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Admina Tracker for macOS runs as a background service on Mac devices in your organization. It regularly collects device data and sends it to Admina. Application usage (running applications) is available in Admina now. It appears automatically in the Admina console, and you can use it for shadow IT discovery. Hardware, network, and other data are planned for a future release. For details, see What is Admina Tracker. For macOS deployment, individual manual setup (solo setup) is supported.

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Choose an installation method

macOS solo setup

Download the installer from the console and install it manually on an individual Mac.

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Requirements

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Required permissions

Admina Tracker requires the following permissions:
  • Administrator password during installation: Required to install binaries in /usr/local/bin/ and register a LaunchDaemon.
  • User permissions at runtime: The agent runs under the logged-in user account, not with administrator privileges.
  • No extra privacy permissions needed: Full Disk Access and Screen Recording permissions are not required. Foreground app tracking only checks window owner names. The agent also does not collect browser history.

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Installed resources

Installing Admina Tracker creates the following resources on the computer:

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Processes

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Folders and files

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LaunchAgent / LaunchDaemon

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How configuration values are resolved

The agent checks ApiKey, OrganizationID, and UserEmail in the following priority order. It uses the first value found:
  1. Managed preference plist deployed via MDM (/Library/Managed Preferences/com.moneyforward.admina.tracker.plist). This is the recommended path for distributing UserEmail. Use Jamf Pro payload variables such as $EMAIL to set a per-user value. For an example procedure, see Admina Extension macOS configuration profile deployment.
  2. User-level plist (~/Library/Preferences/com.moneyforward.admina.tracker.plist)
  3. USEREMAIL environment variable (for UserEmail only). The agent reads it only from its process environment. The LaunchAgent plist does not pass USEREMAIL, so settings in .zshrc or .bash_profile do not reach the agent. This source applies only when USEREMAIL is present in the session environment before the agent starts. For example, set it via launchctl setenv.
  4. Values stored in the local database during installation
To distribute UserEmail across your organization, use the MDM managed plist (priority 1 above). The USEREMAIL environment variable is not suitable for macOS deployment because there is no persistent store equivalent to Windows, and LaunchAgent does not inherit shell configuration.

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Automatic updates

Admina Tracker supports automatic updates. When a new version is available, it updates automatically in the background. No manual update is required. By default, it checks for updates about every 15 minutes.

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Checking operation

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Log file locations

Admina Tracker logs are saved in the following directories. Check these log files when investigating issues or contacting support. Logs rotate daily and the last 14 days are retained.

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Check status

Run the following commands in Terminal to check the agent diagnostic state and connectivity:
For detailed command options, see the CLI command reference.

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Troubleshooting

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API key errors

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Admina Tracker has stopped

Admina Tracker starts automatically via macOS launchd:
  • The agent runs as a LaunchAgent and starts automatically on user login. No sudo is required.
  • The updater runs as a LaunchDaemon and starts automatically at system boot.
Admina Tracker also restarts automatically when you reboot your Mac or log out and log back in. To restart the agent manually, run the following command in Terminal:

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If support requests logs

If requested by support, collect the log files from the locations listed above and send them.
Last modified on October 1, 2026