Get DND state (as setting DND state) is not working anymore on mac os v.11 (Big Sur)

[RihardKrauz]

getDoNotDisturb is not working anymore on mac os v.11 (Big Sur) since they removed ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.notificationcenterui setting

[a7madgamal]

took a look at the issue, here is where I THINK the value is, but I'm stuck trying to update the UI to apply the change (works with logout though)
https://gist.github.com/a7madgamal/9d3518a62c21477a92be461fbd652533

[PhilipDukhov]

value for key dnd_prefs at com.apple.ncprefs.plist is data representations of an other plist! The minus is that it's not updated instantly, takes a couple of seconds. This is how I parse it using swift:

import Foundation

let ncprefsUrl = URL(
    fileURLWithPath: NSString(
        "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist"
    ).expandingTildeInPath
)

func plistFromData(_ data: Data) throws -> [String:Any] {
    try PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(
        from: data,
        format: nil
    ) as! [String:Any]
}

let prefsList = try plistFromData(try Data(contentsOf: ncprefsUrl))
let dndPrefsData = prefsList["dnd_prefs"] as! Data
let dndPrefsList = try plistFromData(dndPrefsData)

// exit with 1 if dnd, 0 otherwise
if let userPref = dndPrefsList["userPref"] as? [String:Any] {
    print(userPref)
    exit(userPref["enabled"] as! Int32)
} else {
    exit(0)
}

[CharlieHess]

sharing here as many others will surely stumble upon this thread. here's the Objective-C version of parsing that nested plist, also handles the scheduled prefs: felixrieseberg/macos-notification-state#15

[alse]

@a7madgamal any luck on updating the UI after the change?

I tried something similar to commitChanges with a 'com.apple.ncprefs' appid / notification name but couldn't get it to work

[tiiiecherle]

took a look at the issue, here is where I THINK the value is, but I'm stuck trying to update the UI to apply the change (works with logout though)
https://gist.github.com/a7madgamal/9d3518a62c21477a92be461fbd652533

Thanks for sharing, I found out the commands to trigger the new state. Just use your commands to enable or disable followed by:

killall usernoted
killall ControlCenter

Works perfectly on macOS 11.1 ;)

Edit: I added a second kill command as it seems necessary if triggering the dnd for the first time after reboot.

[mellson]

Nice one @tiiiecherle thanks for posting this!

[tiiiecherle]

@mellson You're welcome, I'm glad I could help.

I was trying to find a solution myself when I found this issue and @a7madgamal 's solution.

After quite some time today I also found out how to get the correct values on the command line...

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -x -c 'Print "dnd_prefs"' /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist | xmllint --xpath "string(//data)" - | base64 --decode | xxd -p

or

plutil -extract dnd_prefs xml1 -o - /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist | xmllint --xpath "string(//data)" - | base64 --decode | xxd -p

[vitorgalvao]

For those looking for a standalone solution, I’ve studied options out there (including this thread; thank you all for the previous research) and made a script which works robustly. It doesn’t require additional software (everything ships with macOS) and is only for Big Sur.

If you use Homebrew, you can install it with brew install vitorgalvao/tiny-scripts/calm-notifications. Do calm-notifications --help to see available options (on, off, toggle, status).

[tiiiecherle]

@vitorgalvao
Thanks for the script and the information. I updated the necessary commands for zsh and added them to my macos system preferences configuration script for documentation purposes.

For anyone who needs them in a shell script, this works for me in zsh with the new additions:

check_dnd_status() {
        DND_STATUS=$(plutil -extract dnd_prefs xml1 -o - /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist | xmllint --xpath "string(//data)" - | base64 --decode | plutil -convert xml1 - -o - | xmllint --xpath 'boolean(//key[text()="userPref"]/following-sibling::dict/key[text()="enabled"])' -)
}
check_dnd_status
    
enable_dnd() {
    defaults read /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist >/dev/null
    DND_HEX_DATA=$(plutil -extract dnd_prefs xml1 -o - /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist | xmllint --xpath "string(//data)" - | base64 --decode | plutil -convert xml1 - -o - | plutil -insert userPref -xml "
    <dict>
        <key>date</key>
        <date>$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")</date>
        <key>enabled</key>
        <true/>
        <key>reason</key>
        <integer>1</integer>
    </dict> " - -o - | plutil -convert binary1 - -o - | xxd -p | tr -d '\n')
    defaults write com.apple.ncprefs.plist dnd_prefs -data "$DND_HEX_DATA"
    PROCESS_LIST=(
    #cfprefsd
    usernoted
    #NotificationCenter
    )
    while IFS= read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]] 
	do
	if [[ "$line" == "" ]]; then continue; fi
        i="$line"
        #echo "$i"
        if [[ $(ps aux | grep "$i" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2;}') != "" ]]
        then
        	killall "$i" && sleep 0.1 && while [[ $(ps aux | grep "$i" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2;}') == "" ]]; do sleep 0.5; done
	else
		:
	fi
    done <<< "$(printf "%s\n" "${PROCESS_LIST[@]}")"
    #sleep 2
}
enable_dnd

disable_dnd() {
    defaults read /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist >/dev/null
    DND_HEX_DATA=$(plutil -extract dnd_prefs xml1 -o - /Users/"$USER"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist | xmllint --xpath "string(//data)" - | base64 --decode | plutil -convert xml1 - -o - | plutil -remove userPref - -o - | plutil -convert binary1 - -o - | xxd -p | tr -d '\n')
    defaults write com.apple.ncprefs.plist dnd_prefs -data "$DND_HEX_DATA"
    PROCESS_LIST=(
    #cfprefsd
    usernoted
    #NotificationCenter
    )
    while IFS= read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]] 
	do
	if [[ "$line" == "" ]]; then continue; fi
        i="$line"
        #echo "$i"
        if [[ $(ps aux | grep "$i" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2;}') != "" ]]
        then
        	killall "$i" && sleep 0.1 && while [[ $(ps aux | grep "$i" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2;}') == "" ]]; do sleep 0.5; done
	else
		:
	fi
    done <<< "$(printf "%s\n" "${PROCESS_LIST[@]}")"
    #sleep 2
}
disable_dnd

EDIT: I updated the functions after some testing. They seem to work reliably now.

[karlhorky]

@tiiiecherle thanks for this! I've used this in this script to automatically stop and start Do Not Disturb when Zoom calls are running, seems to be working well!

https://github.com/karlhorky/do-not-disturb-during-zoom-macos