ControlPlane

Name: ControlPlane
Rating: 4.5455 (16 reviews)

1.6.6

25 March 2017

Context-sensitive configuration for your Mac.

Overview

ControlPlane makes your computing environment context-sensitive. Reconfigure your machine based on what is going on or where you are at. Set the office printer as your default while in the office or enable the screensaver password when away from home.

ControlPlane is a fork of MarcoPolo, which is now unsupported.

Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.

What's new in ControlPlane

Version 1.6.6:

New:

Icon supports dark interface theme in OS X 10.10 Yosemite
Default web browser now requires that ControlPlane act as your URL handler; this works around a new "feature" of Yosemite that causes it to confirm your new default browser choice with a dialog box

Fixed:

Fix crash when installing the helper tool fails

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ControlPlane Screenshots

24 ControlPlane Reviews

See all

Fishscale

30 October 2011

Most helpful

Haven't personally tried this app, but I am happy/proud to see a dev who has made software people seem to like (4 & 1/2 stars) and continues to keep it free and off MAS. @dev ... thank you.

Like (4)

Version 1.0.10

1.6.6 works here with High Sierra. What a relief. This seems to be the only working software of this kind left for High Sierra, since Sidekick was discontinued recently (according to a sidekick developer)...

Like (1)

Version 1.6.6

Chris78665

15 May 2017

This update is INVALID and BOGUS. 1.6.7 briefly existed and was pulled by the author due to to some issues in the updating process. Do not install this update. MACUpdate please remove 1.6.7 and put back 1.6.6 which is the current version.

Version 1.6.7

Controlplane is a great app. It's one of very few location-based apps that exist for mac. Unfortunately the developer has not been updating the app lately. I am mostly using it to enable/disable screensaver password based on location on my MBP. It stopped working on MacOS Sierra. No word from developers so far on weather they're going to fix it.

Version 1.6.5

1 answer(s)

Caberlin

01 November 2017

Actually there is a comment from the developer online (now): Apple made it more difficult for software to mess with security settings (for good reasons).

I.m.h.o. it is better if a developer abandons a troublemaking feature but not giving up the whole software in such a case. I still find ControlPlane very useful for things like switching printers.

I love this app, and have happily donated to the developer. It's great to be able to pause backup and file syncing jobs when I'm on the train, using my phone's hotspot. I disable notifications while I'm at my office so stuff isn't popping up if I happen to be presenting. I have it switch out IM accounts in Adium for me depending on whether I'm at work or home. The list goes on...

Extremely easy to configure and saves time and having to remember.

Thanks for writing and maintaining it!

Version 1.5.7

Powerful, stable, not intuitive, free. Works well: background changes based on timeofday. UI and documentation limitations make user error more likely. Most of the evidence rules I can think of are there, but I tried only a few. Perhaps there’s a way to use shell scripts to do the others, but if so, I didn't find info on how. Likely bugs: sometimes some actions for a context do not trigger. Maybe bug: wifi evidence never respected.

Like (1)

Version 1.4.0

1 answer(s)

Bottacco

08 January 2014

You should try their support mailing list. They answer quite fast and take seriously user input. As of your problems I would consider trying out several combinations, because I use the Wi-fi evidence in almost all my contexts and it works like a charm.

Like (1)

After many years using MacoPolo and struggling with different hacks to make it work in newer operating systems, finally a replacement comes out. ControlPlane is great, works with all modern versions of Mac OS X and incorporates many of the functions that didn't work under MarcoPolo. As a consultant that moves around all the time, changing configurations anywhere I go, ControlPlane is a real time saver. Thank you for continuing what MarcoPolo started

Version 1.4.0

This new version on Sept. 013 works perfectly on my OSX10.8 and features every action trigger I could dream of :)

Version 1.4.0

Cool idea, but it's just way too fiddly to set up, and nowhere near reliable enough to actually use. It's far too spastic about suddenly changing contexts for no apparent reason — e.g. every time I plug in *any* USB device, it changes contexts, even though I only have *one* USB rule (which checks for a USB Ethernet adapter). Obviously it's a bug, and if it was the only one, I'd be willing to work around it until it's fixed, but unfortunately this is just one of many. The "confidence" factor is hard to figure out — I have no idea how it decides that two conditions set to 60% confidence add up to 85% confidence (what voodoo math is going on here?). The inaccurate sliders don't help (why not just use text fields if you're going to track percentage values with one decimal point?), and there's basically no documentation either. None of this "confidence" crap should be exposed in the UI in the first place. Basically these are all problems the developer couldn't figure out, so they just left it up to the user to spend hours tweaking everything until it stops switching contexts at the wrong times. In short, good luck actually getting this to do what you want without triggering false positives and causing more problems than it solves. Buggy underlying technology + terrible UI = lousy experience. I recommend not wasting your time trying to get this working.

Like (2)

Version 1.3.14

2 answer(s)

Bottacco

14 October 2013

Well, it is free and it works for many of us. You could be more positive, state what isn't working for you so it can be fixed and contribute with your ideas. The only thing I do agree with is about the manual. This is no newbie utility and you have to grasp the concepts and interrelationship between contexts, evidence sources, rules and actions… and sometimes, depending what you want to accomplish, it is not easy. But I can assure you it works and I have a pretty elaborate setup. I have tried all similar utilities that I could find here in MacUpdate and in Google, and none came close to the power and flexibility of ControlPlane. And it is free, so we better thank you the developer for his time and try to contribute with bug reports and ideas. He even dedicates a lot of time to answer questions in ControlPlane's mailing list to support questions that many times shouldn't be asked in first place. So, if you don't like it, don't use it. And if you have a better alternative please share it with us, so even the developer can compare what others are doing right. Cheers

Like (1)

Wchiseler

07 January 2014

I’ve had a similar experience. I don’t know if ControlPlane is buggy or just obscure, I suspect a little of each. What is NOT working: certain actions, sometimes: - Background will change, but speak message will not—for the same context. At other times, message is announced properly. - Control Plane will sometimes not recognize any context, although a TimeofDay rule is relevant and confidence for it is high. (This could be user error, but I couldn’t find any reason for it not to trigger). I could never get WiFi evidences working. I could never figure out why, I had to give up. I’d get spoken messages when I was nowhere near, let alone connected to my WiFi network. UI issues - TimeofDay automatically adds a description which shows a time. When you change the time, it does not change the described time. This means a rule may be listed as 6:30 am when it actually is for 6:00 am. This makes avoiding user error difficult. It would help to be able to see the actual TimeofDay setting in the Rules list. I like it overall, but it’s frustrating at times. It’s good for freeware. If I’d paid for it, my review would probably be 1 or 2. Oh, and I am grateful to the developer for his time, but this is a review site, not an ignore-the-app-if-you-don’t-like-it site. Like Stormchild, I’m sharing my experience, which is in my case, this app is better than nothing, but it does not work smoothly.

Like (1)

I'm excited about this little app. Using now 1.3.14. But: Since the last 2 or 3 versions there is sometimes (not really repeatable) a CPU use of 140 % to 150 %. Only chance to get back a working MacBook: Press the on-off switch (not funny). Using a MBP (Late 2009, 8GB, 2.8 GHz, 500GB). Just because of the troubles no better ranking!

Version 1.3.14

Excellent tool, thanks a lot to the developer! I have tried a few of them but none really worked for me. I use my mac at work and and at home and I really need to switch a bunch of settings between these locations. This tools does everything I need.

Version 1.3.11

ControlPlane

Overview

What's new in ControlPlane

New:

Fixed:

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ControlPlane Screenshots

24 ControlPlane Reviews

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