Starting aMule Automatically
aMule can start by itself when you log in to your desktop session, so it keeps sharing and downloading without having to be launched by hand. The feature registers a per-user autostart entry with the operating system: no administrator rights are needed, it only affects your own login, and the setting is stored by the OS, never in amule.conf.
For a headless server that should run aMule without anyone logging in, use a system service instead.
Turning It On or Off
Autostart is off by default. You can change it in any of these places:
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Windows installer | The Start aMule when I log in component — see Installation → Windows. Tick it again when you upgrade. |
| First-run wizard | The Start aMule automatically when I log in checkbox on the Integrations (optional) page |
| Preferences → General | The Start aMule automatically when I log in checkbox, which takes effect immediately |
| Command line | --configure-autostart=on|off, accepted by amule, amulegui and amuled; the program writes or removes the entry and exits |
The entry starts the program it was enabled from — amule, amulegui or amuled. If you move aMule, start the same program once by hand so it updates the entry.
The autostart entry starts aMule normally. To have it start in the background, also enable Start minimized and, optionally, the tray icon options in Preferences → General.
Where the Entry Is Stored
| Platform | Autostart entry |
|---|---|
| Windows | Registry value aMule under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run |
| macOS | LaunchAgent ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.amule.amule.plist |
| Linux / BSD | XDG autostart file $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart/amule.desktop (usually ~/.config/autostart/amule.desktop) |
To turn autostart off, use the aMule checkbox or --configure-autostart=off rather than disabling the entry in the OS settings: aMule only checks whether the entry exists, so it would still report autostart as on.
The Flatpak cannot register an autostart entry from inside its sandbox: leave the aMule checkbox off, which has no effect there, and create an entry on the host instead, for example ~/.config/autostart/amule-flatpak.desktop:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=aMule
Exec=flatpak run org.amule.aMule
Terminal=false
Running amuled as a Service
The autostart entry only runs when you log in to a desktop session. To run the daemon on a server — at boot, without a logged-in user, and restarted if it fails — use the system's service manager. aMule does not ship service files, but many distributions package one (for example Debian/Ubuntu's amule-daemon); see amuled → Running as a System Service for systemd and OpenRC examples.