Command key activates wrong window in Mountain Lion

Question

Command key activates wrong window in Mountain Lion

I've got some strange bug on my computer that has stumped every genius in the three Apple Stores I've been to--they even took it to the back to ask all the Genius' in the store, so it seems to be a nasty bug. so I figured maybe you all could help me out.

The issue is this: After I upgraded to Mountain Lion (from Snow Leopard) when I use my "command" key, it randomly activates a window other than the one in focus (on top) of the other windows. So, for example, if I'm in Safari and try to copy something (Cmd+C) but I also have Word open, it will switch to Word and copy whatever is in Word. It does this with all programs (even with Finder!), no matter what the Command function I'm trying to use. If I close the program, the strange behavior will stop for a short time and then come back with another program. When Cmd activates Finder, I have to relaunch Finder and that temporarily alleviates the problem. It does this odd behavior with an external keyboard (and the on-screen keyboard), meaning that it's a software, not hardware error.

I have taken the following actions to fix the problem:

- Reset PRAM (no change to problem)

- Using Disk Utility to repair permissions and verify disk (no change to problem)

- Created a new user on the computer (problem re-appeared after importing my backup files using MigrationAssistant)

- Created a new user on the computer and imported files without importing "Settings" but problem reappeared

- Reinstalled Mountain Lion (problem appeared after importing my backup files using MigrationAssistant)

The last Genius thought the error was due to an application corrupting some system-wide file in Mountain Lion, so we wiped my hard drive, reinstalled files, and imported my documents but not my apps. I manually installed one app at a time and had no issues for 3 months or so.

The problem "randomly" came back last week. Looking at apps that were installed recently, it shows:

- Flux (update - but Flux was on my computer for 3 months with no issues)

- Quicksand (update - but Quicksand was NOT on my computer last year when the problem started)

- VLC Media Player (this WAS on my computer last year but was NOT on my computer in the 3 months with no issue).

Thus, it seems that the culprit app was VLC. I've deleted it (using AppTrap to clear system files), but the problem still exists.

So, three questions:

1) Does anyone have any idea why this is happening, how to prevent it, or whether it might start again even if I wipe and reinstall everything?

2) I'd like to fix the problem without wiping my computer and doing a clean install of everything. Any ideas of how I could avoid doing that?

3) If I have to sacrifice VLC to solve the problem, fine, but I'd prefer not to. Any ideas as to how I could use it still?

TLDR: Command key activates wrong window in Mountain Lion; confirmed software issue; reinstall worked fine until installed VLC Media Player and problem returned; how do I fix it?

themarkofbooks

MBPro (mid 2009) on 10.8.5

Regularly (near daily) backup to TimeMachine

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 21, 2013 2:15 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,590 points

Oct 21, 2013 5:14 AM in response to themarkofbooks

Doubt it is VLC or any other basic application.

Do you use any other system modifications? Optimizers, cleaners, scanners, maintainers?

It also could be the keyboard. Does the App switcher momentarily pop up when you see this happen?

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Answer 2

Oct 21, 2013 5:30 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for your reply and ideas!

1) I share your doubt on VLC -- but the Apple Genius said it could be an application like that and those were the applications I had installed recently--all others had been installed for a while without the error appearing.

2) I don't use an optimizer, cleaner, scanner, or maintainer, though I do use a couple programs which might modify the system (not sure how they operate precisely):

- Bartender which moves menu bar items into a "secondary" menu bar

- BetterSnapTool which allows me to drag a windo to the side of my screen and it "snaps" to a pre-defined position on the screen.

- F.lux (mentioned above) to adjust color temperature on teh screen.

- I've run a terminal tweak to allow copying from QuickLook and to enable the hold-key-repeat feature.

Other than that, I can't think of anything system-wide (and since my clean install, I've kept a log of all changes I've made). Those could all affect it, I supposed, but I had them all installed for months without the error--now, upon installing VLC (and updating F.lux), the error started again.

3) I doubt it is the keyboard since the problem has also appeared with two different external keyboards and the on-screen virtual keyboard. I don't see the App switcher pop up.

Other ideas?

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Answer 3

Oct 21, 2013 6:07 AM in response to themarkofbooks

You're not going to like this, but... Wipe. Install one app. Test. Repeat.

I'd install apps from the Bartender, BetterSnapTool, F.lux and Tweak pool of tools — add-ons that modify OS X behavior in some way — as the first targets for testing. Or I'd leave them off the system entirely. IMO, these tools are emphatically among the " optimizer, cleaner, scanner, or maintainer" class of tools.

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Answer 4

Oct 21, 2013 7:00 AM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for the help. I figured I would need to wipe, but was trying to avoid that.

Only problem is, wiping and testing one app at a time is exactly what I did with my last install. I had no trouble with Bartender, BetterSnapTool, or F.lux for nearly 3 months until the bug started a week ago. Here are the install dates for those apps:

F.lux - updated on October 5th (approximately 1 week before bug), but first installed in September

Bartender - updated on September 22nd (approximately 3 weeks before bug), but first installed in July

BetterSnapTool - July 13th (3 months before bug)

Can I rule out any of those since they were installed so long without the bug appearing?

Is it likely that an update to those apps would introduce the bug? I find that unlikely that the bug would exist a year ago with the previous versions of the apps, then didn't exist for three months with the same/updated version and then come back with an update. Is that possible?

Is there a minimum amount of time I should test it before I know an app is "clean"?

And, if my logic in the first point is solid, is it safe to say that my testing one app at a time shows that VLC is the culprit? It seems you and @Barney_15E are suggesting VLC it isn't.

Thanks tons for your help!

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Oct 21, 2013 9:38 AM in response to themarkofbooks

Trying running this program and then copy and paste the output in a reply. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read.

