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Keyboard not working on Windows clients using Mac as server--just started happening.


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Danny Parker

Had the same issue this morning. Mac server, Windows client, Windows only recieving win key presses (CTRL on mac).

I went to the Privacy Tab in the Security and Privacy system prefs, and unchecked Synergy from the Accessibility list (while it was still running-stupid I know). This immediately soft-locked my mac. The keyboard was non-responsive. The mouse pointer was there, but couldn't do anything on the mac side, it would still go over to the pc, and the win key still worked, but I had to hold the power button to shut the mac down.

On restart I got the security popup saying synergy needs accessibilty settings turned on, so I did that and everything works again as before.

I think there might be some error checking and safety needed around the calls that needs those accessibiltiy security settings.

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  • 2 months later...
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Running Synergy 1 Pro 1.13.0-stable-863f70a5.  Mac 11.1 OS running Synergy server.  Windows and Mac Clients.

All running same version.

Worked fine yesterday and earlier.

Today, no keyboard on either client except Windows key and Control key on Mac.

All systems have been rebooted.

Still not working.

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had this issue to - one day keyboard worked as a charme, next day it did not 

 

classic solution - 2nd law of support - unplug the device and plug it in again - best practice on a different usb port 

 

worked for me ...

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  I have the problem between Win10(64) and Win7(64) It just started happening a few months ago- strange thing is that it worked fine for years ( version 1.10.1 stable)  I paid for 2Pro a few years ago, but I couldn't get that to work right for me, so I went back to what worked.  Mouse is fine, but in the middle of typing something my Client keyboard will just stop.  I can fix it by stopping both and restarting but it's happening quite a few times a day now and that is quite inconvenient.  It isn't just when I'm typing in a browser, but can happen in notepad or whatever. I was going to try upgrading, but it looks like that doesn't work- sighh.  Wish someone would find a fix.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/9/2020 at 6:36 AM, sandstheman said:

Just to chip in - same problem for me too, was working fine and then a couple days ago keyboard stopped working again. - Tried the latest versions of both Synergy 1 and Synergy 2, currently running Synergy 2 v2.0.12 (beta) on 2 macbooks and windows, one of the macbooks is the server

I had the same issue...just magically this morning the mouse stopped working.  The above fix did the trick on my OSX Server (Synergy Version 1.11.1) connecting to my Win10 (Synergy 1.11.1) client.

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Same problem. When mouse is in Windows PC, and I type, the key presses end up on my macOS focused application.

For a while it works, but then it always reverts to this behavior. Worked fine with macOS to macOS.

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Running from terminal using `/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys` seemed to fix it for me.

I am guessing its something to do with the way that the Synergy frontend starts the service. The different behavior could be explained by:

- Different environment variables

- Maybe the way the process is started impacts how Accessibility API permissions (`tcc` stuff) works. Maybe the permissions were inherited from the GUI, instead of the service.

Edited by vjpr
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On 2/15/2021 at 10:49 AM, vjpr said:

Running from terminal using `/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys` seemed to fix it for me.

I just started it this way and this seems to have worked for me as well - hopefully this guides development toward a fix.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Key strokes were not sent to Windows 10 client from M1 mac mini (Big Sur 11.2.1). I added Synergy in Security&Privacy->Privacy->Input Monitoring. Now it works fine.

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On 2/25/2021 at 10:07 PM, Siva said:

Key strokes were not sent to Windows 10 client from M1 mac mini (Big Sur 11.2.1). I added Synergy in Security&Privacy->Privacy->Input Monitoring. Now it works fine.

Again, not working after couple days. Mouse is working fine. Keystrokes are not sent to Windows 10 client.

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  • 1 month later...
Bitwarden was causing the issue in my case.
If Bitwarden is in LOCKED state at server computer, Synergy was not able to get the key strokes in client computer. Once I logged in or Quit the application, Synergy is working fine.
Edited by Siva
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Hi all,

Same issue here. In my case however it starts to work again during a day. Didn't find a pattern yet. I have this with quite some versions so far. It's a bit interessting when you post your password to company channels beacuse you think you are typing it on other PC :).

