Aerial states "Your Mac does not support Night Shift" since Sonoma

[bryandmlee]

General troubleshooting tips

Before logging an issue please check that:

• [x] You have the latest version installed (There may be a beta version that fixes your issue), see here for the latest releases and bug fixes: https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial/releases
• [x] Your issue isn't already mentioned in our issues. You may find a workaround there or a similar request already made.
• [x] Your problem isn't mentioned in the troubleshooting page.

If none of this fixes your issue, tell us about the problem you are experiencing or the feature you'd like to request.

Required information

In order to help us sort your issue, we ask that you provide the following information:

• [x] Mac model: MacBook Pro 16" 2021, M1 Pro
• [x] macOS version: macOS Sonoma 14.0
• [x] Monitor setup: None/single external monitor (not relevant to issue)

If appropriate, please enable Debug mode and Log to disk in Advanced tab and replicate your bug, then attach the AerialLog.txt file (You can access this file through the Advanced tab).

Description of issue / Feature request

1) After updating my Mac to Sonoma, I noticed that in the Aerial Time settings (edit: in macOS System Settings), Aerial now states incorrectly "Your Mac does not support Night Shift" and the option is greyed out; this was not an issue while on Ventura, and I had recently seen/checked this in the past week also. (System-wide) Night Shift definitely still works on my Mac now in Sonoma, and it's still set to Sunset to Sunrise as before.

I have just further noticed however, that somehow Aerial settings within System Settings has this issue, versus when I open Aerial Settings from within Aerial Companion it does correctly show Today's sunrise & sunset timings from Night Shift. Aerial v3.3.1, using Aerial Companion 1.5.1

(I have switched to Use my location instead as a workaround in the meantime.)

2) Not sure if it's related to the above issue, but I have just noticed also that Use my location seems to push the Aerial sunrise videos window one hour early (e.g. 5.43-6.43am) and/but sunset videos one hour later (e.g. 7.07-8.07pm), as compared to Use macOS Night Shift for calculations (6.55-7.55am and 5.54-6.54pm respectively). Not sure which is correct/the actual intention.

[glouel]

Hey there!

1. After updating my Mac to Sonoma, I noticed that in the Aerial Time settings (edit: in macOS System Settings), Aerial now states incorrectly "Your Mac does not support Night Shift" and the option is greyed out; this was not an issue while on Ventura

I knew I had forgotten something, it's one of these things I saw during the beta but never investigated. I'll have to double check. The night shift check might be blocked by the system, or Apple changed the format and Aerial can't read it. I'll have a look.

I have just further noticed however, that somehow Aerial settings within System Settings has this issue, versus when I open Aerial Settings from within Aerial Companion it does correctly show Today's sunrise & sunset timings from Night Shift. Aerial v3.3.1, using Aerial Companion 1.5.1

Yeah it's one of those things, Apple puts extra restrictions all the time when the screensaver runs from System Settings, as a screen saver, or via companion. It's a never ending game of cat and mouse to try and figure out what still works, what I can workaround, and what I should drop...

2. Not sure if it's related to the above issue, but I have just noticed also that Use my location seems to push the Aerial sunrise videos window one hour early (e.g. 5.43-6.43am) and/but sunset videos one hour later (e.g. 7.07-8.07pm), as compared to Use macOS Night Shift for calculations (6.55-7.55am and 5.54-6.54pm respectively). Not sure which is correct/the actual intention.

I'll have to check but I used to have different calculation modes available (there's multiple definitions of sunset/sunrise depending on what you want). Could be the settings is hidden somehow or I removed it for some reason ? I'll check tomorrow or around the week end and get back to you!

[glouel]

Ok quick follow up :

• A screen saver is no longer able to read night shift data, as I feared, in Sonoma. It works under companion because we don't live under the same restrictions
• The same issue makes the ability to run a shell script in the message overlay broken too
• Regarding calculations, may I suggest you change Sunset/Sunrise window to 2h, this will give you something closer to what you had with nightshift

[bryandmlee]

Thanks @glouel for the follow up on this. Thankfully—at least for me—none of this is show-stopping/there are the workarounds (in my case I may use the manual sunrise/sunset timing for now then, these are fairly stable here near the equator haha). Will leave it to you to consolidate whatever changes you decide will be best going forward at your time, completely understand the limitations and nature of this beast. Thanks again for all your time and effort on the whole project!

[glouel]

There will be a fix in next version, the workaround does require Aerial Companion to run. Same goes for location if you need updates to your location (like on a macbook).

[glouel]

@bryandmlee

Please try and install : https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/AerialCompanion/releases/download/v1.5.2/Aerial.Companion.zip

Then when prompted update Aerial to 3.3.4. Afterwards, Night shift should work back again. You need to have companion running for it to work.

[bryandmlee]

Thanks @glouel. Have installed Companion v1.5.2 and Aerial v3.3.4 now, will check on the Night Shift behaviour come sunset/sunrise.

Since Companion needs to be running (in that sense all the time), which is the correct setting to use/what exactly is the behaviour of each option, in Companion settings > Launch Companion > At startup/In the background? (I hope I'm asking the right question)

[glouel]

@bryandmlee let me know how it goes for you !

And no worries, that's a good question I should have explained it more, you need "At Startup" which will have it in your menubar. Since Apple is blocking the screen saver from accessing it, I have the saver "ask" Companion to fetch and send back the data instead. For this to work it needs to be launched.

I will probably remove the "in the background" option at some point because I fear many features will require that workaround.

Edit : If you don't have Companion running, it will show this error :

[glouel]

I think this is fixed now, so closing, feel free to reopen if you need more help.