this

[ToriKitsune]

I'm having this issue in 2020 with steam installed directly to my mac. I'm trying to uninstall and reinstall to hopefully fix a strange error I've just run into where the application can't connect to my account and thus won't open. If anyone's still around to check this I could honestly use some help! I'm a total klutz with computers. T^T

[brett.ryan]

This is the most annoying thing. I don't know what it's doing, but it causes syspolicyd process to go high CPU every 5 minutes, which I forget when I go to bed and it starts revving the fan. I couldn't figure out what was running as everything was closed.

[Razorfish]

these tossers think they own your computer and can do anything they want....
you should get "little snitch" and see all the tracking and other crap they are up to....

[big mouth prick]

Originally posted by Yevhen:

This worked for me:

launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool

worked like a charm for me too. bless

[lyra56k]

Just coming across this thread after encountering the same issue. Thank you for the solution

Originally posted by Yevhen:

This worked for me:

launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool

I completely agree with

Originally posted by Sonderbehandlung:

This is an INTRUSIVE PLAGUE!

Without trying to brag I am quite good with macOS and Unix and even I don't know what the dylib cache does. And here Steam is using it to keep their bloated app running in the background taking up valuable system resources. I kept searching the launchd folders for what was calling ipcserver and nothing was there, to my utter surprise. (I admittedly logged in just to agree on the hating Steam part, I have always found common Windows things like Steam and Discord to be intrusive and hard to use, it almost seems as if on purpose.)

Thank you again for the solution.

[lyra56k]

Originally posted by Razorfish:

these tossers think they own your computer and can do anything they want....
you should get "little snitch" and see all the tracking and other crap they are up to....

Also, I use little snitch so I can vouch for this. So much tracking going on...