Secret agent window stops appearing after a while

Here’s what I get:

2251	0	net.zetetic.STRIPHelperAgent

Thanks for sending that over. That looks correct to me – the Secret Agent helper application is running and doesn’t have a non-zero exit code (indicating it launched properly). That leads me to believe something may have gone awry with your System Privacy settings for Codebook (Accessibility & Automation).

Would you try this suggestion to see if un-checking and re-checking the Privacy settings here help: Troubleshooting Codebook Secret Agent

If you can’t uncheck and re-check the Privacy setting in Accessibility after hitting the unlock button and authenticating in the lower left hand corner, would you try removing Codebook from the Accessibility privacy setting by selecting Codebook from the list, clicking the - button, then clicking the + button and selecting Codebook in the Application directory to re-add it.

Let me know the results.

Those accessibility and automation preferences were already enabled, so I unchecked and checked them back on again. No change. But did I need to logout or restart after changing those prefs?

Yes, please quit Codebook and restart it if you didn’t, it wouldn’t hurt to restart your machine as well just in case. Also try unchecking and re-checking the Secret Agent Preference in Codebook menu > Preferences > General tab.

If that doesn’t work, would you please check if you have multiple Codebook installations present on your machine. You can use this command in terminal to determine it:

find / -name Codebook*.app 2>/dev/null

It should only return two locations:

/System/Volumes/Data/Applications/Codebook.app 
/Applications/Codebook.app

Ok, then this will be my last update for a while. When I open the Codebook app (even if I don’t authenticate) it seems to “reset” things so the Secret Agent hot key does start working again. I’ll have to wait some unknown amount of time before it might happen again.

Here are the 2 app bundles, as you expect:

$ find / -name "Codebook*.app" 2>/dev/null
/System/Volumes/Data/Applications/Codebook.app
/Applications/Codebook.app

Actually, I restarted the machine and almost immediately the problem reproduced.

  • Is there a specific application which has focus when you’re attempting to call Secret Agent (i.e. Safari)?
  • If you bring up TextEdit and attempt to call Secret Agent and insert, does the same thing happen?

It’s typically a browser, but doesn’t matter I which application has focus. It can even be the Finder, ie no application at all.

Thanks very much for the reply and sorry I haven’t been able to get the bottom of the issue with you yet. We’re upgrading some additional machines to macOS Monterrey 12.6 to see if we can reproduce the issue on any of them.

In more recent versions of macOS we have identified that there is a conflict (with a global hotkey) with the default hotkey used for Secret Agent, it hasn’t been causing issues during any of our testing, but I wonder if things may have changed in macOS Monterrey 12.6.

To test this, would you mind temporarily switching your Secret Agent hotkey to something else (i.e. CMD + SHIFT + ;) to see if the behavior is any different using that?

If the behavior is the same, you can switch the hotkey back to the default, but you won’t be able to do it in the Codebook interface (because of the global hotkey conflict I mentioned above). Here are the steps to switch it back:

  1. Quit and close Codebook if it’s open.
  2. Open terminal and run this command: defaults delete net.zetetic.Strip.mac ZSSecretAgentHotKeyPreferenceKey
  3. Open Codebook and the hotkey should be switched back to the default now.

Thank you for your patience as we help troubleshoot this.

Sure. I’ve switched the hot key, and will report back what happens.

Note, on my system I see in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Accessibility > Zoom, there is a shortcut “Turn image smoothing on or off” with the key binding that conflicts with Secret Agent. In my case those Zoom accessibility keys are not enabled (the checkbox for that part of the list is unchecked).

@gonewest818

Just wanted to follow up with some additional findings on our end. We were able to reproduce the issue you are describing after updating a couple more machines to Monterrey 12.6. It seems to occur after the computer sleeps and then unlocks opens again. Does that line up with when you’re seeing it as well?

During the tests we’ve done, it seems like either of these allow it to work again (until the next sleep occurs):

  1. Unchecking and re-checking the Secret Agent Preference in Codebook menu > Preferences > General tab.
  2. Unchecking and re-checking the Accessibility & Automation Privacy Settings for Codebook in Apple menu > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy tab.

