I recently moved the site from a standalone installation into a WordPress multisite. This has caused a few issues like missing download links/files and a few other things. I’ll get these resolved when I can.

I’ve also started on ControlPlane 2

ControlPlane is an important app for a large number of people, including myself. I still use ControlPlane on a daily basis but my usage of it is quite limited compared to what others have done with it. The bugs and issues present don’t affect my daily use but it certainly does for others.

However, as many ControlPlane users are aware, ControlPlane has some issues. There are numerous bugs and issues with the latest operating system versions. As each version of OS X/macOS is released more and more items that were “within reach” for ControlPlane are blocked off or changed. This has lead to a number of evidence sources and actions that no longer work as expected or at all. High Sierra has only added to the list of broken evidence sources and actions.

On top of this, I’ve personally had a number of changes in recent years. A growing family, a move and a change of jobs has meant I don’t have the time I once had to tinker with what was always a side project. As of right now, my Apple developer account has lapsed and my signing certificate has expired. This means I’m no longer able to create new versions of ControlPlane because a signed app is required for a number of actions that ControlPlane performs. Without it, ControlPlane is even less useful.

This project is in need of assistance. Without assistance from the community I don’t know if ControlPlane can live on. I want to see ControlPlane succeed but I need help. If you are able and willing please head over to https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane. Review the issues, review the code, submit issues and pull requests. I will happily coordinate the effort, renew my Apple Developer account and issue new releases.

I thank everyone who has supported ControlPlane in the past by submitting code or donating money. Your support has kept ControlPlane going this long as well as cover server expenses.

Thank you !

I’ve gotten a number of reports about issues with ControlPlane and macOS Sierra and I want people to know that I’m aware of the issues and I’m working on them a bit.

Number one issue relates to toggling of the screensaver password. The last two versions of OS X/macOS have effectively disabled ControlPlane’s ability to interact with the screensaver password system. This is actually a good thing because Apple continues to improve the security of macOS and ControlPlane really shouldn’t be able to enable, and especially disable, the password settings.

For that reason, a future version of ControlPlane will remove the screensaver password action and other actions that no longer work on macOS Sierra because of various security updates within the OS. I know some people use ControlPlane specifically for that feature but at this point ControlPlane can’t continue to say it can do it when it in fact cannot.

It’s been a long time since I’ve officially announced a release of ControlPlane and I apologize for that. 2016 was a bit of a rough year.

This release is just a maintenance release to fix an issue I was seeing on my own laptop after getting a new one. It resolves a crash when installing the helper tool would fail. I’m aware that there are a number of issues with ControlPlane on Sierra right now and will do what I can to get it in working order. That said, Sierra continues to see more and more functionality removed or changed in such a way that prevents ControlPlane from controlling some settings.

The update can be find in the menu on the left or by selecting Check for updates from ControlPlane’s menu.

ControlPlane 1.6.1 fixes one more issue with the screensaver actions related to OS X 10.11.

Get the latest version of ControlPlane by clicking the download link on the left or if you are already running ControlPlane choose ‘Check for updates’ in ControlPlane’s menu.

Just put out ControlPlane 1.6.0. This update fixes a known issue with OS X 10.11 but there could be more. I need bug reports submitted to https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane/issues so I can get them fixed ASAP.

You can get the latest version of ControlPlane by clicking the download link located to the left or by using the “Check for updates” menu item in ControlPlane’s menu.

ControlPlane 1.5.8 is now available with a few bug fixes. Next release will focus on OS X 10.11 support. You can get the latest version of ControlPlane by selecting “Check for updates” in ControlPlane’s menu or by clicking the download link on the left.

This release fixes a number of bugs including a typo on the Attached Power Adapter rule window, crash while going to sleep and resolves an issue with change network location actions not honoring the configured delay. You can download the update within ControlPlane by selecting Check for updates from the menu or by clicking the link to the left.

ControlPlane 1.5.6 fixes a number of bugs including issues toggling SMB file sharing, unmounting some drives and opening local HTML files or URLs with spaces in them when using the Default Browser action.

You can get the latest release by choosing Check for Updates in ControlPlane’s menu or clicking the link on the left.

ControlPlane 1.5.4 is now available with improved support for Yosemite (OS X 10.10). This update includes:

• Fixes for time of day rules. They should now work overnight.
• Fix for some shell script based rules
• Icon now supports Yosemite’s dark interface mode
• Default web browser action now works on Yosemite without asking for confirmation from the system. To achieve this ControlPlane must act as your system’s default web browser. It then hands the URL request off to the browser you have chosen. You will be prompted to update your system’s default browser if you create a new rule or the first time the action fires. To disable this simply visit the General section in System Preferences and chose a different default browser.

You can get the latest update by choosing Check for Updates from ControlPlanes menu or by clicking here.