Cannot use light mode for mail app. #7

KeKsBoTer · 2018-09-29T19:49:05Z

First of all: Nice tool, I have been locking for something like this for a while!

It works fine for all apps but mail. I use global dark mode, but cannot set light mode for the mail app.
The defaults for mail are the following:

$ defaults read com.apple.mail       
{
    NSNavLastRootDirectory = "~/Documents";
    NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForOpenMode = "{720, 465}";
    NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForSaveMode = "{712, 621}";
    NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance = 1;
}

zenangst · 2018-09-30T08:03:02Z

@KeKsBoTer hey mate, thanks for the feedback. Hmm, that is pretty odd, the output looks correct to me. What about if you close mail and manually run this in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES

Does it have any effect?

zenangst · 2018-10-01T06:47:00Z

@KeKsBoTer hey mate, I just pushed a new version that should fix this issue, see #16 for more information.

Please try version 0.2.1, you can download it here -
https://github.com/zenangst/Gray/releases/download/0.2.1/Gray.zip

dsalzr · 2018-10-01T16:20:39Z

Mail doesn't work for me with 0.2.1 🙁 All other apps worked.

Tried defaults write com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES and it has no effect

zenangst · 2018-10-01T18:36:23Z

Seems like the recent fix didn’t do its job properly. I wonder if this has to do with plist caching. I’ll do some more digging when I’m back from vacation to see if we can’t put a nail in the coffin on this shenanigans. I’ll keep you posted!

zenangst · 2018-10-03T21:55:56Z

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr mind testing this issue with version 0.4.0?

dsalzr · 2018-10-03T22:30:02Z

Still no change @zenangst 🙁 I even tried restarting after setting mail to light mode.

Here's a video of me testing it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMT1SRw8VDo

zenangst · 2018-10-04T11:03:15Z

@dsalzr bah this issue is tearing me apart, but no worries... we will figure it out eventually.
I've done some testing and Mail works for me with the latest version of the app. I'm curious why certain apps are causing issues for different users. For me, it has been Contacts that has been acting a bit weird while testing but that was fixed in prior versions.

Maybe you could try the following steps.

Restart your machine (just to get a clean slate)
Start terminal and run the following commands:

The first command will kill the preference service for your user, that should clear the plist cache from using the previous value. The second command is what the application run for you when you tap on an icon.

/usr/bin/killall -u $USER cfprefsd
defaults write com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool true

Restart again just to make sure that your latest settings are stored.
Launch Mail.app

Sorry for not having the answer to this conundrum just yet, but if you stick with me I'm sure that we can figure something out.

If the following does not work, we can try and use PlistBuddy to obtain the results that we want.

KeKsBoTer · 2018-10-04T13:22:02Z

@dsalzr bah this issue is tearing me apart, but no worries... we will figure it out eventually.
I've done some testing and Mail works for me with the latest version of the app. I'm curious why certain apps are causing issues for different users. For me, it has been Contacts that has been acting a bit weird while testing but that was fixed in prior versions.

Maybe you could try the following steps.
1. Restart your machine (just to get a clean slate)

2. Start terminal and run the following commands:
The first command will kill the preference service for your user, that should clear the plist cache from using the previous value. The second command is what the application run for you when you tap on an icon.
/usr/bin/killall -u $USER cfprefsd
defaults write com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool true
1. Restart again just to make sure that your latest settings are stored.

2. Launch Mail.app
Sorry for not having the answer to this conundrum just yet, but if you stick with me I'm sure that we can figure something out.

If the following does not work, we can try and use PlistBuddy to obtain the results that we want.

Did not work for me :/

dsalzr · 2018-10-04T20:22:37Z

Same here. Did not work with the terminal commands and restarting. Also tried version 0.4.2. Happy to continue testing as you try different things @zenangst

zenangst · 2018-10-05T09:05:07Z

@dsalzr @KeKsBoTer Still fighting the good fight! A new version just landed which has some minor changes to how preferences are written to their property lists. Mind taking the new version for a spin to see if it does not resolve the issues you have been seeing?

https://github.com/zenangst/Gray/releases/download/0.5.0/Gray.zip

zenangst · 2018-10-05T09:30:31Z

Sketch that, there is a new version that further tries to correct the issue, you can find it here: https://github.com/zenangst/Gray/releases/download/0.5.1/Gray.zip

KeKsBoTer · 2018-10-05T10:11:57Z

@zenangst Thanks for your efforts! Sadly it does not work :/

zenangst · 2018-10-05T10:13:38Z

I can make a special version that prints some of the output from the shell commands, that might help to narrow things down.

zenangst · 2018-10-05T10:55:15Z

I’ve started brewing on a new version with better logging when it saves settings. While implementing it I was one thing that might be the culprit.