I hope well have some fix for this.

Thanks.

br,

Tomi

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Danny Parker

Small addition in case anyone is not aware. There are 2 causes of this that I am aware of:

1. If there is a password entry field open on the Mac server, keypresses will not go over to the Windows client. I'm sure this is intended from a security point of view - but it would be great to have some sort of indicator so we know whats going on, but appreciate that might be unlikely.

2. Unknown. The client stops receiving keypresses the same as though there is a password field open - but there isn't one. See thread for various solutions to this one.

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2 hours ago, Danny Parker said:

Small addition in case anyone is not aware. There are 2 causes of this that I am aware of:

1. If there is a password entry field open on the Mac server, keypresses will not go over to the Windows client. I'm sure this is intended from a security point of view - but it would be great to have some sort of indicator so we know whats going on, but appreciate that might be unlikely.

2. Unknown. The client stops receiving keypresses the same as though there is a password field open - but there isn't one. See thread for various solutions to this one.

It makes sense. I think, it happens only for native applications which uses mac's native password field. In my case, it was Bitwarden which sitting quietly in menu bar and prompting password.

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Danny Parker
40 minutes ago, Siva said:

It makes sense. I think, it happens only for native applications which uses mac's native password field. In my case, it was Bitwarden which sitting quietly in menu bar and prompting password.

It happens for me even with webpage password fields in chrome - but it needs to be foregrounded to cause the issue there. My biggest issue has been Chrome Remote Desktop, as the window might be open in the background, but if it gets logged out (as it does from time-to-time) it will show the password to log back in, and as you say, for native apps, it does not need to be in the foreground... queue WTF moment.

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menczingerm

Thanks, it was surly one of my browser window, when i closed the browsers (osx server) the keyboard started to work on client (win 10)

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  • 1 month later...
ChrisC_1000
On 4/19/2021 at 6:41 AM, Danny Parker said:

Small addition in case anyone is not aware. There are 2 causes of this that I am aware of:

1. If there is a password entry field open on the Mac server, keypresses will not go over to the Windows client. I'm sure this is intended from a security point of view - but it would be great to have some sort of indicator so we know whats going on, but appreciate that might be unlikely.

2. Unknown. The client stops receiving keypresses the same as though there is a password field open - but there isn't one. See thread for various solutions to this one.

The second one option in my case for sure, as even rebooting won't help.

It's ridiculous that this issue has been there for at least 4 years, probably more, across several releases and it hasn't been fixed yet.

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ChrisC_1000
On 2/15/2021 at 10:49 AM, vjpr said:

Running from terminal using `/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys` seemed to fix it for me.

I am guessing its something to do with the way that the Synergy frontend starts the service. The different behavior could be explained by:

- Different environment variables

- Maybe the way the process is started impacts how Accessibility API permissions (`tcc` stuff) works. Maybe the permissions were inherited from the GUI, instead of the service.

Does nothing for me, it quits right away (I'm using the same conf file as the GUI):

$ /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys -d DEBUG2 -c LastConfig.cfg
[2021-06-17T09:57:56] DEBUG: opening configuration "LastConfig.cfg"
[2021-06-17T09:57:56] DEBUG: configuration read successfully

$

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ChrisC_1000
11 minutes ago, ChrisC_1000 said:

Does nothing for me, it quits right away (I'm using the same conf file as the GUI):

$ /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys -d DEBUG2 -c LastConfig.cfg
[2021-06-17T09:57:56] DEBUG: opening configuration "LastConfig.cfg"
[2021-06-17T09:57:56] DEBUG: configuration read successfully

$

Second attempt with the -a option, the synergys process is up an running and the client connects to it.

However I have the exact same issue, the keyboard doesn't switch focus to the client.

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@ChrisC_1000Try after quitting all the application in the menu bar and all other running applications. Any one of it may prompt for password in background. It may cause the issue.