We’re investigating what could be occurring here to see if we can fix it on the Codebook side or if this is a macOS bug which needs to be reported to Apple. I’ll post with an update as soon as we have any additional findings. Thanks!

@mmoore Just wanted to drop a quick thank you for this feed! I was about to start crying that my Secret Agent wouldn’t work even after completing all the steps in Troubleshooting Codebook Secret Agent article.

And then I found this feed :heart: (Yes, I have a new M1 Mac. And yes, the beta update to 4.5.8 fixed the issue).

Maybe just a quick note for the future support - I still had to complete the “terminal restart of a STRIPHelperAgent”, because it was in 78.

Quick note 2 - maybe you could mention the beta update in a “Troubleshooting Codebook Secret Agent”. It would’ve saved me some time of googling.

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@matobaca

Sorry to hear you ran into the issue. Glad to hear you found this post and the beta resolved the issue for you.

Quick note 2 - maybe you could mention the beta update in a “Troubleshooting Codebook Secret Agent”. It would’ve saved me some time of googling.

I just updated this post to include a note about the known issue on certain M1’s with instructions on how to download the beta to the top of that post. Thanks for the suggestion.

Maybe just a quick note for the future support - I still had to complete the “terminal restart of a STRIPHelperAgent”, because it was in 78.

Will add this to the beta post/release post so folks know. Unchecking and re-checking the Secret Agent Preferences would probably be easiest.

@gonewest818

We believe we’ve identified the issue. We’re doing some further internal testing now to confirm. I’ll post back up here when the next beta version is available with the fix so that you can confirm it resolves the issue on your end as well. Thanks!

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@mmoore Thank you. Yes, I did reproduce the issue again, even after changing the key binding for Secret Agent to something that doesn’t conflict. It occurred after my laptop had been sleeping overnight.

@gonewest818

We just rolled out the next beta version – 4.5.8 (1032) which includes the fix for the issue you reported here.

When you get the opportunity, would you download the beta and let me know if it properly resolves the issue on your end.

To get the beta using the direct version, go to Codebook menu > Preferences > Updates tab, change the Release Channel to Beta and click “Check for Updates”, you will be presented with a Window which has the release notes for the beta and where you can click Download & Install.

If you’re using the Mac App Store version of Codebook, you can temporarily switch over to the direct version to test out the beta using these steps:

  1. Go to this link: Download Codebook for macOS - Zetetic and choose “I already have a license”, then download the Codebook disk image.
  2. Delete Codebook (Mac App Store) from your Applications folder.
  3. Run the Disk Image to install the direct version of Codebook for macOS.
  4. Launch Codebook for macOS and follow the steps above to download the beta.

Let me know the results. Thanks!

Any risk to my data? and how do I remove the beta and switch back after testing the beta?

We recommend syncing a copy of your Codebook data to Google Drive, Dropbox, or another copy of Codebook prior to running a beta version. There are instructions here for syncing if you haven’t before: Codebook Help - Getting Started with Sync

That being said, we’ve found the beta very stable and there is a very low likely-hood for any data loss.

how do I remove the beta and switch back after testing the beta?

If you’re using the direct version, once you download the beta you can switch the release channel back to Public via Codebook menu > Preferences > Updates Tab > Release Channel and you will be notified of the production version once it’s available (at which point you can switch back over).

If you’re using the Mac App Store version and temporarily switched to the direct version to test the beta, but would like to stay on the Mac App Store version once the production version is released, I can send you a direct message when the production version is released to let you know to switch back over. The steps for that once the production version is released are to visit the App Store on your machine, search for Codebook, then click the “Cloud with Down arrow” next to it to download the Mac App Store production version overtop (replacing) the beta version in your Applications directory.

@gonewest818

Just to follow up here before you try to switch over to the beta version. We’ve gotten good feedback from testers for this beta version and we release the official production version of Codebook for macOS 4.5.8 this morning, so you should be able to just Check for Updates as you usually do to receive the updated version with the fix instead of switching over to the beta version. (either via Codebook menu > Check for Updates in the direct version, or via the App Store if you have the Mac App Store version)

Let us know if that properly resolves the issue for you. Thanks!

Thanks! I am running 4.5.8 now. Will report back if I see any issues.