# Secure input preventing BTT from functioning **URL:** \ **Category:** Bugs or Unexpected Behavior\ **Created:** [April 10, 2022, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649 "2022-04-10T12:28:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/alexandre_champagne/32/4674_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Alexandre_Champagne)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2022, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/1 "2022-04-10T12:28:34Z")
**Describe the bug** When resuming from sleep, about 50% of the time BTT doesn’t work because "Secure input is activated". **Affected input device (e.g. MacBook Trackpad, Magic Mouse/Trackpad, Touch Bar, etc.):** Keyboard. **Screenshots** ![image](https://community.folivora.ai/uploads/default/original/3X/5/d/5d22b13e68fecf088e1cf30a8540ae36b6686432.png) **Device information:** - Type of Mac: MBP - macOS version: Monterey 12.2.1 (21D62) - BetterTouchTool version: 3.741 (1883) **Additional information (e.g. StackTraces, related issues, screenshots, workarounds, etc.):** BTT used to work properly, I’ve only seen that behavior recently—though I can’t pinpoint exactly when this started happening. Also, sometimes BTT starts working by itself within a couple seconds, other times I have to lock/unlock the MBP for BTT to start working again. ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2022, 12:32pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/2 "2022-04-10T12:32:44Z")
did you recently install some security software or similar? This is usually caused by other software that enables secure input ---
**Author:** ![Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/alexandre_champagne/32/4674_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Alexandre_Champagne)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 11:14am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/3 "2022-04-11T11:14:12Z")
No, not that I can think of. I don’t have an antivirus either. Is there any way (logs, etc.) to see what activates secure input? ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 11:19am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/4 "2022-04-11T11:19:28Z")
unfortunately not really. macOS does have a function to retrieve the app that enabled secure input (and forgot to disable it), but that function is unreliable and buggy. Especially if it shows "loginwindow" this basically means nothing - it could have been any app in that case. Possibly try upgrading to 12.3, Apple has fixed an issue related to the login window there - but I do not know whether it is relevant to this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/alexandre_champagne/32/4674_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Alexandre_Champagne)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 10:19am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/5 "2022-04-12T10:19:11Z")
The interesting thing here is that I have other apps that define global keyboard shortcuts (for example: MonitorControl, to adjust the brightness of secondary monitors), and the assigned shortcuts for those apps still work correctly when BTT is displaying its warning message in the menu about Secure Input. This is why I assumed it was a problem specific to BTT. ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 10:21am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/6 "2022-04-12T10:21:12Z")
Standard shortcuts will continue to work with secure input, but BTT is using more advanced techniques for special shortcuts which wouldn't be possible otherwise (e.g. key sequences, shortcuts including FN and many more) ---
**Author:** ![Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/alexandre_champagne/32/4674_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Champagne](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Alexandre_Champagne)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 10:28am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/7 "2022-04-12T10:28:56Z")
Oh I see, true, FN shortcuts are only possible in BTT (I think). I hate those bugs. The only option now is to eliminate apps one by one, and since this is intermittent on resume from sleep this gonna take ages. Urgh. Anyway, thanks for the replies. ---
**Author:** ![Rollkragen1](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/rollkragen1/32/27010_2.png) [@Rollkragen1](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Rollkragen1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 11:07am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/8 "2023-07-26T11:07:23Z")
Did you find anything? I have the same issue but for me it says PID: 181. I havent downloaded anything as well. ---
**Author:** ![herou](https://community.folivora.ai/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@herou](https://community.folivora.ai/u/herou)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/9 "2023-08-02T22:04:07Z")
The app that I'm having issues with is Bitwarden. It's an open source password manager: [https://bitwarden.com/](https://bitwarden.com/) Is there anything I can do besides restarting Bitwarden to release the secure input block? ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 6:42am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/10 "2023-08-03T06:42:17Z")
No, only the app that has enabled Secure Input can disable it again. Password managers should only enable it while you enter some sensitive data and disable it afterwards - if Bitwarden doesn't do that correctly you should report it to them. ---
