Most Synced Macros Work on Both Macs, Some Don't

Questions & Suggestions
1

I'm wondering if anyone has run into and solved this weird problem. I have KM synced between two Macbook Pros (2011 17" and 2012 15", both unibodies), both running Mojave. Most macros work seamlessly on both machines. But a handful don't. This seems to happen on a per-app basis; e.g. all macros for Firefox work on both machines, but the KM macros I have set up for PDF Expert work only on the 2011 MBP but not at all on the 2012 machine. Any ideas?

2

I doubt I can help, because I don't have laptops and I don't have Mojave and I don't have syncing and I don't have Firefox and I don't have PDF Expert. :crazy_face:

But I still want to ask a question or two. When you say that they don't work, what do you mean? Do you mean they don't even trigger? Or that they fail on some action? Have you checked the Keyboard Maestro Engine log file to see what it says in there?

But based on your description, it sounds like it's not a problem with the macros themselves, but a problem with the attributes of the groups that the macros are located in. Did you check to see which apps are listed as permissible apps in the Group's settings? For example, I have a group that has macros that should run only when Safari is open. This is what it looks like: (notice how Safari is mentioned as an available app. I'm guessing you have something wrong in this spot.)

Screen Shot 2022-03-03 at 9.09.36 PM

3

Dear Sleepy -- You nailed the problem. The "available in" application is not always matching on both computers. (Not sure how this happening, whether the application has a different path maybe? I'll have to suss that out. In any case, I now know where to look and how to correct it.

Thank you!
—Dopey

4

I like your sense of humor, Dopey. (I actually considered the word Dopey when I was creating my avatar on this site, but I thought Sleepy was just self-deprecating enough. Actually, some of my coworkers called me Dopey as a term of endearment, and some called me Sheldon, from the Big Bang Theory TV show.)

We may never find the cause or need to know the cause of your problem, but I hypothesize two possible causes.

  1. copying (or syncing) macros may not necessarily copy the attributes of the macro group. (I don't sync much, so I can't be sure about this theory.)
  2. the applications in those lists can occasionally be wrong because the installation app for an app can have the same name as the app itself.

Those are just theories, and there's only a 5% chance that one of them is right in this case.