Managing macOS System Extensions From the Terminal

You can list installed system extensions on macOS from the Terminal.

To do that, you can use the following command:

systemextensionsctl list

For example, on macOS I have several system extensions including the camera extension from Open Broadcaster Software or the OBS app.

$ systemextensionsctl list
3 extension(s)
--- com.apple.system_extension.cmio (Go to 'System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Camera Extensions' to modify these system extension(s))
enabled active  teamID  bundleID (version)      name    [state]
*       *       TQ5W6RYNUV      com.antonmeier.webcamplus.server.macOS-Camera-Extension (2.0.0/3)       macOS-Camera-Extension  [activated enabled]
*       *       2MMRE5MTB8      com.obsproject.obs-studio.mac-camera-extension (32.0.2/18749313472)     OBS Virtual Camera      [activated enabled]
--- com.apple.system_extension.network_extension (Go to 'System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Network Extensions' to modify these system extension(s))
enabled active  teamID  bundleID (version)      name    [state]
*       *       VBG97UB4TA      com.objective-see.lulu.extension (4.2.0/4.2.0)  LuLu    [activated enabled]

Now, let’s say you want to uninstall OBS. After you uninstall it, the OBS Camera extension is still there. To remove it from your macOS, you can use the following command:

systemextensionsctl gc

Here’s an example result when the cleanup was successful.

$ systemextensionsctl gc
2025-12-01 07:28:32.610 systemextensionsctl[92382:7294205] Successfully cleaned up (
    "BundleID: com.obsproject.obs-studio.mac-camera-extension, teamID: 2MMRE5MTB8, version: 18749313472/32.0.2"
)

If you list the system extensions again, it’ll show the terminated waiting to uninstall on reboot status.

$ systemextensionsctl list
3 extension(s)
--- com.apple.system_extension.cmio (Go to 'System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Camera Extensions' to modify these system extension(s))
enabled active  teamID  bundleID (version)      name    [state]
                2MMRE5MTB8      com.obsproject.obs-studio.mac-camera-extension (32.0.2/18749313472)     OBS Virtual Camera      [terminated waiting to uninstall on reboot]
*       *       TQ5W6RYNUV      com.antonmeier.webcamplus.server.macOS-Camera-Extension (2.0.0/3)       macOS-Camera-Extension  [activated enabled]
--- com.apple.system_extension.network_extension (Go to 'System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Network Extensions' to modify these system extension(s))
enabled active  teamID  bundleID (version)      name    [state]
*       *       VBG97UB4TA      com.objective-see.lulu.extension (4.2.0/4.2.0)  LuLu    [activated enabled]

This means that it’s deactivated and ready to be removed after a reboot. So just reboot your macOS and it’ll be gone for real.

Conclusion

As usual, if you have any questions or a better method, leave a comment below. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!