Support

Help with installing, using and troubleshooting Shoo

1. Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
• A built-in or external webcam. Shoo can't do anything without one.
• Reasonable lighting so the camera can see your face and hands.

2. Installing and first launch

From the Mac App Store

1. Open Shoo: Hands Off Your Face on the Mac App Store and click Get.
2. Launch Shoo from Applications or Launchpad. It lives in the menu bar, and a short onboarding walks you through camera access.

The App Store build is signed and reviewed by Apple, so there is no first-launch warning.

From GitHub Releases (unsigned build)

The open-source zip is for people who prefer not to use the App Store. Install either this or the App Store version, not both.

1. Download the latest Shoo-x.y.z.zip from the Releases page.
2. Unzip it and move Shoo.app into your Applications folder.
3. Launch it. Because Shoo is open source and not notarized by Apple, macOS blocks the first launch with a dialog saying "Shoo" Not Opened. Apple could not verify "Shoo" is free of malware. This is expected, and you only need to get past it once.

Getting past the first-launch dialog

Click Done in the dialog (not Move to Bin), then do one of the following:

• System Settings. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the Security section, and click Open Anyway next to the message about Shoo. Authenticate, launch Shoo again, and click Open Anyway in the dialog that follows.
• Terminal. Clear the quarantine flag and Shoo launches without any dialog:

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Shoo.app

On macOS 14 Sonoma and earlier, right-click Shoo.app → Open → Open also works. macOS 15 and later no longer offer that shortcut.

Building from source

Prefer to build it yourself? Clone the repository, open Shoo.xcodeproj in Xcode 26 or later and run the Shoo scheme. The README has full build and test instructions.

Camera permission

On first launch Shoo walks you through a short onboarding and then asks for camera access. This is required: without it, there's nothing to watch. You can change your mind later under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera.

3. Using Shoo

• Menu bar. Shoo has no Dock icon or main window. Look for the raised-hand symbol near the right end of the menu bar. Click it to start or pause watching, snooze, open Settings, or quit.
• The reminder. When a hand comes close to your mouth or nose, a small overlay appears in the middle of the screen. It fades out by itself, or you can click Dismiss, click Snooze, or click anywhere on it if "Click overlay to dismiss" is on.
• Snooze. From the menu, pause reminders for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour. Watching resumes automatically.
• Sensitivity. Settings → Sensitivity. Higher sensitivity triggers earlier but may cause more false alarms. Start in the middle and adjust.
• Cooldown. Settings → Timing. The minimum time between two reminders, so Shoo doesn't fire repeatedly while you're already pulling your hand away.
• Reminder options. Settings → How you're reminded. Turn the overlay, a sound, or a macOS notification on or off. Show the overlay on every display or only the one with your pointer. Show or hide the camera snapshot in the reminder.
• Preview. Settings → Preview Reminder shows the overlay on demand, so you can see what it looks like without touching your face.
• Launch at login. Settings → Startup. Optionally also start watching as soon as Shoo launches.

4. Troubleshooting

The camera light is on. Is that normal?

Yes. macOS turns the indicator on whenever any app uses the camera, and Shoo uses it continuously while watching is on. Pause or quit Shoo and the light goes off. If the light is on and you didn't expect it, check the menu bar: Shoo may be set to start watching at launch.

Shoo doesn't notice when I touch my face

• Make sure watching is on (the menu bar item says so) and you're not snoozed.
• Increase Sensitivity in Settings.
• Check lighting and framing: your face and the hand need to be visible to the camera at the same time. Hands coming in from the side at the very edge of the frame are easy to miss.
• Shoo looks for hands near the mouth and nose. Touching your forehead, hair, ears or chin is not meant to trigger it.
• If you have more than one camera, Shoo remembers the one it used last. Unplug cameras that can't see you, or make sure the built-in one is the one Shoo picks.

Too many false alarms

• Lower Sensitivity.
• Increase the cooldown so repeated reminders are spaced out.
• Resting your chin on your hand is partly tolerated, but a hand hovering right in front of your mouth will trigger a reminder by design.

The overlay appears but I can't click Snooze or Dismiss

Update to the latest release. Early builds had a bug where the overlay let clicks through. If it still happens, please open an issue with your macOS version.

"Show a notification" does nothing

Notifications need permission. Turning the option on should prompt you; if you declined, enable Shoo under System Settings → Notifications. Shoo's Settings window shows a warning when notifications are turned off at the system level.

"Launch at login" needs approval

macOS may ask you to approve the login item. Go to System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions and make sure Shoo is allowed.

macOS says it could not verify Shoo, or that the app is damaged

See Getting past the first-launch dialog above. This only happens with the GitHub build, because it isn't notarized; nothing is wrong with the file. To avoid the warning entirely, install Shoo from the Mac App Store.

It's using more energy than I'd like

Shoo caps the camera frame rate and downscales frames before analysis, but computer vision still costs something. Pause it when you don't need it, or use snooze. Energy use is an area we're actively improving; your feedback on specific Macs is welcome.

Reporting a bug

Please include your macOS version, your Mac model, the Shoo version (Settings → About), what you expected and what happened instead. Shoo writes brief diagnostic lines to the unified system log under the io.github.jkkronk.shoo subsystem, which you can view in Console.app. These logs never leave your Mac unless you choose to paste them into an issue.

5. Uninstalling

1. Quit Shoo from the menu bar.
2. If you enabled "Launch at login", turn it off in Shoo's Settings first (or remove it under System Settings → General → Login Items).
3. Drag Shoo.app from Applications to the Trash.
4. Optionally, delete ~/Library/Containers/io.github.jkkronk.shoo. This folder holds Shoo's settings and daily reminder counts, and macOS leaves it in place when you trash a sandboxed app.

Nothing else is left behind.

6. Contact

• Bugs and questions: open a GitHub issue.
• Privacy questions: see the privacy policy, or open an issue.
• Source code and releases: github.com/jkkronk/shoo.

Shoo is a free, open-source project maintained in spare time, so responses may take a few days. Pull requests are very welcome.