fix: screen recording permission loop + post-grant detection

[execsumo]

Problem

On a fresh install (non-dev machine), Heard was showing the macOS screen recording permission dialog on an infinite loop — a new prompt every 3 seconds from the moment the app launched.

After fixing that loop, a second issue emerged: granting the permission in System Settings wasn't being reflected in the app UI.

Root causes

1. SCShareableContent in the background polling loop (the loop itself)

PermissionCenter.refreshAsync() was calling SCShareableContent.excludingDesktopWindows() every 3 seconds. On macOS, calling that API when screen recording hasn't been granted yet triggers the TCC permission dialog. On a fresh install this created an infinite prompt loop.

Fix: refreshAsync() now polls with CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() only — reads the live TCC database state without triggering any dialog.

2. Poll overwriting confirmed grants (permission never sticking as "Granted")

After fixing the loop, refreshAsync() wrote screenCaptureGrantedLive = CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() every 3 seconds. On macOS 15+, CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() is cached to the process's initial TCC state and won't return true after a mid-session grant. This meant every poll tick was resetting the flag back to false, so the UI would never show "Granted" even if the one-shot check had correctly detected it.

Fix: Only advance screenCaptureGrantedLive from false → true, never downgrade it. Permission revocations require an app restart to take effect anyway, so a false from CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() mid-session can only be stale.

3. One-shot grant check fired too early (wrong timing)

openScreenCaptureSettings() was scheduling the post-grant SCShareableContent check 3 seconds after the user clicked "Grant…" — not after they returned from System Settings. Most users take more than 3 seconds to navigate the privacy page, so the check was firing mid-interaction and either re-triggering the TCC prompt (if not yet granted) or getting a false negative.

Fix: Replaced the DispatchQueue.asyncAfter timer with an NSWorkspace.didDeactivateApplicationNotification observer filtered on com.apple.systempreferences. The one-shot check now fires exactly when the user leaves System Settings — guaranteed to be after their interaction — and the observer removes itself immediately.

What didn't change

• checkScreenCapturePermissionLive() (renamed from checkScreenCapturePermission) still uses SCShareableContent — it's the only way to bypass the macOS 15+ per-process TCC cache. It's safe because it's now called only once, triggered by a user action, never from a polling loop.
• After granting screen recording, the app still needs to be quit and relaunched for AudioHardwareCreateProcessTap to succeed. That's a macOS security requirement, not something addressable in code. The UI will now correctly show "Granted" after the grant, but recording won't use the tap until after restart.

https://claude.ai/code/session_01XVfXe31wxQrYWMnQaTpAcy

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