**Author:** ![tistos](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/tistos/32/22626_2.png) [@tistos](https://community.folivora.ai/u/tistos)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 8:34am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/11 "2023-12-01T08:34:07Z")
While it has not been an issue before (I have been using BTT for at least two years), I am seeing this a lot these days, and it is not related to Sonoma because, on my Mac mini, I am still on Ventura. It seems strange that there is no way of tracing back which app activated the secure input. Doesn't the very notification "Secure input activated by: loginwindow (PID: 173)." provide a hint? What does "loginwindow" refer to? I initially understood it as referring to the macOS Login screen, but that doesn't make sense. What other "loginwindow" is there? ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 8:54am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/12 "2023-12-01T08:54:55Z")
it's often the macOS loginscreen that forgets to disable secure input. Usually logging out and back in again fixes the issue. ---
**Author:** ![DanW](https://community.folivora.ai/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@DanW](https://community.folivora.ai/u/DanW)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/13 "2023-12-01T21:09:53Z")
I have also been hitting this occasionally in Ventura. I agree that it seems to be happen after waking from sleep (so the login screen is the culprit.) I find I can clear it up by just opening the BTT configuration window. ---
**Author:** ![tistos](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/tistos/32/22626_2.png) [@tistos](https://community.folivora.ai/u/tistos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2023, 9:56am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/14 "2023-12-02T09:56:19Z")
> [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](#): > > it's often the macOS loginscreen that forgets to disable secure input I seem to remember that the issue came and went away multiple times during one login session, but I may well be wrong about that. > [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](#): > > Usually logging out and back in again fixes the issue. > [@DanW](#): > > I find I can clear it up by just opening the BTT configuration window. I will try both, though I can’t really see how BTT can clear the login screens secure input when only the app that initiated secure input can turn it off. Are you sure what you’re clearing is secure input from “loginwindow”? ---
**Author:** ![Yuemin\_Hu](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/yuemin_hu/32/29981_2.png) [@Yuemin\_Hu](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Yuemin_Hu)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 11:14am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/15 "2024-02-06T11:14:10Z")
this method worked well, thank you so much! ---
**Author:** ![Oliver\_Romisch1](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/oliver_romisch1/32/30981_2.png) [@Oliver\_Romisch1](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Oliver_Romisch1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:54am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/16 "2024-04-09T08:54:45Z")
Hey, even with Sonoma 14.4.1 on M1 it is still an issue, happened right now to me. Rebooting is annoying tbh because 200 browser Tabs are open :-/ Any idea if this can be solved somewhere soon? ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:59am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/17 "2024-04-09T08:59:41Z")
It needs to be solved in the app that forgets to deactivate Secure Input. Unfortunately due to a macOS limitation BTT can only guess which app was responsible for activating Secure Input. Often you can figure it out by trying to remember which app presented the last password input box. Restarting that app usually fixes it. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver\_Romisch1](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/oliver_romisch1/32/30981_2.png) [@Oliver\_Romisch1](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Oliver_Romisch1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 9:08am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/18 "2024-04-09T09:08:29Z")
Thank you for the quick reply. I will try to do so but I have a company administered Mac with some self-developed security tools that sometimes lock the input. Anyway, great Tool and I can't imagine using my Macs without it! ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 9:13am UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/19 "2024-04-09T09:13:42Z")
ah understood! In that case you will run into issues a lot unfortunately. There is no way to get around secure input mode (that would defeat its purpose), thus BTT can only support standard keyboard shortcuts if secure input is active ;-( ---
**Author:** ![Erik\_Bangsund](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/erik_bangsund/32/7809_2.png) [@Erik\_Bangsund](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Erik_Bangsund)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649/20 "2024-04-09T20:48:04Z")
Wow! I am getting this issue, too! The only think I know is I upgraded to MacOS 14.4.1 The PID I am getting seems to point to this one. So there in no solution? ![image](https://community.folivora.ai/uploads/default/original/3X/b/b/bb9182680a793665daf1af7d059174e1d2dc0700.png) [Next page](https://community.folivora.ai/t/secure-input-preventing-btt-from-functioning/26649.md?page=2)