Aerial: Can't exit screensaver without using force quit.

@penx & @apwelsh thanks for getting back to me on this, and apologies because I was confused reading the macrumors story. I did spend a lot of time yesterday going through user reports from people on macrumors and 9to5 and here’s my best explanation of what is happening for them (and you, incidentally) :

• Screensaver will launch on its own, while you’re working <- This seems, best as I can tell, to be a Big Sur only issue
• For those users where the screensaver launched on its own, they can’t quit it <- This seems to be the similar part of the issue that you reported, you can run exposé, you can’t quit without using something like **cmd + opt + shift + esc **.

So, again, sorry, disabling fast user switching does seem to stop the first bug (screensaver launching on its own) but not the second. The first bug seems to only happen on Big Sur (and maybe M1) for people with multiple user accounts and fast user switching. So, let’s put that one aside.

Here’s what’s interesting, there are multiple people on macrumors/9to5mac and other sites that have confirmed they hit the second issue infrequently, and with some system screensavers. Most people don’t mention the screensaver they are running but some mentioned for example the default Music screensaver.

So at that point I think the theory that some background app may be able to steal focus from ScreenSaverEngine.app is probably on the right track. I’ll try to see if I can come up with some way to 100% reproduce the issue here to try and narrow it down.

It’s quite possible that not all system screensaver may hit the issue, as Apple ported a few of theirs to their new API, while a lot of others (like Music) run either under the compatibility thing they introduced in Catalina legacyScreenSaver.appex or some other compatibility thing (something like iLifeScreensaver.appex possibly ?).

Interestingly the issue started with 10.14.4 where they started to change some things for screensavers, although at this point it’s still not super clear to me what they did back then.

Also @glouel - why is this issue marked as closed when still obviously an active issue for people?

Well, it wasn’t obvious to me. The original issue as pointed by @BorBorBor was linked to the old auto update system for Aerial, which I made a workaround early on, and that I fully removed in 2.0. After removing it, multiple people confirmed it fixed the issue for them, including up here.

Since that release I haven’t had a single report until @penx the other day. I did keep the bug open for a whole 3 month after the last user confirmation that it was fixed too just in case. But I guess whatever I do, that’s never enough…

I don’t mean to thread-jack, but don’t want to open a duplicate bug report. I have been experiencing this with version 1.8.2 on Catalina 10.5.4. So the bug still appears to exist. This is the only Screen Save I have ever had the problem with, and the only 3rd part screen save. Unlike @alecmocatta I do not have this issue with Drift nor Flurry, nor any other Apple screen saver.

btw, THANK YOU for this. I love these Aerials on my Apple TV had am so excited to hame them on my dual monitor setup. I love how I was able to calibrate monitor position to make the video transition smoothly between screens.

• Catalina - did not re enable automatic downloads before upgrading to 2.x. Have now enabled weather and still can’t get it to lockup.
• Big Sur - re enabled automatic downloads, have not upgraded to 2.x but it now no longer locks up. Enabled weather too now and still doesn’t lock up.

Ok please update me if you experience any locking issue but I think it’s good, I haven’t had reports about that yet in 2.0. Thanks !

No idea what Little Snitch is so I’m going to say no (?). I get that Aerial was not actually able to perform the update on Catalina, but I’d also never seen the message about new available versions before.

Sorry, Little Snitch is a 3rd party firewall (https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html). It’s nice, but it doesn’t play well with screensavers in general.

I had a look at this- seems to be just to continue using old downloads etc, right? I was on a fresh machine so I didn’t have any existing downloads. My script mentioned above installed 1.9.x (at the time) and worked fine but I’ll keep an eye on it for 2.0 installs- thanks.

Yes, just be aware that with the next Big Sur beta, your videos may go missing.

I’m seeing the same issue as OP, but for an Apple screensaver (Flurry). Definitely a macOS bug – I’ve filed it with Feedback Assistant and it can be viewed here.

Hi @jacklawry

1.6.4 is the best version for now, yes. Settings don’t seem to have much impact as far as I know regarding the screensaver not quitting after you authenticated.

This looks to be a macOS bug as far as I understand (the screensaver never quits by itself, macOS starts and stops us at will on as many screens as needed), though I haven’t been able to reproduce it here yet.

There may be a common factor on those who hit the bug (the one you specifically mention, the others upthreads are of a fixed, separate issue) but I haven’t managed to find it yet (you’re the second person to report that particular issue so far).

If you are able, I would highly suggest filing a radar through feedback assistant from your machine, as this may help to get the bug resolved. I can guide you through it if needed.

Edit: Completely forgot, but to easily quit, you can press cmd-opt-shift-esc, this will hopefully make it less of a hassle for you.

Ok, I’ve got it installed. I’ll let you know what happens. I typically don’t use this computer over the weekend, so if it doesn’t happen in the next couple hours, it will probably be Monday at the earliest I can test again. Just wanted to give a heads up.

I had just updated to 1.6.2 after posting! Guess I should have tried some of this first 👍

Hey people,

The exact conditions when the bug happen are a bit more complex, usually there’s some focus conflict with a background app (like Little Snitch or AntiRSI here), and it seems the latest point updates of 10.14 made things worse by sometimes stealing focus themselves.

I must say that after disabling the updater I haven’t had the problem anymore, while I have been using the screensaver (+ AntiRSI) consistently. So I think the issue (at least the issue I was experiencing) was not caused by the focus conflict.

@BorBorBor

Interesting, glad to hear that disabling updates worked for you. My understanding in your case is that Sparkle which I use for auto updates may make Aerial lose focus on some systems but not all (when another app that may steal focus is involved). Glad to hear that fixed, hopefully I can find a better way to handle auto updates then.

As far as I know, Life Saver does not intercept keypresses, there’s no interactivity in the screensaver at all. I also don’t believe I have any third party apps that would steal focus… very peculiar!

I guess you don’t use Sparkle either ? I’d suggest you look at this post here : https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial/issues/768#issuecomment-491163629 , there’s a link to a gist with a script that tells you who has focus. Might be interesting for you to see what is happening when your screensaver loses focus.

How does it feel to be the most knowledgable person about screensaver development?? Hehe 😃

Haha, I guess that’s not a very marketable skill 😉 The whole process should probably be less painful that it is now though, and I don’t have high hopes for Catalina…