2 years ago

How to stop EA Desktop background service from running most of the time.

So as you all know EA had the greatest idea of replacing origin with EA Desktop and forcing us to use it. Some of us sneaky peekers have spotted a thing called EABackgroundService running when we start our computers without even opening the ea app and staying on even after we close the ea app.

Fix below.

How to stop it starting with our computers.

In the app click the three lines in the top left corner Click settings.

In the application part of settings.

Disable Application updates, Open the ea app automatically on startup, Notifications and In-Game overlay.

In the download part of settings.

Disable update games automatically and enable background downloads.

Once doing this exit the app fully.

Press the windows key and type services and open services then find EABackgroundService

Right click and go to properties of the EABackgroundService

And set startup type to manual.

Now to the part to stop the EABackgroundService from running after closing the ea app.

Create a text file on your desktop and name it EADestroyer.bat now make sure you have file name extensions setting on.

In that file add this.

ECHO OFF
ECHO Starting EA
start /b /wait "" EADesktop.exe
net stop EABackgroundService

Open file explorer and navigate to where you installed the app.

For me it's C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop

In that folder drag and drop the bat file you created in there.

On that bat right click and create shortcut now it will say it will have to put it on your desktop don't worry that's what we want.

Right click the shortcut and press properties and change run from normal to minimised.

If you want you can change the icon and the name of the shortcut.

Make sure to remove the original ea app shortcut off your desktop.

When ever you want to open the ea app use this shortcut that leads to the bat file.

One issue is the bat file stays open until you close the ea app and it stops the background service there is no way around this.

There you go you can game peacefully with you knowing ea can't spy on you.

Perhaps this will get ea to fix this so called 'bug'

discussion

17 Replies

EA_Kent
Community Manager
2 years ago
Hi @SinfulFish,

The EABackgroundService runs in the background so the EA app can run automatic app updates and download game updates in the background.

If you'd rather not having it running, you can disable automatic app updates and background game updates in the EA app settings.

To disable automatic Application updates:

Click the Menu icon (3 horizontal lines) at the top left of the EA app window

Click Settings

Click the Application tab

Click the toggle next to Application Updates as shown in the image below:

To disable background game updates:

Click the Menu icon (3 horizontal lines) at the top left of the EA app window

Click Settings

Click the Download tab

Click the toggle next to Enable background downloads as shown in the image below

Once these settings are disabled, the EABackgroundService will automatically end after you've shut down the app. Please note: there will be a minute or two delay before the process ends once you've closed the app.
SinfulFish
2 years ago
Most of the time these settings don't work that's why I came up with a workaround better than what ea can offer.
EA_Kent
Community Manager
2 years ago
@SinfulFish

There are some other situations that might be keeping it running. For instance, if you're using the Xbox app on your PC it will run the EABackgroundService. Likewise if you run an EA game through Steam or Epic, it will also run in the background. It should stop the background service when these clients are closed, though. Again, there may be a delay of a couple minutes after exiting the client or game before the background service stops.
SinfulFish
2 years ago
I agree that EA should fix this but for me it does close after a minute or two but I use the solution I came up with because I still don't trust EA because all they care about is money not customers.
I haven't launched the app from steam or xbox or epic, I reloaded my computer not long ago and before it never closed but I also tested it on a virtual machine and it worked while running TCP view from here TCPView for Windows - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn
phoo-monkey
2 years ago
@vokul4 the steps that @EA_Kent suggested worked for me and the background service does stop after about a minute of shutting down the EA app. Not sure why you felt the need to be rude when a perfectly good guide was provided for us.
bohemond1980
2 years ago
@EA_Kent That doesn't work; it keeps running anyway.
magnet_dk
2 years ago
Solution from @EA_Kent works for me too.
J-harris3712
2 years ago
@phoo-monkey doesn't work for me, how is that a perfect guide aswell he answered questions we didnt ask, we're on about ea app running in the background not automatic Application updates and Enable background downloads
J-harris3712
2 years ago
@phoo-monkey now we need something like avg to manually sleep the app
SpacificNocean
2 years ago
OP was not rude or insulting in any manner. The passive aggressiveness in your post is quite literally undeserved. The question is why are YOU being rude