The Hubstaff Silent App enables organizations to monitor team productivity on corporate-managed Mac devices. Once deployed via Jamf Pro, it runs entirely in the background and remains invisible to the end user, with no installation prompts, no visible interface, and no user interaction required.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following in place:

• A Jamf Pro subscription (Jamf Now is not supported)
• Devices enrolled in Jamf Pro
• Hubstaff paid plan with the Silent app add-on enabled
• Target devices running macOS 12.0 (Monterey) or newer

For help enrolling devices, refer to the Jamf Pro enrollment documentation.

Suppress background item notifications

On macOS Ventura (13) and newer, macOS displays a notification whenever an application running in the background is first detected. This must be configured before deploying the installer, uploading this profile first ensures end users never see any indication that the Silent app is running.

Click on the Silent app > Setup guide page.

Choose your operating system:

Choose Group installs as your installation method. Download the .mobileconfig file.

Create and upload the PPPC profile:

1. In Jamf Pro, navigate to Computers > Configuration Profiles.
2. Click Upload in the top-right corner and select the downloaded file:
   
3. Review the settings and confirm two values before saving:
   • Level: Computer (not User)
   • Distribution method: Install Automatically:
     
4. Under Scope, assign the profile to the target computers or computer group, then click Save.

Download the Hubstaff Silent app installer

In the Hubstaff web app, click Silent app > Setup guide > macOS > Group install > Download & install

Upload the Hubstaff Silent app package to Jamf Pro

1. In Jamf Pro, navigate to Settings > Computer Management > Packages.
2. Click New and upload the .pkg file you downloaded from Hubstaff.
3. Give the package a name. End users will not see this name; choose a name your team recognizes (e.g., Hubstaff Silent or Confidential).
4. Leave the Info and Notes fields empty unless you want to add internal documentation.
5. No manifest file or additional scripts are needed.
6. Click Save to upload the package.

Monitor the Silent app deployment

Monitor – Jamf Pro console

Installation status updates in the Jamf Pro console after each device checks in. Navigate to Computers > Policies > [Your Policy] > Logs to see a per-device breakdown of pending, completed, and failed installations. If a device shows as pending for longer than expected, see Troubleshooting below.

Monitor – Hubstaff dashboard

As soon as the installer runs successfully on a device, that machine registers in Hubstaff and begins tracking. Navigate to the Silent app > Computers, and filter by Date added or Last time tracked to confirm that new devices are checking in.

Force a policy check

Jamf check-ins happen on a schedule, typically every 15–30 minutes. If you need to test deployment on a specific machine without waiting, open Terminal on the target Mac and run:

sudo jamf policy

This triggers an immediate policy evaluation. If there are pending assignments for that device, they will run immediately. A successful Hubstaff Silent installation will produce output along these lines:

Checking for policies triggered by "recurring check-in"...
Executing Policy Install Hubstaff Silent...
Downloading HubstaffSilent-x.x.x-xxxxxxxx.pkg...
Verifying package integrity...
Installing HubstaffSilent-x.x.x-xxxxxxxx.pkg...
Successfully installed HubstaffSilent-x.x.x-xxxxxxxx.pkg.

Troubleshooting deployment

Check whether the app bundle is present

Run the following in Terminal to confirm the app was installed to the expected location:

ls /Applications/HubstaffSilent.app

If the path exists, the package was installed successfully. If you get a “No such file or directory” error, the installer has not run yet. Check the policy logs in Jamf Pro for errors.

Confirm the package receipt is registered with macOS

macOS logs a receipt for every installed package. You can query it directly:

pkgutil --pkgs | grep -i hubstaff

A matching identifier confirms macOS recorded the installation. No output means the package either never ran or was installed without pkgutil registration, which can happen if the install failed partway through.

Check whether the process is active

If the app is installed but you’re not seeing data in Hubstaff, verify the process launched:

pgrep -l HubstaffSilent

A PID and process name will appear if the process is running. No output means the process hasn’t started. Sign out and back in to the macOS session, or restart the device to trigger it.

The device is not picking up the policy

If a device is enrolled but the policy hasn’t applied, start by refreshing its inventory record and triggering an immediate policy check from Terminal:

sudo jamf recon && sudo jamf policy

Jamf Recon updates the device’s inventory in Jamf Pro, which re-evaluates Smart Group membership. If the device wasn’t matching your Smart Group because the Extension Attribute hadn’t run yet, this will fix it.

Smart Group does not include the device

Navigate to Computers > Smart Computer Groups > [Your Group] and check the membership list. If the device is missing, the Extension Attribute script likely hasn’t run on it yet. Run sudo jamf recon on the device, wait a minute, then refresh the group membership page.

Following installation

• Time tracking should begin immediately. Data will be visible in the Hubstaff web app within 10–15 minutes of the installation completing.
• If tracking data is not reflected after 15 minutes, restart the Hubstaff Silent process by doing one of the following:
  • Sign out and back in to the macOS session.
  • Restart the device.