Keyboard Maestro Editor opening up automatically every day around 5PM?

Maybe it’ll appear, like Banquo, AT the feast, not after :slight_smile:

Why haven’t you opened a new topic?

That means that at least one of your macros has an action that is based on a custom plugin “Wrap Text”, and that plugin is either missing or it is not compatible with KM8.

The plugins are located here:

~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro/Keyboard Maestro Actions

If the plugin is there, then update it or remove it. If you remove it then you should also remove the corresponding action(s) from your macros.

If it is not there, then install it or remove the orphaned action(s) from your macros.

I don’t know if this related to the plugin issue. There is a very similar thread here, also about missing plugins, and this message is also mentioned. So, quite possible that it is related. Fix the plugin issue and then see if the “old engine” message still appears.

Note:

The post wehre this answer belongs to has been deleted and recreated here.

I’ve got this issue too. Each morning when I come back to my computer the Editor window is open.

Looked at last triggered Macros and there’s nothing in there that would cause it. Nothing discernible in the log either.

@BobRudge - Not sure if you have a typo - but in my case it was the “Editor” window that was open every evening.
Also, I had to restart my Mac yesterday morning due to a different software install, wouldn’t you know it - the KBM Editor window did not pop up last evening! Maybe try a reboot? I will keep a watch out and report back here if it starts doing it again.

…and 10 seconds ago I was sitting here and the Editor just opened up on its own…just about 24 hours after I rebooted yesterday (uptime says 24 hours and 2 minutes).

As far as Macros - I sorted them by Date Used and the last one was my F13 key used to call up “Calculator” which I last used a few days ago (is there a way to display when a macro was specifically last used?)

Looking at the Engine.log, the last few entries are:

2017-12-20 09:10:12 Engine Quitting
2017-12-20 09:13:10 Engine Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-20 09:13:10 Old engine details remains a running process Running Engine Details/1018
2017-12-20 09:13:11 Daemon launched by login window. Initiating login actions.
2017-12-20 09:15:32 Running application query took a while (3552 us)

I notice quite a few of these:

2017-12-17 12:36:15 Running application query took a while (10067 us)
2017-12-17 12:37:33 Running application query took a while (3008 us)
2017-12-18 07:00:59 Running application query took a while (3504 us)
2017-12-18 10:38:48 Running application query took a while (3065 us)
2017-12-18 10:43:18 Running application query took a while (6642 us)
2017-12-18 11:27:29 Running application query took a while (3280 us)
2017-12-18 11:27:29 Running application query took a while (3603 us)
2017-12-18 11:27:29 Running application query took a while (3232 us)
2017-12-18 16:22:18 Running application query took a while (6834 us)
2017-12-18 17:57:13 Running application query took a while (13538 us)
2017-12-19 07:46:29 Running application query took a while (3070 us)
2017-12-19 09:27:20 Running application query took a while (3178 us)
2017-12-19 10:27:20 Running application query took a while (3502 us)
2017-12-19 11:28:10 Running application query took a while (3583 us)
2017-12-19 11:41:08 Running application query took a while (9577 us)
2017-12-19 12:42:20 Running application query took a while (4291 us)
2017-12-19 13:12:21 Running application query took a while (3319 us)
2017-12-19 15:19:32 Running application query took a while (7334 us)
2017-12-20 05:27:30 Running application query took a while (4052 us)
2017-12-20 06:53:02 Running application query took a while (4102 us)

None of that seems to indicate what’s going on to me…

Where the heck would I find some 24 hour timer in KBM?

EDIT:

Just looked at the Editor.log - the last few lines are:

