SetShot Tracks macOS Settings Changes

[randygunning]

I downloaded this just to look. So far my comment is “cool”, but I do not know yet if I need this. We will see after a couple of automatic snapshots.

Thanks,

Randy

[cngarrison (Charlie Garrison)]

Fantastic app. Great concept and execution!

@ace

Thanks—I’ll have to research the various ways of distributing apps, since that’s something I’ve dealt with only as a user.

Ask your AI to create GitHub actions (workflow) if you haven’t already. Make one of the steps creating a disk image (in addition to the zip archive). When you migrate distribution via a website, the GitHub actions can also handle uploading to whatever you are using for distribution as well.

Or create the disk image manually using DropDMG

@ace

I can look into that, but I’m not sure there’s a solution there. It has to build a snapshot from something like 500 files, and it just takes a certain amount of time to read that many into a file.

Are those files being read sequentially or in parallel? Reading them in parallel (async) could speed up the process.

[colleenthompson]

This couldn’t be more timely, as a client just contacted me in a panic because her desktop picture got changed, presumably in a macOS update. I’ll definitely take a look.

[colleenthompson]

Hi Adam. I just downloaded and installed SetShot-1.0b26 on an M1 2020 MacBook Air running Sonoma. So far I like the interface. Initial feedback:

I took a base snapshot, then changed the wallpaper on one of two displays, and took a second snapshot, and then changed the wallpaper on the other display and took a third snapshot.

Snapshot 2 picked up the change I made to show separate screens in Stage Manager so that I could change the wallpaper on one of them. However, it did not notice a change in wallpaper on one of the displays. So I changed the wallpaper on the other display and took Snapshot 3, and compared it to the Snapshot 1. Neither wallpaper change was recorded.

Maybe this has something to do with Sonoma, when you were testing with later OS versions? Anyway, I look forward to watching this interesting application as it develops.

[ace (Adam Engst)]

@cngarrison

Are those files being read sequentially or in parallel? Reading them in parallel (async) could speed up the process.

Sequentially, and according to Claude, parallelizing might have undesirable side effects, but it’s suggesting a batch approach that may improve snapshot recording performance. I’ll try that.

[blm]

I installed Tailscale on my iMac yesterday. I have SetShot running at 7am, and this morning it reported a couple of changes (one unrecognized, which I submitted in SetShot). However, a big thing it didn’t report is the new VPN Tailscale adds. Don’t know if it’s possible to determine this but it would be nice if it did as it’s a potential security issue.

[ace (Adam Engst)]

I’ve released b27, which is a huge update that folds in all (I hope) the comments, suggestions, and feedback that has been made so far. Thanks, everyone!

SetShot should prompt you to update, complete with full release notes, which are also accessible in Help > Release Notes. If it doesn’t do so right away, choose SetShot > Check for Updates.

For anyone who hasn’t downloaded yet, you can now get a disk image version that encourages you to copy the app to the Applications folder. That’s necessary to avoid macOS translocation limitations—if you run SetShot from anywhere else, automatic snapshots and updates won’t work.

[xdev (Marc Z)]

I want SetShot for other apps.

I use the Audible app to listen to audiobooks in the car via CarPlay. A couple weeks ago I had the app open on my phone while connected to wired CarPlay and I set it down on the seat next to me while ran back into the house for something. My dog jumped up on the seat and unbeknownst to me at the time, touched the screen. He apparently hit the Settings button in the app and from there changed half a dozen of my preferences!

Most of these were subtle (like changing the “amount of time left in book” setting) that I didn’t notice right away, and then I was really confused. It took me a week to track down all the changes he made and set everything back to the way I liked!

[ace (Adam Engst)]

The two really big expansions I could imagine are:

• Being able to specify particular apps to track. Someone just submitted a lot of settings that came from Apple’s MainStage, and while SetShot intentionally focuses only on macOS itself, it could be quite useful to track settings changes for these monster apps.

• Tracking settings changes for iOS and iPadOS. This may not be as inconceivable as I had first thought, since SetShot could theoretically read files in unencrypted Finder backups of iPhones and iPads. I don’t know how much those backups actually expose, though.

But those are nothing more than the Good Idea Fairy waving her magic wand for the moment.