what would one look for in system logs to see whether there's a trigger to launch BTT happening in the background somewhere?
Just pitching in to mention I'm also facing this issue. Also running Big Sur and Golden Chaos, although it seems from the other comments it is more likely to do with Big Sur...
I have just uploaded v3.519 alpha (get via check for alpha version updates) which logs more details about when / why the preferences window is triggered.
Would be great if somebody could install that alpha and as soon as the issue occurs go to Help => Export Diagnostic Debug Information and send the result to andreas@folivora.ai. That should help me find what's going on.
Cheers, hope this can help find the issue. Is the alpha update available via Setapp install? (UPD: ah scratch that just found the answer to this in another thread - will post feedback to Setapp about pre-release version installs)
Couldn't find "check for alpha updates" so figured I'd check.
I have received two logs ( thank you!) and they show that something on the system tries to launch BTT while it is already running.
I have no idea what that could be (and unfortunately I don't know of any way to find the calling process). But for now I have added a hidden setting that disables showing the preferences window when that happens.
You need to install v3.532 alpha (get via check for alpha version updates)
Then execute the following terminal command while BTT is quit:
defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool BTTDontShowPrefsOnReopen YES
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This did the job for me. No random popping BTT window since 5 days. Thanks Andreas!
Hello there
I just wanted to let you know that this problem persists till now, I'm on version 3.560.
Today I tried command posted above but looks like the problem is lying somewhere.
Greg
I have not had this issue since the workaround was introduced.
I still was on 3.553 - updating to 3.560 now.
Sebastian
I'm using the Setapp version and still getting the window popping up randomly. It seems that this is resolved in 3.560, but Setapp is still on 3.553 several months later. Is there an update coming soon? I understand that things take a little longer to come through Setapp, but it's been a couple of months now, and this is a significant issue for me when I'm screensharing to teach class remotely.
I am also having this issue. Running BTT 3.562 and Golden Chaos 3.562, on Big Sur 11.3.1 on a MBP 16" 2019. Sometimes I will discover 4x identical config panes sitting on top of each other, and have to kill all four. I will try the terminal command now, but whatever is causing the bug is still happening. Could be total coincidence, but often seems to happen after I've mirrored my screen to a TV via HDMI and a USB-C adapter.
Hi! For me this has been happening sporadically in 3.561 (every couple of days). Just now, it happened after using Cmd-Tab to switch to an app that was in another space (another desktop). As soon as the other space came up, the preferences window popped up (it was closed beforehand — BTT was started automatically as one of my "Login Items", with "hidden" not checked). I don't have BTT assigned to any particular space, nor do I have anything bound to Cmd-Tab. This is on Big Sur (11.4). I'll try the terminal command, thank you!
I upgraded from Mojave to 11.4 last weekend and this immediately started to happen. I am running BTT 3.570.
I find that it does not happen if I am not using the computer as I haven't woke up to find the BTT config window open in the morning (my computer stays awake during the night).
I have also had issues with high CPU usage (which I'd never had before), which I can only fix by force quitting BTT.
Additionally, I've had an issue with not being able to move tabs around, as the tab will get "stuck" under my mouse pointer once I pick it up and it will not let go unless I press Esc. (must restart BTT to fix)
One more thing: I have BTT set to invert scroll wheel, but since upgrading it may sometimes take a couple of seconds before it will honour that configuration. I suspect this is tied to moments with high CPU usage. but can't say for sure.
This happens to me as well.
I'm on big sur 11.5.2 with BTT version 3.57
@Andreas_Hegenberg does the default write solution above applies to 3.570 or do we still need the 3.532 alpha?
(I’m a bit late to the party but been having this problem as well)
yes the solution works for all recent BTT versions, you don’t need the alpha.
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@Andreas_Hegenberg this solution however prevents BTT’s config screen from being shown (either through a shortcut/launching the app) when the menu bar icon is set to be hidden.
No big deal though, just wanted to mention it.
Don't know if it's of any help to anyone, but I thought I'll just put it out there:
I did have the same issue and it was fixed by applying the defaults ... command posted above.
A few months back I decided to reinstall Big Sur from scratch and with regards to BTT I only imported my old user configuration.
I have not had an unintended config window popup since and I completely forgot about the issue.
Checking via
defaults read com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool BTTDontShowPrefsOnReopen
I get an error "The domain/default pair of (com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool, BTTDontShowPrefsOnReopen) does not exist", so apparently the key is not present.
It looks like this issue might be caused by some old macOS or BTT artifact.
Sebastian
I finally remembered to run a log show --debug right after the config window appears, and it seems to be related to something about runningboardd, whatever that is...
I had to rename the file to .html, because apparently .txt and .log are not allowed?
EDIT: In hindsight, I should've put <pre></pre> around it.
bttrelaunch-redacted.html (8.3 MB)