Right now I’m going to a museum with my kid but I’ll make a new build and notify you peeps when life allows.

Stay tuned and thanks for your patience ;)

zenangst · 2018-10-05T13:46:08Z

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr mind taking 0.5.2 for a spin - https://github.com/zenangst/Gray/releases/download/0.5.2/Gray.zip

If it still does not work with that version, you should be able to use Console.app to get information about the commands that are sent and what the command output is.

Please provide that info here if you are still having issue :)

dsalzr · 2018-10-06T19:52:10Z

@zenangst did not work but here are the relevant log entries:

`default 12:50:10.399054 -0700 Gray New settings for Mail = true

default 12:50:10.399101 -0700 Gray command: /usr/bin/killall -u $USER cfprefsd
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance true" /Users/daniel/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

defaults read com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance /Users/daniel/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

error 12:50:10.421866 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.VoiceMemos/Data/Library/Preferences

error 12:50:10.425372 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.Home/Data/Library/Preferences

error 12:50:10.425398 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences

error 12:50:10.427555 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Preferences

error 12:50:10.428254 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences

error 12:50:10.430973 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.news/Data/Library/Preferences

error 12:50:10.432752 -0700 kernel Sandbox: defaults(32203) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.stocks/Data/Library/Preferences

default 12:50:10.463622 -0700 Gray output: (1
)
error 12:50:10.532872 -0700 kernel Sandbox: Gray(32069) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.news/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.news.plist

error 12:50:10.534067 -0700 kernel Sandbox: Gray(32069) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

error 12:50:10.534429 -0700 kernel Sandbox: Gray(32069) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

error 12:50:10.534825 -0700 kernel Sandbox: Gray(32069) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/daniel/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
`

KeKsBoTer · 2018-10-07T11:00:39Z

@zenangst didn't work eather :/
Console Log

zenangst · 2018-10-07T16:41:17Z

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr thanks guys, it seems like there is something wonky going on with the entitlements.

I made a new version, could you try this one?

Gray 0.7.1.zip

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T02:23:20Z

For me, the Mail app does not show in the app list at all (I just tried Gray 0.7.1)

zenangst · 2018-10-08T04:59:36Z

Hey @johnoscott, I think that it has to do with how the applications are being validated. If the Gray is unable to resolve the application plist for the app, it will simply ignore it. I think this needs changing for everything to work properly, I'll look into that issue as well even if it is unrelated to this specific problem.

zenangst · 2018-10-08T05:24:26Z

@johnoscott mind trying this new version, it should fix the issue with Mail being missing.

Gray 0.7.1a.zip

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T06:22:22Z

@johnoscott mind trying this new version, it should fix the issue with Mail being missing.

Gray 0.7.1a.zip

Yes that fixes the missing Mail app but changing the setting does not seem to make any difference.

zenangst · 2018-10-08T06:31:25Z

@johnoscott mind sharing some log files using the Console.app?

zenangst · 2018-10-08T06:48:43Z

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr @johnoscott Here is a question for all of you. Where are you running the application? Did you guys move it to /Applications before running it? I'm curious to see if this has any effect on the capabilities that the apps get when it comes to modifying other application preferences.

If you don't do that, please try and "install" the app in /Applications and re-test changing settings on apps.

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T11:10:50Z

Yes I copied to Applications folder first

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T11:11:32Z

@johnoscott mind sharing some log files using the Console.app?

Yes happy to. What exactly do you want ?

zenangst · 2018-10-08T11:12:10Z

Just post anything that the Gray app spits out :)

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T11:16:41Z

In the log above I did the following :`

open the app
search for "Mail"
click Mail to change its setting to "Light Appearance"
quit the app

Hope this helps

zenangst · 2018-10-08T11:17:01Z

@johnoscott thanks mate, I'm gonna dig through them later on! cheers!

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T11:17:45Z

gray.console.log

johnoscott · 2018-10-08T11:18:38Z

I deleted the post and uploaded the log file instead (above)

KeKsBoTer · 2018-10-08T11:42:44Z

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr @johnoscott Here is a question for all of you. Where are you running the application? Did you guys move it to /Applications before running it? I'm curious to see if this has any effect on the capabilities that the apps get when it comes to modifying other application preferences.

