In OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), the click command does not work sometimes

[sakshigoyal369]

I'm using c:x,y to click on an application control, but it does not click on the location sometimes. It seems like the click is initiated but not released. I have used cliclick with OS X 10.9 and 10.10 as well but there was never such an issue. Can you help m fix this?

[BlueM]

Issues that contain the word “sometimes” are always difficult – both to investigate and to fix.

Some questions:

• What is the application you mention? A browser-based app, Cocoa app, Java, Flash in the browser, …?
• What type of control is it? Is the problem observable with other controls in the same application?
• Do you observe this behaviour with every target application?
• How frequent are the failures?

And finally: what makes you think that the click is “initiated but not released”?

[sakshigoyal369]

1.) The application is a Cocoa Based application. It is a very extensive custom application with multiple controls.
2.) The control on which the behaviour is observed is a button. And I have not tested on other applications so I can not comment on that.
3.) I didn't observe the same behaviour with all target application, infact not even with all buttons on the same app.
4.) It happens rarely but it does happen.

And I said the click is “initiated but not released” because the cursor moves to that location, the button turns blue, but the action does not take place.

[BlueM]

Sounds a bit like a timing problem, i.e.: things could be happening too fast. To narrow down the problem, a first approach could be to use the -w option to make cliclick wait for the given number of milliseconds between actions. If the problem disappears: fine.

If not, it could be worth trying to clone the project and make the following two additions in your local copy:

• In https://github.com/BlueM/cliclick/blob/master/Actions/ClickAction.m#L30 insert a line #include <unistd.h>
• In https://github.com/BlueM/cliclick/blob/master/Actions/ClickAction.m#L58 insert a line `usleep(200000);``

This will make cliclick slow down between “clicking” the mouse button and releasing it. If the problem is still there, you could try increasing the number (which is the number of microseconds to wait) and see if it changes anything.

[sakshigoyal369]

Ok, Thanks. I'll try this and let you know. The help was much appreciated.

[kkckkc]

I've experienced a very similar problem when trying to use cliclick to alt-click on the notification center icon to toggle do not disturb mode. I used the following command:

cliclick -r kd:alt c:1890,10 ku:alt

It did not work reliably until I applied the change in the above comments. Now it works perfectly - thanks

[BlueM]

Closed, as the author of the original issue did not respond within 11 months.