BTT won’t open at login

fglazer · May 12, 2025, 10:01pm

I’ve just upgraded my laptop from a 2020 intel to a 2024 M3, 14”, 16GB memory (I know!!!!) and I’m seeing some wonky behavior from BTT. I’ve set preferences to ‘Launch BTT on startup’ but it’s not working.

I’ve gone to login items in settings, and the BTT icon doesn’t appear in the list - instead I see an icon for an unknown doc:

I remove that BTT from the list and add it either through the Open at Login pane or through BTT settings, and the icon is restored:

It works for one or two cycles, and then fails again.

I’m using:

fresh download of BTT from the website, fresh install, v5.334
Current OS, Sequoia 15.4.1

I am NOT syncing settings from iCloud Drive but am keeping them local, and still seeing this behavior,.

Any suggestions?

Note:
Before bug reporting, please make sure you have tried the latest (alpha) version of BetterTouchTool and that you have already tried to restart your system :-). If you encounter a crash, please attach a crash log from the macOS Console.app from the "User Diagnostic Reports" section.

Describe the bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is. Any bug reports that contain insults against me or my software will be deleted without warning (unfortunately this has become necessary to mention here).

Affected input device (e.g. MacBook Trackpad, Magic Mouse/Trackpad, Touch Bar, etc.):

Screenshots
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Device information:

Type of Mac:
macOS version:
BetterTouchTool version: (please post the exact version - not just "the latest one")

Additional information (e.g. crash logs, related issues, etc.):

Andreas_Hegenberg · May 12, 2025, 10:06pm

Looks like BTT is not at the saved location anymore. Maybe something is moving it after you have enabled launch on startup?

Make sure to have launch on startup active in the BTT settings, adding it to login items only will not work without that setting.

fglazer · May 12, 2025, 10:28pm

BTT is in the top-level applications folder, and has not moved. (No anomalous Sparkle files, either). Yes, it is enabled in both places.

Thanks!

Andreas_Hegenberg · May 12, 2025, 10:29pm

then system setting would normally show the icon, you can also right-click it and "show in finder", then it will show you where it was moved

kian · May 13, 2025, 3:37pm

I'm having the exact same issue. I noticed when clicking "Show in Finder" it doesn't open finder. When double clicking the item in Login Items it says the following:

Andreas_Hegenberg · May 13, 2025, 4:11pm

that means the file is not at the location that it was when you enabled login at startup anymore. Try to delete it from login items, then enable it again

kian · May 13, 2025, 4:47pm

I never moved the Application from its location in /Applications nor do I think I have any other app that is doing causing this.

Andreas_Hegenberg · May 13, 2025, 7:49pm

You can try to run this terminal command to log some details about your login items (will require your macOS password):

sfltool dumpbtm > backgrounditems.txt && open ./backgrounditems.txt

Maybe that clarifies where macOS thinks it should be.

fglazer · May 13, 2025, 10:05pm

Thanks Andreas. I ran that terminal command twice - once when BTT was not properly loaded in the login items, and a second time when it was properly in the Open at Login menu. Both files are attached ... and thank you for your help!

BTT not starting up backgrounditems.txt (126.4 KB)
BTT start at login backgrounditems.txt (126.4 KB)

fglazer · May 13, 2025, 10:12pm

I ran a diff on the two files and the only item that differed was BTT. In the "not starting at login" file I see

#15:
UUID: 790BA613-CB4E-4F84-B860-4E47631CD7BF
Name: BetterTouchTool
Developer Name: (null)
Team Identifier: DAFVSXZ82P
Type: app (0x2)
Flags: [ ] (0)
Disposition: [enabled, allowed, visible, notified] (0xb)
Identifier: 2.com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool
URL: file:///private/var/folders/21/w2v62j314tq3ccnv26mc16d40000gp/T/AppTranslocation/5E5D8CEB-72F8-4F62-AB7B-6FF579892898/d/BetterTouchTool.app/
Generation: 1
Bundle Identifier: com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool

and in the "starts at login" file I see:

#15:
UUID: 3E7841DF-6499-4E0B-BA8E-CFC5152307FE
Name: BetterTouchTool
Developer Name: (null)
Team Identifier: DAFVSXZ82P
Type: app (0x2)
Flags: [ ] (0)
Disposition: [enabled, allowed, visible, notified] (0xb)
Identifier: 2.com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool
URL: file:///private/var/folders/21/w2v62j314tq3ccnv26mc16d40000gp/T/AppTranslocation/AC21D6B1-9557-468E-ADCE-8BE2B43288D1/d/BetterTouchTool.app/
Generation: 1
Bundle Identifier: com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool

Differences are in bold; I don't know how to interpret that info.

Andreas_Hegenberg · May 14, 2025, 6:19am

mhm these are "app translocation" randomized paths. The system moves apps to such if they are launched from directories other than /Applications - but they are random and change, so they can not be used for setting the login item.s

Maybe the app was still in your downloads folder when you first launched it? Is your device a managed corporate device?

kian · May 14, 2025, 9:21pm

Hi Andreas. The only thing I can think of for my situation is that I installed BetterTouchTool using homebrew.

fglazer · July 4, 2025, 3:57pm

I was running into problems with Keyboard Maestro, and that app pointed me to a help page in its documentation about a 'translocation problem.' Here's an excerpt:

In macOS Sierra, Apple added a strange security feature called App Translocation (sometimes known as Gatekeeper Path Randomization) which means that after downloading an application, if you do not move the resulting application somewhere (anywhere!), with the Finder (you must use the Finder!), the application will be run as if it is located at a randomly chosen path by the system. The consequence of this is that Launch Engine at Login will not work (because the Keyboard Maestro Engine will have a random, different, path each time), and version updates will fail (because Keyboard Maestro cannot replace itself).
...
Manually moving the application in the Finder will turn off App Translocation. Moving it by other means (eg, PathFinder, Hazel, Keyboard Maestro, whatever) will not remove translocation.

That sounded similar enough to the problem I was having with BTT that I tried the fix suggested by Peter Lewis: I deleted BTT completely, downloaded a fresh copy to my downloads folder, and in the finder dragged it to my Applications folder.

That seems to have fixed the problem!