Inconsistent behavior of 'Specific App did create window" and "Focused window did change" triggers

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

I have the same BTT config running on 2022 MacBook Pro M1 Max and a 2024 MacMini.

  • Both machines are on Tahoe 26.5.1
  • Both machines are running BTT 6.588

For my use case I am triggering window reorganization depending on number of windows present for an app.

Before there was a BTT trigger for "Specific app did create window" I was using "Focused window did change" and then calculating window counts after some filter conditions - this was working well most of the time with only occasional hiccups - solved by rebooting.

With the release of "Specific app did create window" (and "Specific app did close/hide window") I switched over as these are a better fit logically however I found these triggers to be more inconsistent and laggy in performance.

....so I attempted to switch back to triggering on "Focused window did change"

On my MacBookPro, the switchback was completely successful and I'm back to better performance.

On the MacMini, I found I could not get the old trigger "Focused window did change" to fire at all.

  • I reset permissions multiple times with reboots etc but no change.
  • I even tried a completely fresh install of BTT with that trigger only, with no filters and no action other that writing to logs

Observations

  • It seems odd that one kind of window trigger would work but not another,
  • A possibly related issue is that console.log seemed to stop working on the MacMini but BTTLog works.

For now, I've reverted to using the new 'Specific app did...' triggers on the MacMini which works functionally most of the time but still has intermittent performance.

Any suggestions for how to regain function for the "Focused window did change" trigger on the MacMini?

Any prospect of better performance of the 'Specific app did open window' and 'Specific app did close/hide window' triggers overall?

Thanks

2

They work on very different levels, so this would not be surprising in itself. Both rely on the system sending appropriate notifications though.

Possibly the Accessibility permissions database has broken, that sometimes happens when updating macOS. You can try this:

  1. Quit BTT (important)
  2. Go to System Settings => Privacy & Security => Accessibility
  3. Remove BetterTouchTool from the list using the minus button (disabling it is not enough)
  4. Start BTT again and grant the Accessibility permissions again