Remove or Kill the Process for Feedback Assistant in MacOS

[Alvaro1337]

Hello,

We are currently working on the macOS Beta program and would like to remove the Feedback Assistant from the Beta testers. However, the Restricted Software option to remove or kill the process is not working. We also attempted to uninstall the application using the script below, but nothing seems to be effective. Do you have any suggestions or alternative methods to achieve this?

Remove script:

sudo rm -rf "/System/Library/CoreServices/applications/Feedback Assistant.app"

[sdagley · Accepted solution]

@Alvaro1337  Why would you want to remove the Feedback Assistant? Submitting feedback via that mechanism is the best way to get Apple to respond to issues you discover in the beta. Any feedback submitted when logged in using a Managed Apple IDs issued by your ABM/ASM will be grouped by your org making it easier to track.

[mschlosser]

I doubt this is possible to remove; given the path, the app lives inside the sealed system volume, and is therefore only writable by apple. Admin rights or not.  Unsure why restricted process doesn't work; given everything stated above, you may be able to write a launch daemon that kills the process if found. i.e. pkill "Feedback Assistant" assuming that is the process name. and tie that to a launch agent that runs every x timeframe. best guess

[Alvaro1337]

Do you think that a simple "remove from dock" policy will help?

[sdagley · Accepted solution]

@Alvaro1337  Why would you want to remove the Feedback Assistant? Submitting feedback via that mechanism is the best way to get Apple to respond to issues you discover in the beta. Any feedback submitted when logged in using a Managed Apple IDs issued by your ABM/ASM will be grouped by your org making it easier to track.

[Alvaro1337]

We want our end users to have the simplest experience possible, but unfortunately, the application confuses them.

[sdagley]

One might argue that the best audience for testing macOS Betas isn't users who might be confused by Feedback Assistant. That said, using a Restricted Software configuration with the Process Name "Feedback Assistant" and "Restrict exact process name" enabled works for me.

[AJPinto · Accepted solution]

Why would you want to remove Feedback? If anyone is in beta, they should be competent enough to not be confused by the Feedback.app.

• You can delete the shortcut /Applications/Utilities/Feedback\ Assistant.app as its not SIP protected.
  • However, I would bet Apple will reinstall it with every update. 
• You cannot delete /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Feedback\ Assistant.app as it is protected in the system volume.

Honestly, you may need to reconsider who your beta testers are.

[scottlep]

100% agree with the other replies. Feedback Assistant isn't for telling Apple that you like some new emoji or interface change. It is to report issues back to Apple so they can investigate and potentially built the fix into future Beta and GM releases. It is a critical part of the entire Beta process since there is no way that Apple could ever test every possible scenario before releasing the GM in the fall.

[Alvaro1337]

Thank you all. I will reconsider the Beta Testers and document why the Feedback Assistant App is important.

Thanks for your guidance.