Verifying Airmail Background Task Registration on macOS Using Terminal Diagnostics

When troubleshooting Airmail background sync, sleep-wake, or notification issues on macOS — particularly on macOS Tahoe 26 — it can be useful to confirm that Airmail is correctly registered with the macOS Background Task Management (BTM) and LaunchServices subsystems. The two read-only Terminal commands below allow you to verify this in seconds and provide invaluable diagnostic information that our support team can use to investigate further.

When to use this guide

Use this guide if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms:

Airmail does not download new messages while the Mac is asleep or right after waking up.

Airmail does not appear under System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions.

Airmail does not appear under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Background Task Management.

A support agent has asked you to verify Airmail's background registration.

Command 1 — Verifying the running process with launchctl

This command lists all background processes that match "airmail" in their name. It does not require administrator privileges and it is completely safe to run.

launchctl list | grep -i airmail

Expected output (numbers will vary):

1372 0 application.it.bloop.airmail2.229675722.229675760

How to interpret the result:

The first number is the process ID (PID) of Airmail's helper process.

The second number is the last exit status (0 means the process is running normally; a non-zero value indicates a recent crash or abnormal exit).

The third value is the LaunchServices identifier for Airmail, confirming that macOS is tracking the app for background services.

If the command returns no output at all, Airmail is currently not registered as a background process on your Mac. In that case, please ensure Airmail is added under System Settings > General > Open at Login and reboot your Mac before trying again.

Command 2 — Verifying Background Task Management with sfltool

This command queries the macOS Background Task Management (BTM) database, which is the system component that tracks all applications allowed to run in the background. It requires administrator privileges, so you will be prompted for your Mac login password (the cursor will not move while typing — this is normal):

sudo sfltool dumpbtm | grep -i airmail

Expected output:

Name: Airmail

Identifier: 2.it.bloop.airmail2

URL: file:///Applications/Airmail.app/

Bundle Identifier: it.bloop.airmail2

How to interpret the result:

The presence of the four lines above confirms that Airmail is correctly registered with macOS BTM and is allowed to run background services.

The "URL" line confirms which copy of Airmail.app is registered, which is useful when multiple copies have been installed in the past.

If the command returns no Airmail entries, the Login Item is not registered. Please follow our guide "Airmail Missing from Login Items & Background Activity on macOS Tahoe 26" to apply the manual workaround, then re-run this command to verify.

What to share with our support team

If our support team has asked you for diagnostic information, please copy and paste both commands and their full output into the chat or your email reply. With this information, our engineers can immediately identify whether the issue is at the application level (Airmail) or at the system level (macOS Tahoe 26 background registration).

Safety and privacy

Both commands are read-only — they do not modify your system in any way.

Neither command transmits data outside of your Mac.

No personal information is included in the output; only system-level identifiers and file paths.

If you have any questions, please reply to your existing support thread or open a new conversation with our team. We will be glad to assist you further.

Airmail Support Team

Updated on: 05/08/2026