Secret Agent not opening without Strip App loaded

I’m running on OSX and the secret agent script was working without any issues until recently. Now, I have to manually load the Strip App before I can use the secret agent script. Any ideas how to get it back to where it was always running?

Hi @schmatt, sorry to hear about the trouble and thanks for purchasing STRIP! Is this the Mac App Store version of STRIP, or did you purchase it directly from Zetetic? Also, what version of STRIP is running on your Mac?

Let’s make sure we’ve got the right binary in the right place and reset the preference first:

  1. Check that STRIP is installed in the Applications folder
  2. Move any older versions of STRIP on your Mac to the Trash and empty it
  3. Double-click on STRIP in the Applications folder to launch (rather than using Spotlight or the hot key) and sign in
  4. Click on STRIP in the menu bar and select Preferences
  5. On the General tab, uncheck “Enable Secret Agent with keyboard command:”
  6. Check “Enable Secret Agent with keyboard command:” again and follow the prompts
  7. Close the Preferences window and attempt to bring up Secret Agent by pressing your key combination
  8. Quit STRIP and attempt to bring up Secret Agent by pressing your key combination

Could you give that a shot and let us know how it goes? If it continues to fail, could you open up the Console application and see what log messages are printed when you press the key combination for Secret Agent?

Hello there,

I’m having the same issue (shortcut working ONLY if Strip app is already running).
Tried your reset steps with no result.
I’m on OSX 10.11 with latest Strip version.

Any feedback appreciated.
Thanks!

@thelazydesigner Hi, sorry about the late reply here! Did this just start when you migrated to OS X 10.11, was the feature working previously?

If so, I’m wondering if this is an issue with container permissions? We had an issue for a customer recently who had been using STRIP and then upgraded to OS X 10.11. At that point the app would launch in what seemed a kind of frozen state, and there were errors about not being able to reach the appropriate resources in the app’s container directory. Our theory is that permissions that might have been created improperly or corrupted but tolerated on previous versions of OS X are no longer tolerated by System Integrity Protection.

Containers are special folders on your system for sandboxed applications, created by OS X, housing the data you create in them within your home directory. They are located at ~/Library/Containers, a hidden folder on your system that you can access in Finder using the Go menu and selecting Go to Folder. STRIP’s is at ~/Library/Containers/net.zetetic.Strip.mac.

To fix our other customer’s problem, we moved her application data out of the container, deleted the container, and relaunched STRIP, which caused OS X 10.11 to re-create the container structure. Seeing that the application was again functional we moved the application data back in place and things were back to normal.

Since the interaction between STRIP’s STRIPHelperAgent process (which listens for the hot key and launches STRIP) depends on permissions in the container, I was thinking the same process might be worth trying on your Mac. If you’d like to give it a shot:

  • Quit STRIP if running
  • Switch to Finder, select Go -> Go To Folder (or shift+command+G) and paste:
  • ~/Library/Containers/net.zetetic.Strip.mac/Data/Library/Application Support/
  • Drag the Strip folder somewhere convenient outside the container (e.g. Desktop)
  • Go back to ~/Library/Containers
  • Delete the folder net.zetetic.Strip.mac
  • Double-click on STRIP in Applications to launch
  • Set a dummy password (or your own), and go to STRIP menu -> Preferences
  • See if enabling the hot key feature works and sticks

If that does work, we can move your Strip folder back in place and we should be good to go.

Before you do this, I’d like to ask for some diagnostic info. In the Terminal app, can you tell us what output you get if you run these commands? None of the data is personally identifying or sensitive:

defaults read net.zetetic.Strip.mac ZSPreferenceLaunchAtLoginKey
defaults read net.zetetic.Strip.mac ZSSecretAgentHotKeyPreferenceKey
ps auxww | grep STRIPHelperAgent
spctl --assess --verbose=1 /Applications/STRIP.app
spctl --assess --verbose=1 /Applications/STRIP.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/STRIPHelperAgent.app

Also, another thing to try before deleting the container—I’d like to see if there is relevant error output in the system log when you attempt to use the hot key and STRIP is not running.

  • Quit STRIP
  • Launch the Console app
  • Select All Messages and click on the Clear Display button
  • Type your hot key for Secret Agent
  • Have a look at that Console app—are there any error messages from STRIP or from OS X’s security system that might be relevant?

Hi there and thanks, before doing the cointainer repair thing here’s the
console output when you press the shortcut (seems relevant):

22/10/15 18:51:57,247 net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent[337]: STRIP is not

running, launching application
22/10/15 18:51:57,253 net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent[337]:
CFURLCopyResourcePropertyForKey failed because it was passed an URL which
has no scheme
22/10/15 18:51:57,254 net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent[337]: Error!! Unable to
launch STRIP: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 “The application
“STRIP” could not be launched because a miscellaneous error occurred
(OSStatus -50).”
UserInfo={NSURL=/Applications/STRIP.app/Contents/MacOS/STRIP,
NSLocalizedDescription=The application “STRIP” could not be launched
because a miscellaneous error occurred (OSStatus -50).,
NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbe2b407b50 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain
Code=-50 “paramErr: error in user parameter list”}}
22/10/15 18:51:57,265 net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent[337]: STRIP is not
running, launching application
22/10/15 18:51:57,265 net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent[337]:
CFURLCopyResourcePropertyForKey failed because it was passed an URL which
has no scheme
22/10/15 18:51:57,265 net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent[337]: Error!! Unable to
launch STRIP: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 “The application
“STRIP” could not be launched because a miscellaneous error occurred
(OSStatus -50).”
UserInfo={NSURL=/Applications/STRIP.app/Contents/MacOS/STRIP,
NSLocalizedDescription=The application “STRIP” could not be launched
because a miscellaneous error occurred (OSStatus -50).,
NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbe2b40ce90 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain
Code=-50 “paramErr: error in user parameter list”}}

Maybe you can figure out something.

I will follow your instruction later.
Since I have a full backup on dropbox and iPhone I can also safely delete
and re-install everything.

L.

[image: Lorenzo Colloreta - Adobe Certified Instructor]

Lorenzo Colloreta
Adobe Certified Instructor - Design Master
Wacom Evangelist

@thelazydesigner Hi Lorenzo,

I think I know what the problem is, no need for you to reset your container! Will update soon, need to check on some things. (We identified this issue just the other day and a fix for it, I will prepare a maintenance build to test it.)

That’s great, respect! :fist:t2:

Thanks!

1 Like

Hello there,

still no news on the STRIP update fixing issues (on App Store)?

tnx.
L.

[image: Lorenzo Colloreta - Adobe Certified Instructor]

Lorenzo Colloreta
Adobe Certified Instructor - Design Master
Wacom Evangelist

Hi Lorenzo,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner! You may have seen it already, but we issued update 2.5.4 to direct customers and Mac App Store customers, which should fix this issue (and also checking for updates, if you are on the direct version).

Please let us know if you have any issues!