Edited by Siva
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ChrisC_1000
On 6/18/2021 at 9:10 AM, Siva said:

@ChrisC_1000Try after quitting all the application in the menu bar and all other running applications. Any one of it may prompt for password in background. It may cause the issue.

Hi Siva,

 

I had tried that, without success.

 

However I found out my own workaround: on my Synergy server end, if I lock the screen and unlock it with password (as opposed to fingerprint) then once back into my session everything works as expected.

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ChrisC_1000
56 minutes ago, Nico M said:

The issue with the keyboard not working is something caused by a security feature of macOS. It affects a number of applications beyond Synergy, and a brief explanation is as follows:

macOS allows apps to turn on Secure Input when the user needs to type any sensitive information (eg. a password). This is a security feature which helps to prevent any malicious app from getting access to such information. When an app turns it on, only that app can read the user's keystrokes. Synergy is also unable to read and therefore send the keystrokes to the client.

Most of the time, this is fine because as soon as you have finished entering your password or other sensitive information the app will turn off Secure Input and Synergy will start sending the keyboard input to your client again. However, some apps have bugs and they do not turn off Secure Input in some cases. 

When this happens, quitting and relaunching the app will turn off Secure Input and allow Synergy to be able to read and send keystrokes again.

Thanks Nico. It doesn't appear to be my case, as this happens even if I close all applications but Synergy. Also the fact that I'm able to work around the issue by locking my session and unlocking it by password suggests this has nothing to do with other applications interfering.

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Danny Parker

It does seem like these issues are all Secure Input related. Please Please Please Please can you add a padlock or other icon to the synergy menu bar icon when secure input is activated? It would really reduce frustration, and potentially put an end to this thread.

There are apps that do a similar thing: https://smile.helpscoutdocs.com/article/402-textexpander-and-secure-input

And if possible make it non-intrusive: https://github.com/federico-terzi/espanso/issues/327

Cheers,

: D 

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  • 2 weeks later...
ColumbusGEEK

Main computer is OSX Big Sur.  Synergy 1.14.  (and Synergy 1.13 just for testing)

I've been using Synergy an incredibly long time.  This same setup actually.  Way before the 2.0 debacle.

I have two windows desktops, one on the left and one on the right and seemingly out of the blue they stopped being able to be typed on a few weeks ago.  The mouse still moves in and out, but typing isnt possible.

Thinking it was the "Security and Privacy" setting I have removed and re-added that permission a few times.  Both "input monitoring" as well as "full disc access".  Many reboots later, I still have nothing.  No encryption is being use.  Nothing seems bad in the log windows.

I read over the other forum post about a similar issue but it sort of fizzled out with no solution.

Here are the last few lines of my log in OSX.

[2021-07-05T10:16:42] WARNING: cursor may not be visible
[2021-07-05T10:17:20] INFO: switch from "Trashcan-Pro.local" to "Security" at 1439,1555
[2021-07-05T10:17:20] INFO: leaving screen
[2021-07-05T10:17:20] WARNING: cursor may not be visible
[2021-07-05T10:17:26] INFO: switch from "Security" to "Trashcan-Pro.local" at 12,1110
[2021-07-05T10:17:26] INFO: entering screen
[2021-07-05T10:17:26] WARNING: cursor may not be visible
[2021-07-05T10:17:28] INFO: switch from "Trashcan-Pro.local" to "Security" at 1439,1651
[2021-07-05T10:17:28] INFO: leaving screen
[2021-07-05T10:17:28] WARNING: cursor may not be visible
[2021-07-05T10:17:39] INFO: switch from "Security" to "Trashcan-Pro.local" at 2,1315
[2021-07-05T10:17:39] INFO: entering screen

 

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ColumbusGEEK

As an update, I tried both Barrier and Across and had the same issue.  This means the issue isn't necessarily Synergy but potentially something else.  My post used to be standalone and was merged by an admin into this big one so I hope these issues don't get conflagerated.  

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