Mac OS Menu Bar Button Crashes aw-qt

[gberges34]

• OS name and version: macOS 27.0 beta, build 26A5353q

• ActivityWatch version: v0.13.2

Describe the bug

On macOS 27.0 beta, clicking the ActivityWatch menu bar icon crashes aw-qt.

When aw-qt crashes, aw-watcher-afk exits with:

afkwatcher stopped because parent process died

After this, aw-server and aw-watcher-window continue running, and aw-watcher-window continues producing current window events. However, aw-watcher-afk no longer produces AFK events.

This leaves ActivityWatch with current currentwindow data but stale afkstatus data.

To Reproduce

1. Launch ActivityWatch.app.

2. Confirm that aw-qt, aw-server, aw-watcher-window, and aw-watcher-afk are running.

3. Click the ActivityWatch menu bar icon.

4. The menu bar icon disappears.

5. aw-qt exits/crashes.

6. aw-watcher-afk exits with:

   afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
   

7. aw-server and aw-watcher-window remain running.

After reproduction, process state looked like this:

/Applications/ActivityWatch.app/Contents/MacOS/aw-server
/Applications/ActivityWatch.app/Contents/MacOS/aw-watcher-window
/Applications/ActivityWatch.app/Contents/Frameworks/aw_watcher_window/aw-watcher-window-macos http://127.0.0.1:5600 aw-watcher-window_BergBook-Air.local BergBook-Air.local aw-watcher-window

No aw-qt and no aw-watcher-afk processes were running.

Expected behavior

Clicking the ActivityWatch menu bar icon should open the ActivityWatch menu and should not crash aw-qt.

Also, if aw-qt exits or crashes, ActivityWatch should either keep the default watchers alive, restart them, or visibly report that they stopped. In particular, aw-watcher-afk should not silently stop producing afkstatus events.

Logs and crash report

Relevant aw-qt log:

2026-06-22 15:04:51 [INFO ]: Started aw-qt...  (aw_qt.main:53)
2026-06-22 15:04:52 [INFO ]: Found 7 bundled modules  (aw_qt.manager:85)
2026-06-22 15:04:52 [INFO ]: Found 0 system modules  (aw_qt.manager:119)
2026-06-22 15:04:52 [INFO ]: Starting module aw-server  (aw_qt.manager:148)
2026-06-22 15:04:52 [INFO ]: Starting module aw-watcher-afk  (aw_qt.manager:148)
2026-06-22 15:04:52 [INFO ]: Starting module aw-watcher-window  (aw_qt.manager:148)
2026-06-22 15:04:52 [INFO ]: Creating trayicon...  (aw_qt.trayicon:208)
2026-06-22 15:04:53 [INFO ]: Initialized aw-qt and trayicon successfully  (aw_qt.trayicon:264)
2026-06-22 15:04:55 [WARNING]: Tried to stop module aw-watcher-window, but it wasn't running  (aw_qt.manager:185)
2026-06-22 15:04:55 [WARNING]: Tried to stop module aw-server, but it wasn't running  (aw_qt.manager:185)

Relevant aw-watcher-afk log:

2026-06-22 15:04:53 [INFO ]: aw-watcher-afk started  (aw_watcher_afk.afk:62)
2026-06-22 15:04:54 [INFO ]: Connection to aw-server established by aw-watcher-afk  (aw_client.client:447)
2026-06-22 15:26:05 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died  (aw_watcher_afk.afk:82)

A new macOS crash report was created at the same time:

~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/aw-qt-2026-06-22-152605.ips

Crash report summary:

app_name: aw-qt
timestamp: 2026-06-22 15:26:05.00 -0400
app_version: 0.13.2
bundleID: net.activitywatch.ActivityWatch
os_version: macOS 27.0 (26A5353q)
procPath: /Applications/ActivityWatch.app/Contents/MacOS/aw-qt
translated: true
cpuType: X86-64
parentProc: launchd
sip: enabled
exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS / SIGSEGV
subtype: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS, possible pointer authentication failure
termination: Segmentation fault: 11

Relevant stack frames from the crash report:

-[NSEvent clickCount]
-[NSMenuTrackingSession sendBeginTrackingNotifications]
-[NSMenuTrackingSession beginTrackingSession:]
+[NSContextMenuImpl presentPopup:fromView:withContext:animated:async:completionBlock:]
_NSPopUpMenu
-[NSStatusBarButtonCell popUpStatusBarMenu:ofItem:ofBar:inRect:ofView:withEvent:]
-[NSStatusItem popUpStatusItemMenu:]
-[NSStatusItem _beginExpandedInterfaceSession:]
-[NSSceneStatusItem _beginExpandedInterfaceSession:]
-[NSApplication run]
QEventLoop::exec(QFlags<QEventLoop::ProcessEventsFlag>)
QCoreApplication::exec()
meth_QApplication_exec(_object*, _object*)

Historical aw-watcher-afk logs show the same parent-death pattern on earlier launches:

2026-06-16 20:00:03 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
2026-06-18 18:00:59 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
2026-06-18 18:01:47 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
2026-06-18 18:02:00 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
2026-06-20 13:06:02 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
2026-06-22 14:54:23 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died
2026-06-22 15:26:05 [INFO ]: afkwatcher stopped because parent process died

Additional context

This is on an Apple Silicon Mac. The ActivityWatch crash report shows translated: true, so ActivityWatch v0.13.2 is running as x86_64 under Rosetta.

This appears to be an aw-qt menu bar/status item crash rather than an AFK input-permission problem. aw-watcher-afk can start, connect to aw-server, and write AFK events until aw-qt crashes.

Observed bucket behavior after the crash:

aw-watcher-window_<host>.local continues updating
aw-watcher-afk_<host>.local stops updating

I did not find ActivityWatch logs indicating an Input Monitoring, Accessibility, or TCC permission denial.

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