Help with Snippet Expansion on macOS 13

[rogerlee]

Hi @Andrew

 

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Is this a corporate or business Mac you're using?  

 

I think it's a personal Mac which I bought on the Apple official website.

 

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When was the last time you did a fresh install of your Mac?

 

I've never reinstalled the Mac after I bought it.

 

[rogerlee]

@Andrew I also tried to uncheck all the apps in the accessibility except Alfred 5. I think this might reduce the potential possibility of being caused by other apps.

[Stephen_C]

Do you think Sogouinput could be intercepting your keystrokes and preventing Alfred's snippet expansion? I know you've not enabled it in the Privacy & Security options but I wonder what might happen if you were to uninstall it. It's only a wild guess so it's up to you whether or not to try it!

 

Stephen

[Andrew]

Just now, rogerlee said:

I also tried to uncheck all the apps in the accessibility except Alfred 5. I think this might reduce the potential possibility of being caused by other apps.

 

Did you reboot after unchecking these items? As you'll need to reboot for any accessibility changes to be set.

 

So you're saying on the brand new user profile, you already had things e.g. Snaggit already in Accessibility and selected? If so, are you sure you switched to the fresh user?

[Andrew]

1 minute ago, Stephen_C said:

Do you think Sogouinput could be intercepting your keystrokes and preventing Alfred's snippet expansion? I know you've not enabled it in the Privacy & Security options but I wonder what might happen if you were to uninstall it. It's only a wild guess so it's up to you whether or not to try it!

 

This is also an excellent theory!

 

A new user profile shouldn't have this running as every user profile should be really quite discrete on your Mac... almost like a brand new Mac. So I'm wondering if @rogerlee may not have set up a new user correctly or switched to that new user.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchl3e281fc9/mac

[rogerlee]

2 minutes ago, Andrew said:

 

Did you reboot after unchecking these items? As you'll need to reboot for any accessibility changes to be set.

 

So you're saying on the brand new user profile, you already had things e.g. Snaggit already in Accessibility and selected? If so, are you sure you switched to the fresh user?

 

Yes, I tried to reboot for several times. 

 

I created a new user and switch to this user, there are some steps to set up the environment for the user when first login. But somehow there are some apps still in the new user's environment.

 

 

[Andrew]

1 minute ago, rogerlee said:

But somehow there are some apps still in the new user's environment.

 

This isn't standard behaviour, so I'm not sure what else to suggest.

[rogerlee]

I asked Chatgpt this question:

 hi, I created a new user in Mac, but why this new user can see the apps from other users? even the same permissions listed in the accessibility

 

It said:

By default, on a Mac, all users have access to the applications installed on the system, regardless of which user installed them. This is because applications are installed system-wide and are available to all users.

However, each user has their own separate user account and home directory, which means that their individual files and settings are kept separate from those of other users. Additionally, users can only access files and folders that they have been granted permission to access.

If you want to restrict access to certain applications for specific users, you can use the Parental Controls feature in Mac OS X. With Parental Controls, you can set restrictions on the applications that a particular user can access, as well as limit the amount of time they can spend on the computer, restrict access to certain websites, and more.

To enable Parental Controls for a user, go to System Preferences > Parental Controls and select the user you want to set restrictions for. From there, you can customize the settings according to your preferences.

[rogerlee]

12 minutes ago, Stephen_C said:

Do you think Sogouinput could be intercepting your keystrokes and preventing Alfred's snippet expansion? I know you've not enabled it in the Privacy & Security options but I wonder what might happen if you were to uninstall it. It's only a wild guess so it's up to you whether or not to try it!

 

Stephen

 

yes, I just removed this sougou input completely using the app cleaner & uninstaller app, but still not working.

[Stephen_C]

Just now, rogerlee said:

yes, I just removed this sougou input completely using the app cleaner & uninstaller app, but still not working.

Did you reboot after that?

 

Stephen

[Andrew]

@rogerlee ChatGPT agrees with what I'm saying. To simplify the paragraph you've pasted from ChatGPT:

 

All users see the same /Applications/ folder, but every user has separate settings. i.e. A new user should have NO apps already running or any apps already in the accessibility settings.

[Stephen_C]

I strongly recommend that you go, very carefully, through the process of setting up a new user profile in the way Andrew suggests. I suspect we need to discount any app you may have which in some way monitors your user input. I know you've uninstalled Sogou Input (and, I hope, rebooted afterwards) but it seems to me that you may have other apps which could potentially interfere with your input (Easydict and, possibly, Grammarly). Maybe you have others, as well, to assist with typing in more than one language.

 

If you set up a clean, new user profile, you'll be able to use Alfred in it without any of the other apps. If that works (as it ought to) you can slowly add back the other apps to find out which one is causing the problem.

 

Stephen

[rogerlee]

@Vero @Stephen_C @Andrew Thank you guys !

 

After trying all these methods, the culprit is the input monitoring permission. it's working when I turn it on, and not working when it's off.

 

[Stephen_C]

I'm very pleased you have solved the problem. I think it's a relief to all of us! Well done.

 

However…the really strange thing is that I've not given that permission to Alfred and snippets still work for me.

 

Stephen

Edited April 18, 2023 by Stephen_C

[rogerlee]

Yes, I am very appreciative of all of you! and it's relief!  

 

I think it's unusual how my Mac works this way😅, I was determined to reinstall the OS if it's not working after trying all the methods you guys suggested, but I just happened to look at this input monitoring and turn it on, then it worked.