[FIXED] Hook doesn't launch at restart

With macOS 10.13.6, Hook will not launch after a restart, even though the appropriate box is ticked in Hook preferences. I’ve always had to launch Hook manually.

thanks for logging and sorry for the issue. One of our developers couldn’t reproduce the issue when we first logged it . In my case (10.14), toggling the preference “ON” crashed Hook, yet the preference was persisted. We’ll get to the bottom of it.

My following comments are just FYI, rather than a request for action.

The problem is related to there being duplicate HookAutoLaunchHelper.app entries in one’s Launch Services database, presumably one for each different version of Hook run by the user, per:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -dump|grep '.*path.*HookAutoLaunchHelper.app'

Compare :

  1. macos - SMLoginItemSetEnabled sometimes silently fails to launch sandboxed UI helper - Stack Overflow
  2. Login Items in macOS 10.11 and newer — Electrollama Productions .

We need to modify Hook to help prevent duplicate HookAutoLaunchHelper entries Launch Services database. Then we’ll publish instructions for cleaning up the Launch Services database, in Hook or via the command line.

What a mess! It also shows backups from a drive that isn’t even connected.

Stuarts-MBP:~ stuart$ /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -dump|grep ‘.*path.*HookAutoLaunchHelper.app’

path:          /Volumes/NexStar 500/Applications/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Volumes/NexStar 500/Applications/Utilities/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Volumes/Hook Public Beta 1.0-beta/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Applications/Utilities/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Applications/Utilities/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Users/stuart/.Trash/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Volumes/Hook Public Beta 1.0-beta/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Volumes/Hook Public Beta 1.0-beta/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Volumes/Hook Public Beta 1.0-beta/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

path:          /Volumes/NexStar 500/Applications/Utilities/Hook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HookAutoLaunchHelper.app

Stuarts-MBP:~ stuart$

The login preference issue is addressed in build 2305. Stay tuned for updates on the LaunchServices database entries.

Marking as fixed per above. Launch Services population is better but there is still room for improvement.