Troubleshooting Bunch
- Debugging Bunches
- Debugging Scripts
- Specific App Not Launching or Quitting
- Localized file paths
- Empty Menu or A Bunch Not Appearing
- Hiding Bunch With Bartender
Debugging Bunches
If you’re having issues with a Bunch not doing what you expected, consult the Bunch Log to see if you can trace the issue.
If needed, split out sections of a longer Bunch into temporary smaller Bunches and test them one at a time to narrow down any issues. Or just create one new, blank Bunch and copy one line at a time into it from the misbehaving Bunch, launching it for each now line until the behavior you’re trying to avoid happens, thus narrowing it down to that line.
If you’re debugging the opening of a Bunch and have your Bunches set to toggle, you can avoid having to repeatedly close the Bunch by holding down the Option key while clicking the menu item, or by using Clear All Checkmarks, which will tell Bunch that the Bunches are closed without actually executing any on-close behaviors or quitting any apps.
Also see the (log) command, which can be useful for pinpointing issues with variable assignment and execution sequence.
If you know which line is problematic and it doesn’t make sense, post about it in the forum. If it seems like a bug in Bunch, please let me know here.
Debugging Scripts
See Debugging Scripts in the Advanced Scripting section for tips on tracking down issues with shell scripts.
Specific App Not Launching or Quitting
If you list an app to launch or quit in your Bunch and nothing happens, the app in question may have a different name in the system than it shows in Finder. First double check that the filename you’re listing in your Bunch exactly matches the name of the application in Finder (minus the .app). If it does, and still doesn’t work, there are a couple of possibilities.
Finding a “Registered” Name
The first thing to try when tracking down the name an app responds to is to open Script Editor and go to File->Open Dictionary (⇧⌘O). If the app has an AppleScript dictionary, it will show up in that list with the name you probably need to use to operate on it. In cases like the app Things, this will reveal that the app is actually called “Things3.”
Getting an App’s “Real” Name
Method 1: From Finder
If that fails, you can locate the app in Finder (easy to do by ⌘-clicking the app icon in the Dock while it’s running). Right click (CTRL-click) on the app and choose [Show Package Contents]. Inside the “Contents” folder you’ll find Info.plist.
If Info.plist is in text format (they usually are), you can open it in your text editor and locate the key CFBundleName. If it’s different than the display name, try that in your Bunch.
[...]
<key>CFBundleName</key>
<string>Google Chrome</string>
[...]
If Info.plist is in binary format (which will be obvious when you try to open it in your text editor), you’ll need to use Terminal to get the info you’re looking for.
Method 2: From Terminal
Open Terminal and enter the following command, substituting [App Name] with the actual application name. If the app is not located in /Applications, you’ll need to correct that part of the path as well.
mdls -name kMDItemDisplayName -r "/Applications/[App Name].app"
Using the Bundle Identifier
You can also use an app’s bundle identifier instead of the app name. Use the steps above to read the app’s info, but look for the CFBundleIdentifier key instead.
mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -r "/Applications/[App Name].app"
This is the bundle identifier, and is a string that looks kind of like a URL. For example, Bunch’s bundle identifier is com.brettterpstra.Bunch. If you use the bundle id instead of the app name, it can help Bunch clarify instances where the app responds to a different name than the app’s filename.
If all of these fail, please do leave a note on the discussion forums.
Known Exceptions
In cases where an app responds to one name when launching but needs a different name to quit the running application (such as those detailed below), you can use a triple negative to quit an app using a different name when closing.
%FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced !!!FileMaker Pro Advanced
Coherence X
Single Site Browser’s created using Coherence X suffer all kinds of problems in Bunch. They can’t be launched if Chrome is running, you can’t launch more than one, and once they’re launched, quitting them is hit and miss, depending on what else is running. This is because they launch multiple instances of Chrome that NSWorkspace can’t identify as separate applications.
As of v1.4.1, Bunch has a built-in workaround for this. You need to refer to the applications by their bundle identifier. This will usually be com.BZG.Coherence[Name of App], but sometimes (for reasons I’m unclear on) is just com.[Name of App]. So for an app called MindMeister, the bundle id would be com.BZG.CoherenceMindMeister, or possibly com.MindMeister. Try both, or see “Using the Bundle Identifier” to track it down yourself.
If you use the correct bundle id instead of the app name in your Bunch, the app should be able to launch and quit, regardless of whether Chrome/Brave/Canary is running.
// Doesn't work
MindMeister
// Does work
com.BZG.CoherenceMindMeister
Logic Pro (X)
Logic Pro is a curious beast. It needs to be called “Logic Pro X” to launch, but “Logic Pro” to quit. Bunch has a workaround for this that should allow you to safely use “Logic Pro X” without issue.
Visual Studio Code
“Visual Studio Code” has the same issue as Logic above. Bunch has a hard coded workaround for VS Code that should allow you to safely use “Visual Studio Code” as the app name.
FileMaker Pro Advanced
You can launch the current version with FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced, but Bunch can’t quit using the same name. If you use FileMaker Pro Advanced, Bunch will be able to quit it if it’s already running, but won’t be able to launch it.
In this case Bunch attempts to remove the number from the name when trying to quit the app, so use the numbered version in your Bunch, e.g. FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced or FileMaker Pro 18.
Localized file paths
On non-English systems the default system directories (Documents, Photos, etc.) may have localized names displayed. Bunch needs to know the true path of a file in order to locate it, and that may be different from what you see in Finder.
To get the true path to a file, right click on it in Finder to bring up the contextual menu, then hold down the option key to see alternative menu items. Select “Copy ___ as Pathname” (though the menu item will probably look different if your system is non-English, bear with me). You should now have the true path to the selected file in your clipboard. Now just go back to your Bunch and hit ⌘V.
Another option is to open the Go To palette by pressing ⇧⌘G in Finder, clear the field, and drag a file into it. The result should be a path you can copy into a Bunch.
Empty Menu or A Bunch Not Appearing
Bunch files absolutely require the extension .bunch. If you have macOS set to hide extensions, it may be assigning another extension in addition to .bunch (e.g. .bunch.txt). If a Bunch isn’t showing up in the menu, open Finder Preferences and check “Show all filename extensions” to double check.
Make sure your Bunch is plain text. If you edit in TextEdit or another Rich Text capable editor, the file may get saved as rich text. Switch to plain text mode and re-save the Bunch (double checking that it still has the .bunch extension).
If you make a change to a Bunch and suddenly your menu is empty, it means that something in the file caused Bunch to choke while reading in your Bunches. If possible, undo the last change and use Refresh Bunches to attempt to reload.
On rare occasions something really screwy happens and Bunch just stops reading files in the chosen directory. The solution is to change your Bunch Folder using Bunch Folder->Add button in Preferences, then change it right back (it will be in the dropdown).
If these steps don’t fix the issue, or the issue you’re having is not mentioned here, see the support page to get in touch.
Hiding Bunch With Bartender
If you use Bartender to hide the Bunch menu item, you may get weird results when triggering Bunch using the global hotkey (menu appearing off-screen, on secondary displays, etc.). To resolve this, disable the global hotkey in Bunch and add a hotkey for the menu item in Bartender settings (Bartender 4+)
- Disable Bunch’s global shortcut in Preferences
- Open Bartender Preferences and select the Hot Keys pane
- Click the “Add menu bar item hot key” button at the bottom of the window
- Select Bunch from the list of menu items
- Press your desired shortcut key and ensure that the action is set to Left Click.
Now when you hit your shortcut key, the Bunch menu item should be made visible momentarily before displaying the menu. Shortcuts for individual Bunches should work as expected once the menu is displayed.