Etrecheck – System Information

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Answer 6

Oct 21, 2013 11:30 AM in response to themarkofbooks

themarkofbooks wrote:

Can I rule out any of those since they were installed so long without the bug appearing?

Trust, but verify. When debugging, my preference is to always want to rule in or rule out the components. To see what upholds my theory of the problem, and what doesn't. Making assumptions or skipping steps can lead to incorrect conclusions. You've been chasing this long enough that you want a solution, right?

My theory is that what are variously called "haxies" are causing this misbehavior.

Is there a minimum amount of time I should test it before I know an app is "clean"?

That depends on what's going on, and how reproducable the error is.

With "haxies", this misbehavior may well be an interaction among those or some other tools or with some OS X upgrade or update, too.

As a first pass plan to get back to work quickly, I'd install all the stuff I cared about, and skip all of the "haxies". See if things work.

But if that apprpach doesn't meet your needs and you require one or more of those "haxies", then install what you care about and what you need — core applications, and skip all of the "haxies" here — and then make a full backup of your disk. Test. That. See if things work. Then add a "haxie". Test. Repeat. If you find the problem, roll in the backup. (Some "haxies" don't uninstall themselves cleanly, too.)

Is it likely that an update to those apps would introduce the bug? I find that unlikely that the bug would exist a year ago with the previous versions of the apps, then didn't exist for three months with the same/updated version and then come back with an update. Is that possible?

"Haxies" and OS X upgrades have a long history of crashes and weird and hard-to-reproduce flakies.

As for bugs, I've seen bugs latent for most of thirty years. Thirty years. That was in well-used and well-tested code, too. Again, I'd think this is past the "assumptions" stage and into the troubleshooting stage; of trial and verification.

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Answer 7

Oct 21, 2013 7:12 PM in response to Eric Root

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5

1 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

8 GB RAM

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

Startup Items:

HP IO - Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO

HP Trap Monitor - Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP Trap Monitor

System Software:

OS X 10.8.5 (12F45) - Uptime: 1 day 13:6:33

Disk Information:

HGST HTS721010A9E630 disk0 : (1 TB)

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 999.35 GB (65.22 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N

USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Seagate Expansion Desk 3 TB

disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 314.6 MB

Time Machine (disk1s2) /Volumes/Time Machine: 1.75 TB (661.99 GB free)

Boot OS X (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 134.2 MB

Seagate (disk1s4) /Volumes/Seagate: 1.25 TB (1.25 TB free)

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

HP Deskjet F300 series

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:

com.Cvnt.nke (2.2.0)

com.Cvnt.driver.CvntDriver (2.2.0)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.Cvnt.daemon.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.Cvnt.start.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

User Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[redacted]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

User Login Items:

Flux

iTunesHelper

Bartender

Caffeine

Degrees

Dropbox

BetterSnapTool

Covenant Eyes

SkyDrive

SlimBatteryMonitor

Droplr

Battery Health

Spotdox

handyPrintDaemon

DeskConnect

SecondBar

Display Menu

Battery Time Remaining

Quicksand

Flux

CrossOver CD Helper

AppTrap

3rd Party Preference Panes:

AppTrap

Flash Player

handyPrint

Java

Perian

Internet Plug-ins:

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

o1dbrowserplugin.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

None

Top Processes by CPU:

7% backupd

6% WindowServer

2% Finder

2% SystemUIServer

1% EtreCheck

1% hidd

1% mds

0% Microsoft Word

0% ps

0% ocspd

Top Processes by Memory:

164 MB HPScanner

139 MB WebProcess

106 MB mds

106 MB Mail

90 MB Dropbox

90 MB WindowServer

82 MB Microsoft Word

74 MB applet

74 MB Dock

66 MB DashboardClient

Virtual Memory Statistics

4.30 GB Free RAM

2.23 GB Active RAM

512 MB Inactive RAM

738 MB Wired RAM

876 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

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Answer 8

Oct 21, 2013 7:23 PM in response to MrHoffman

But if that apprpach doesn't meet your needs and you require one or more of those "haxies", then install what you care about and what you need — core applications, and skip all of the "haxies" here — and then make a full backup of your disk. Test. That. See if things work. Then add a "haxie". Test. Repeat. If you find the problem, roll in the backup. (Some "haxies" don't uninstall themselves cleanly, too.)

I've come to be pretty dependent upon BetterSnapTool in my workflow, so I'd like to use that. I also think, with all the customization in that app, that it could likely be the culrpit. So, after installing it, how long would I need to wait before I know that a haxie doesn't create the error?

I'm asking because this install-one-at-a-time and wait process is exactly what I had been doing the last 3 months and thought I was in the clear. (Though I did let down my guard enough to not have a backup before installing the latest apps; my bad)

Thanks tons for your help with this!

Reply

Answer 9

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,590 points

Oct 21, 2013 8:23 PM in response to themarkofbooks

Startup Items:

HP IO - Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO

HP Trap Monitor - Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP Trap Monitor

Kernel Extensions:

com.Cvnt.nke (2.2.0)

com.Cvnt.driver.CvntDriver (2.2.0)

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.Cvnt.daemon.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.Cvnt.start.plist

User Login Items:

Flux

iTunesHelper

Bartender

Caffeine

Degrees

Dropbox

BetterSnapTool

Covenant Eyes

SkyDrive

SlimBatteryMonitor

Droplr

Battery Health

Spotdox

handyPrintDaemon

DeskConnect

SecondBar

Display Menu

Battery Time Remaining

Quicksand

Flux

CrossOver CD Helper

AppTrap

3rd Party Preference Panes:

AppTrap

Flash Player

handyPrint

Java

Perian

though I do use a couple programs which might modify the system

That might be the worlds largest understatement ever recorded.

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