> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.agen.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AgenShield Recommends Restarting Your Mac

> What the "Restart recommended" note about unloaded system extensions means, why protection keeps working, and why older versions could report a protected Mac as not running or not protected.

AgenShield shows a **Restart recommended** note — in the AgenShield app, the
menu bar, `agenshield status`, `agenshield doctor`, the end of an install, or
the device page in the [Frontegg Portal](https://portal.frontegg.com). It says
the Mac has many unloaded system extensions and recommends a restart. On the
Mac itself it also names where they come from; the Portal shows only the
counts, so it never learns which other products are installed.

This is a note, not a warning. Nothing is broken and protection keeps working.

## What this means

Every time a product that uses a macOS system extension updates — AgenShield,
or another security, VPN or device-management product — macOS keeps the
previous version registered until the next restart. A Mac that takes many
updates without restarting can collect hundreds of these old entries.

macOS goes through all of them every time anything asks about system
extensions. With hundreds waiting, those questions get slow for every product
on the Mac, not only AgenShield. The note names each product's share, so you
can see whether AgenShield or something else left most of them.

Only a restart clears them. Nothing AgenShield, or you, can do while the Mac is
running removes them.

## What to do

Restart the Mac when convenient. There is no rush: the note does not mean the
Mac is unprotected.

To see the count yourself, before and after the restart:

```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"snazzy-light","dark":"dark-plus"}}
systemextensionsctl list | grep -c "waiting to uninstall"
```

After a restart it drops to zero or close to it, and the note goes away.

## On AgenShield 2026.10.0 and earlier

On a Mac with a very large backlog, versions up to and including 2026.10.0
could report a protected Mac as down, because they waited too long for macOS to
answer:

* the install ended by saying it **could not reach** AgenShield and was **not
  protecting this Mac yet**;
* `agenshield doctor` said the background service was **not running**;
* the AgenShield app showed **Protection: Partial** with both extensions as
  **Unknown**;
* the Portal showed the device as **Needs attention — Security ext. off**.

The menu bar still showed **Protected**, and it was right. Releases after
2026.10.0 report these Macs correctly and show the restart note instead. The
Portal no longer reports these Macs as **Security ext. off**, even on 2026.10.0,
once they next report in. On an older version, restarting the Mac also makes
the misreport go away.

## When to escalate

Collect a diagnostics bundle (see [Collecting
diagnostics](/troubleshoot/collecting-diagnostics.md)) and include it if:

* the note is still shown after a restart;
* after a restart, the app, the menu bar, `agenshield status` and the Portal
  still disagree about whether the Mac is protected.


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