Q: Broken expose when Screensharing?
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May 23, 2013 6:53 AMby BobHarris,I do not really have any good suggestions. But here are some ideas.
Have you rebooted after expose started misbehaving?
Have you tried booting into Safe Mode (hold "Shift" key while booting). Safe Mode does not load any 3rd party drivers, extensions, or control panels. This would indicate if a 3rd party software was interferring.
Have you tried creating a new account, and then seeing if expose behaves correctly. This would indicate something about your original accounts setup.
Have you tried deleting the Screen Sharing preferences?
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May 23, 2013 10:03 AMby Skoot28,Thanks for asking twtwtw,
This is only in relation to Expose' app switching but yes, when using any computer to control another they all work as expected except for this MBP. It can be controled by all computers but can't control any.
I can use shortcuts, such as hide current app by control H but app switching is a no go.
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May 23, 2013 10:18 AMby twtwtw,✓ So it's a problem peculiar to that machine.
✓ If you actually created a brand new account as Bob suggested (I only say that because people have a horrible tendency to assume that A is true because they did B which is kind of similar to A) and you got the same problem, that means the problem is in the system, not in a particular user account.
Is the MBP running the same OS as the other machines? Could you have installed an app or added a keyboard shortcut that's co-opting the command-tab sequence? are they all working over the same lan, with the same kind of connection? Have you installed anything (like the Secrets preference pane) which might be changing system behavior?
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May 23, 2013 10:29 AMby Skoot28,Yep, brand new user account called "test". I've done this a few times in the past year trying to figure this out.
It's just now, this computer will be needed to screenshare with other computers on a regular basis. Right now it's just every once in awhile.
Same LAN, same connections.
No shortcuts. No Secrets pref pane.
I do have Keyboard Maestro, Better Touch Tool and Typinator installed but nothing should be interferring. I'm in the middle of uninstaling them now. Though another issue is not being able to search for pref files in the "Preferences" folder.
Weird problem that is really getting to me.
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May 23, 2013 10:50 AMby twtwtw,Skoot28 wrote:
Though Safe Mode and new user account should have ruled those out, correct?
Safe mode yes, the other maybe (depends on whether any system-level utilities or kexts were installed for specialized behaviors).
Not being able to search in preferences may be something or nothing. if you've never indexed the preferences folder in spotlight (or have the preferences folder excluded from spotlight) you won't be able to search there.
it's possible this is a hardware issue. 2009 is right around when they were switching from 32 to 64 bit processors, I think, and it could be that your MBP is missing some component which screen sharing needs for full compatability. That's just a wild guess, though; hardware is not my thing...
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May 23, 2013 11:35 AMby Skoot28,I swear it worked before on this computer but I use so many different computers I could be wrong.
Found this information, tried it all reversing to "NO" and "FALSE" and still didn't work.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120221065822722
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20091219105029292
Don't send Command-Tab, etc. in ARD and screen sharing
Dec 24, '09 07:30:04AM • Contributed by: MacNogginIn Apple Remote Desktop 3.3, Apple changed the behavior of key commands during screen sharing. In this knowledge-base article, one of the listed "improvements" is this:
When controlling a remote client, function keys and key combinations for actions such as Force Quit, Log Out, and the Application Switcher are now all sent to the remote computer.
While this feature has its benefits in some scenarios, some people may prefer the old functionality. Here's how to make Remote Desktop not send the special function keys to the remote computer. Quit Remote Desktop, then open Terminal and enter this command:
defaults write com.apple.RemoteDesktop DoNotSendSystemKeys -bool YES
If you decide you want to have the special function keys sent to the remote machine, just quit Remote Desktop and repeat the above command, but change YES to NO.
[robg adds: Screen sharing in 10.6 gained this same "improvement," and I know some people are annoyed by it there as well. I tried applying the DoNotSendKeys key to screen sharing, and it worked! So, if you'd rather not have special keys sent to the remote Mac via screen sharing, just use this Terminal command (without an active screen sharing session):
defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing DoNotSendSystemKeys -bool YES
Revert the behavior by repeating the command, but change YES to NO.]
10.7: Make Lion honor the com.apple.ScreenSharing DoNotSendSystemKeys default
Feb 23, '12 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: AnonymousLion seems to have broken the ability (or at least made it tremendously unreliable) to have Command+Tab only apply to the local machine when controlling another host via screen sharing. This hint offers a possible workaround.
Prior to Lion, in most OS X versions where screen sharing was supported natively (Leopard and later, I think), Command+Tab switching through apps on a machine controlling another host via screen sharing would only switch among running apps on the local machine. [crarko adds: That's actually not been my experience, hence the defaults setting mentioned below.]
This behavior has never been consistent however, and somewhere along the line, a default was introduced:
defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing DoNotSendSystemKeys -bool TRUE
This allowed some user choice in the matter. This seems to have stopped working in Lion, but I have also noticed that sometimes the system spontaneously reverts to restricting Command+Tab to the local machine anyway, but often after a reboot, it's back to the behavior of Command+Tab going to the apps on the remote machine, with no (keyboard-only) way to get back out.
Quite by accident while this was happening, I happened to be looking at Activity Monitor, and noticed a process I hadn't seen before: RFBEventHelperd, owned by _ard (the screen sharing system user). On a whim, I tried killing it (it didn't hurt anything), and at once, my Command+Tabbing is happily only affecting my local machine again.
Note that you may need to enter the above defaults setting in Terminal for this to work. I haven't tried without it being set.
[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. I also didn't notice any bad side effects from killing RFBEventHelperd, but if anyone does, please post them in the comments.]
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May 23, 2013 11:50 AMby twtwtw,Hm. One Two thought: (a) laptops do unusual things with keyboards, sometimes. Check in System Preferences -> keyboard to see if you've unknowingly changed function key setting, remapped the modifier keys, or added unexpected input sources. You might also check if there's anything in /Library/InputManagers or ~/Library/InputManagers. (b) open the plist files for screen sharing; should be /Library/com.apple.ScreenSharing.plist or ~/Library/com.apple.ScreenSharing.plist. delete those DoNotSend entries manually, and see if there's any other keys that look suspicious.
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May 23, 2013 1:38 PMby twtwtw,the entries are going to be in the plist file itself. If you don't have a plist editor you can open it in a plain text editor and look for the correct key(s). And CTLoader is apple software (something to do with Safari's toolbar). unless there are errors in console it's not likely to be the problem.