2017-12-14 17:18:26 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-14 17:18:26 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-14 17:18:28 Engine is already running
2017-12-14 23:17:06 Running application query took a while (8140 us)
2017-12-15 07:25:47 Editor Quitting
2017-12-15 17:18:29 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-15 17:18:29 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-15 17:18:31 Engine is already running
2017-12-15 17:21:48 Editor Quitting
2017-12-16 17:18:32 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-16 17:18:33 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-16 17:18:34 Engine is already running
2017-12-16 20:56:55 Editor Quitting
2017-12-17 17:18:35 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-17 17:18:36 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-17 17:18:37 Engine is already running
2017-12-17 17:36:04 Editor Quitting
2017-12-18 17:18:39 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-18 17:18:39 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-18 17:18:46 Engine is already running
2017-12-18 17:55:25 Editor Quitting
2017-12-19 17:18:42 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-19 17:18:42 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-19 17:18:50 Engine is already running
2017-12-19 18:26:46 Editor Quitting
2017-12-21 09:13:15 Editor Starting 8.0.4
2017-12-21 09:13:16 Failed to find any 1Password bookmarks-default.json file
2017-12-21 09:13:18 Engine is already running

So it looks like some interaction with 1Password??? How are those two apps talking to one another? I haven’t linked them in any way I know of.

See here:


I also have the “1Password” line in my log, so I don’t think it is related to your issue.

See here:

Have you already checked if you have some KM-related launch agents/daemons running?

The most common locations are these:

# User
~/Library/LaunchAgents
# Global
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
# System (should contain only system stuff)
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

Or get the very useful LaunchControl app.

Check those locations and see if there is something KM-related there.

If it runs every day then it should contain something like this:

	<key>StartInterval</key>
	<integer>86400</integer>

or this:

	<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
	<dict>
		<key>Hour</key>
		<integer>17</integer>
		<key>Minute</key>
		<integer>00</integer>
	</dict>

Don’t remove or modify agents/daemons if you don’t know where they belong to!

I’ll take a look in those places…I don’t think any Launch Agent would have a hard-set hour number in it since it seems to be launching every 24 hours from the last bootup. Used to be between 4 and 6 PM, and today was at 9AM (since yesterday morning’s reboot). I’ll see if it launches again tomorrow at around 9AM and I’ll know it’s a “24 hours from last startup” thing.

No need for a hard-set hour.

This example agent should do exactly what you are describing:

  • It does not launch at reboot
  • It does launch every 24h after the reboot
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>local.job</string>
	<key>Program</key>
	<string>/Applications/Keyboard Maestro.app/Contents/MacOS/Keyboard Maestro</string>
	<key>RunAtLoad</key>
	<false/>
	<key>StartInterval</key>
	<integer>86400</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Certainly. Just hit ⌘4 while the macro is selected to bring up the Macro Inspector.

9:13 AM this morning the Editor popped up - just like clockwork…every 24 hours from last reboot/startup of KBM (I have KBM set to start on login).

Last Macro used was my Calculator one that was last used Dec 11th, so that’s not it.

Looked in all the suggested “Launch” folders - saw nothing related to KBM in any of them.

This is really baffling…

Other than “something else is deciding to launch Keyboard Maestro”, which I have seen in the past as a cause for this sort of thing, about the only other case I can think of for Keyboard Maestro spontaneously launching the editor would be if it thought it was unregistered and running out of the trial time - but then it should display the nag dialog and so it would only be if the engine thought it was unregistered but the editor thought it was registered or some other confusion like that.

Interesting - no nag screen…

Since I only used KBM to be able to map my F13 key to the calculator app anyway (why I was trying it out in the first place), I have found a “free” way using an Automator Service and mapping that to the F13 key through keyboard preferences. I can now get rid of KBM. Thanks to everyone trying to help me solve this though.

this problem is still occurring to me after completely removing all related files. What the hell is going on here??

Sorry for your problems, but it is highly unlikely this is due to KM.
I believe this is your first post about this issue, so could you please be more specific about what behavior you are seeing?

Think about what other automation tools your have, like Automator Workflows, Hazel, Alfred, LaunchBar, etc. Do you have any tool which can launch an app at a specific time?

KM could do this, but you would have had to created a KM macro that does this. You can check to see if KM has triggered a macro by examining the KM Engine Log immediately after the KM Editor has launched. See GoTo menu Help > Open Logs Folder, or just open this file:
~/Library/Logs/Keyboard Maestro/Engine.log

i’ve been using KM for quite some time. The reason this is my first post is because I HATE wasting my time writing responses to people like you.

I’ve already spent hours analyzing my logs. I have the ‘1Password’ message showing up as others here (or in another similar thread wrote about). There is no macro that is doing this.

