Programmatically check state of do not disturb on OS X

Question

Using Objective-C, how can I programmatically check the state of the system "Do Not Disturb" setting on OS X? I'm fine with using hacks or private APIs since I don't need to submit to the Mac App Store.

Answer 1

You can (and should) simply use UserDefaults:

let theDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "com.apple.notificationcenterui")
print(theDefaults?.bool(forKey: "doNotDisturb"))

For time-controlled switching you should check if the minute of the day lies between dndStart and dndEnd:

let theDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "com.apple.notificationcenterui")
let theDate = Date()
let theCalendar = Calendar.current

let theHour = calendar.component(.hour, from: theDate)
let theMinute = calendar.component(.minute, from: theDate)
let theMinuteOfDay = Double(theHour * 60 + theMinute)

if theMinuteOfDay >= theDefaults.double(forKey: "dndStart") && 
    theMinuteOfDay <= theDefaults.double(forKey: "dndEnd") {
    // ...
}

Answer 2

This answer describes how to read and write the state of Do Not Disturb using the command line.

Note that the filename contains your Mac's Hardware UUID. For simplicity, it's a constant in the code below. You can figure it out using the built-in System Information app. There are also different ways to get it programmatically, like this, which I haven’t tried yet.

Using Swift, the content of the plist file can be read as NSDictionary as follows:

import Foundation

// Get path to file
let uuid = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
let filepath = "~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.notificationcenterui.\(uuid).plist".stringByExpandingTildeInPath

// Load file as `NSDictionary`
if let dict = NSDictionary(contentsOfFile: filepath) {

    // Get state of Do Not Disturb
    let doNotDisturbState = dict["doNotDisturb"] as? Bool
    println(doNotDisturbState)
}

When I tested it, it sometimes took several seconds for the content of the plist file to be updated, hence you won't get the new state immediately after it changed.

Answer 3

In Objective-C, you can access the value like this:

NSUserDefaults* defaults = [[NSUserDefaults alloc]initWithSuiteName:@"com.apple.notificationcenterui"];
BOOL dnd = [defaults boolForKey:@"doNotDisturb"];

Answer 4

Swift 4

UserDefaults(suiteName: "com.apple.notificationcenterui")?.bool(forKey: "doNotDisturb")