FAQ

Answers to frequently asked questions.

No Time Out break appears when I try to start one

If no break appears when you manually start one, or as scheduled, there are a few possibilities.

  1. Firstly, look in the sidebar; it should indicate why a break didn’t occur.
  2. You should restart your Mac. That often fixes wackiness.
  3. If that doesn’t help, make sure you don’t have more than one copy of Time Out.
  4. If still no luck, there may be a permissions issue.

To fix a permissions issue, try this:

Make sure Time Out is in your Applications folder.

Paste the following command into Terminal:

xattr -d -r -s com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Time\ Out.app

If this gives a permissions error (e.g. “xattr: [Errno 13] Permission denied”), try it again with sudo before the command, to elevate the privileges. You’ll need to enter your Administrator password. This command is safe to use with sudo:

sudo xattr -d -r -s com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Time\ Out.app

What are natural breaks in Time Out, and how do I configure them?

“Natural breaks” are when the Mac is not being used; idle.

By default, Time Out will wait briefly then count backwards when you are having a natural break, to give you credit for not using your computer.

If you do a lot of reading on-screen, that doesn’t cause keyboard or mouse activity, you can change the app to disable this behavior by choosing Continue Countdown from the popup menu on the Break Appearance page of the settings.

Or if you’d prefer to have it just pause the countdown, instead of counting backwards, or reset the timer, those are also options.

Why isn’t my Simon Email Notifier working?

I seem to get more queries about the Email notifier than any other feature. Usually, it comes down to not filling in all of the fields, or setting the wrong authentication.

So the first thing I’d recommend is checking that both the To and From address fields are filled in with valid email addresses.

If that doesn’t help, check that the Outgoing Mail Server is correct in the Email Transport Options panel — if you use iCloud, make sure you enter just “smtp.icloud.com” (without the quotes), and not the colon and username following.

If still not working, try each of the Authentication options in that panel, with the appropriate User Name and Password entered. Also try turning SSL off. It’s not always easy to tell which will work.

Are older versions of Time Out available for download?

Yes. I recommend that you always use the latest version of Time Out if you can, as it has the latest improvements and fixes. But if your Mac isn’t using a recent OS version, you’re curious what older versions were like, or you have some other reason to want an older version, they are still available. Just download the latest release that supports your OS version.

Is a Windows or Android version available?

No, I’m a solo developer, so have limited time, and choose to focus my skills on platforms I use. I believe that Apple devices are the best computing platforms, so only write software for Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

I don’t have any significant experience with other platforms, so can’t recommend alternatives for them.

How do I pronounce “Dejal”, and where did the name come from?

The name “Dejal” is pronouced “DEE-JILL”. It is not a French word, so should not be pronounced as “DAY-ZHAL” or other variations.

The name originated from the former initials of the founder of the company, David Sinclair — me. I used to be David J. Lambert, but my wife and I both changed our surnames to “Sinclair” when we got married, being people who like to make our own conventions (and we chose that name in part after my first computer, the Sinclair ZX81). Anyway, back around 1983 I needed a password, so an obvious (if simplistic) choice was something based on my initials. D.J.L. with some vowels to make it pronounceable gave “DeJaL”, and thus “Dejal” was created.

Interestingly, it turns out that “dejal” is a word in some other languages. “Dejal” is a Slovene verb, the past participle of the verb “reci”, meaning “to say, tell.” An example: “He told her that she was beautiful” = “On ji je dejal, da je lepa.” (“je dejal” = “told”). Kinda appropriate for a software publisher! It appears that “Dejal” is also a Yugoslavian or Czech name equivalent to “David”, which is also rather fitting. If you have any other examples, or corrections, please let me know.