Sorry you feel that way -- I was just trying to help, and in order to do that I needed more info that in your OP. We are pretty good around here, but we haven't quite mastered reading minds, yet. :wink:

I had no idea what you had done, or not done, since you did not say.
I did give you a few pointers and suggestions for troubleshooting.

Good luck in resolving your issue.

4 Likes

So if it isn’t a macro, then the most likely thing is something else causing it.

I suppose one possibility would be if some file is being opened that the system has decided belongs to Keyboard Maestro (eg, maybe the system has decided Keyboard Maestro is an editor for .plist files, and a plist file is being opened).

Other than via a macro, or in response to nagging about expiring trials, or in response to direct user selection, there isn’t any time that Keyboard Maestro Engine would open the editor. You’ve discounted all those possibilities, so the only thing remaining is something else is opening it.

This is probably a very good idea of a possibility.

@fhall1 and @reno-raines

You can read the document type associations from an lsregister dump. Paste this into the Terminal and run it:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump | perl -ne 'print if / \/Applications\/Keyboard Maestro.app\n/../CFBundleExecutable = "Keyboard Maestro";/'

You should get an output like this:

Complete output
	path:          /Applications/Keyboard Maestro.app
	name:          Keyboard Maestro
	displayName:   (null)
	itemName:      (null)
	teamID:        QMHRBA4LGH
	staticSize:    0
	storeFront:    0
	versionID:     0
	sourceAppID:   (null)
	ratingLabel:   (null)
	ratingRank:    0
	genre::        (null)
	genreID:       0
	category:      public.app-category.productivity
	2ry category:  (null)
	identifier:    com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor (0x80005116)
	vendor:        (null)
	type:          (null)
	version:       8.2 (<00004000 00200000>)
	versionString: 8.2
	displayVersion 8.2
	codeInfoID:    (null)
	signerOrg:     (null)
	mod date:      22.03.18, 04:23
	reg date:      23.03.18, 12:24
	type code:     'APPL'
	creator code:  'MKKM'
	plist flags:   (0000000000010000)
	Icon flags:    relative-icon-path  (0000000000000001)
	arch flags:    x86_64  (0000000000000008)
	item flags:    container  package  application  extension-hidden  native-app  scriptable  (000000000010088e)
	iconName:      (null)
	icons:         Contents/Resources/kmicon.icns
	executable:    Contents/MacOS/Keyboard Maestro
	inode:         8611948791
	exec inode:    8611948798
	container id:  4
	min version:   10.10 (<00004001 00280000>)
	mach min ver:  10.10 (<00004001 00280000>)
	execSDK ver:   10.13 (<0000a001 00280000>)
	plistCommon:   {
    CFBundleDevelopmentRegion = English;
    CFBundleDocumentTypes =     (
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmmacros
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Macro File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmlibrary
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Library File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmsync
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Macro Sync File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                zip
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Extension File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Viewer;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmaction
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Plug In Action";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Viewer;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmactions
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Actions File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        }
    );
    CFBundleExecutable = "Keyboard Maestro";

The important part are the CFBundleDocumentTypes:

    CFBundleDocumentTypes =     (
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmmacros
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Macro File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmlibrary
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Library File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmsync
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Macro Sync File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                zip
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Extension File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Viewer;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmaction
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Plug In Action";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Viewer;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        },
                {
            CFBundleTypeExtensions =             (
                kmactions
            );
            CFBundleTypeIconFile = "MacroExportFile.icns";
            CFBundleTypeName = "Keyboard Maestro Actions File";
            CFBundleTypeRole = Editor;
            LSTypeIsPackage = 0;
            "_LSIconPath" = "Contents/Resources/MacroExportFile.icns";
        }
    );

The above looks pretty correct to me. It says that the document types supported by Keyboard Maestro Editor are these (by extension):

  • kmmacros
  • kmlibrary
  • kmsync
  • zip
  • kmaction
  • kmactions

If you run the lsregister dump on your machine and find some other extensions (for instance plist like in @peternlewis’ example) then you are probably on the right track.

I fixed it by using Appdelete to get rid of all traces of KBM. I was only using it for one macro anyway and found a different solution…now, no more Editor popup.