If you don't do that, please try and "install" the app in /Applications and re-test changing settings on apps.

I have installed all Gray versions to the Applications folder so far. Also the new 0.71a does not solve the problem with the mail app :(

zenangst · 2018-10-08T14:08:45Z

Seems like the common theme that I can see is that this is due to sandboxing.
I'm gonna bring out the big shovel and get us out of this, I'll post more updates when life allows for more investigation.

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr @johnoscott thanks y'all for the debug information and again... thanks for your patience ❤️

zenangst · 2018-10-08T17:00:49Z

Investigation

I've done some further digging, and it seems that Apple has made it tricky for us.
Preference files are not all located in ~/Library/Preferences. The exceptions to the rule are the following:

kernel	Sandbox: Gray(4664) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.Home/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Home.plist
kernel	Sandbox: Gray(4664) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.news/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.news.plist
kernel	Sandbox: Gray(4664) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.stocks/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.stocks.plist
kernel	Sandbox: Gray(4664) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
kernel	Sandbox: Gray(4664) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

So what we are looking at here is the SIP (System Integrity Protection) telling us that we cannot read the files. The reason why this was overlooked when I tested this was that I was running macOS Mojave with SIP disabled (mainly to get TotalSpaces2 and cDock working).

I'm still investigating this to see if there is any light at the end of the tunnel.
While I continue digging a larger hole in the sandbox, there is one workaround that I can think of, a bit wonky but it seems to work.

Workaround

Restart your machine while holding ⌘R to go into recovery.
Click Utilities.
Select Terminal.
Open the terminal and run csrutil disable this will disable SIP.
Restart your machine.
Open Gray and configure the apps that you want to configure.
Perform step 1, 2 and 3 again.
Open the terminal and run csrutil enable, this will enable SIP again.
Restart your machine.

For screenshots about the process, check out MacWorld's article

Your preferences should stay intact even with SIP-enabled.

zenangst · 2018-10-08T17:17:12Z

@KeKsBoTer @dsalzr @johnoscott So. I did some more digging and found this setting under Security & Privacy.

I tried it out with SIP-enabled and it worked. Please try giving the app the privileges it needs to see if that doesn't fix the issue :)

dsalzr · 2018-10-08T17:54:08Z

@zenangst That worked 🤩^^^ (Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access > + > Gray.app)

zenangst · 2018-10-08T17:55:45Z

Fantastic, me and @RamonGilabert are working on some killer UX for the app to make the process more streamlined. If you launch Gray without enough privileges to change Mail, we will show what needs to be done for it to work :) Thank you so much for sticking with us in all of this ❤️

zenangst · 2018-10-08T18:48:40Z

We just released 0.8.0 so its time to put this issue to rest. Thanks to everyone for their participation, sending logs and following up played an enormous part in tracking this issue down. Loads of love ❤️

https://github.com/zenangst/Gray/releases/tag/0.8.0

KeKsBoTer · 2018-10-08T20:17:37Z

Thanks man! it works ❤️

johnoscott · 2018-10-09T09:49:42Z

Working now for Mail BUT when Mail is open and Gray changes the setting, Mail restart doesnt work. It does Quit, but doesnt start up automatically again.

zenangst · 2018-10-09T10:12:53Z

@johnoscott Yeah, it seems like the restart mechanism needs a bit of work. Still struggling a bit with some stutter when invoking shell scripting. Hoping to improve this in future versions of the app.

zenangst mentioned this issue Oct 1, 2018

Fix bug with Mail not changing appearance. #16

Merged

zenangst closed this as completed in #16 Oct 1, 2018

zenangst reopened this Oct 1, 2018

brycejacobson mentioned this issue Oct 4, 2018

Not Working / Saving Settings #26

Closed

zenangst mentioned this issue Oct 4, 2018

Refactor ApplicationsLogicController.toggleAppearance #27

Merged

zenangst mentioned this issue Oct 5, 2018

Refactor application toggle #30

Merged

zenangst mentioned this issue Oct 8, 2018

Implement handling of restricted applications #39

Merged

zenangst closed this as completed Oct 8, 2018

Cannot use light mode for mail app. #7

Cannot use light mode for mail app. #7

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Investigation

Workaround

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