How to Remove Cron From a Mac

Removing services and tasks that aren't used can increase both performance and security.

The Cron process scheduler utility provides a handy way to automate computer maintenance and repetitive tasks; however, when no longer needed, Cron tasks or jobs unnecessarily consume computer resources. If you have a Mac OS X computer that's low on resources and running Cron jobs that aren't really needed, use the Crontab command line utility to remove Cron jobs and the Cron process from the system.

Instructions

1. Click the "Finder" icon located on the Mac desktop dock. The "Finder" window appears.

2. Click "Applications" in the left pane of the "Finder" window and click "Utilities" and then click "Terminal." The command line terminal window appears.

3. Type "crontab --r" and press the "Enter" key to remove all Cron jobs from the computer.

References

• Mac OS X Hints: Using the 'Cron' Scheduler
• O'Reilly Mac DevCenter: An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 5
• Gontz Technology Services: Working With Cron, Crontab and Scheduling Cron Jobs