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0404/10routine

Stats menu bar app: enabled module != visible widget

context

Troubleshooting why a macOS menu bar utility shows no icons

thoughts

Stats (eu.exelban.Stats) prefs use two separate flags per module: <Module>_state controls whether the module runs, and <Module>_widget controls what (if anything) appears in the menu bar. A user can enable all modules via the toggle and still see nothing because no widget type is picked. Quick diagnostic: defaults read eu.exelban.Stats — if you see CPU_state = 1 but no CPU_widget key, the menu bar will be empty for that module. Separately, mdutil -s / reporting Index is read-only means Spotlight indexing is off, which makes recently-installed apps unsearchable; sudo mdutil -i on / && sudo mdutil -E / fixes it.

next time

When a menu bar utility appears to do nothing, dump its defaults plist before troubleshooting visually — the state-vs-widget distinction in Stats is invisible from its UI but obvious from prefs.

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