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Previously with El Capitan, an app such as smcFanControl (2.6) could furrow in an obscure way into the OS.

Has something changed in either Sierra or High Sierra? After sleeping and waking up, the same app (in the same version) now requires re-entering the sudo password, or otherwise it fails to run in the menu bar.

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  • I see what you did there with the title!!! Did you post this at 4:20, too for extra hilarity? – bmike♦ Oct 18 '17 at 0:43
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It has nothing to do with a (perceived) "higher standard" for menu bar icons, it has to do with the privilege level of the process you are attempting to run (or restart from sleep).

In this case, to access the process that controls the fans, you need to have root level privileges. Until you grant those privileges to that process, it won't run and thusly won't show up in your menu.

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  • I don't see your point. Maybe I wasn't clear. Running sudo was required (under the hood) on El Capitan and that remains the case on High Sierra. The difference is that on El Capitan it was "sticky" (it survived sleeps, log out/in, and reboots). Now it doesn't even survive sleep. – Calaf Oct 17 '17 at 22:22
  • You're conflating an icon in the menu with permission to run. You enter sudo, it runs. When you sleep, the app closes and to restart it needs permission again. That's the way your question is written. – Allan Oct 17 '17 at 22:26
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Not to my knowledge, while it is true that security improvements were made with the new (High Sierra) release, the issue you are describing seems to be unrelated to it. I tried to replicate your scenario but it works fine for me.

Things to try:

  1. Reinstall the application.
    • Maybe best done with AppCleaner to remove all associated files first.
  2. Be sure it is installed to the Applications folder on your Mac.
    • This I believe sets certain privileges to the app which it may not get if inside other, more obscure directories.
  3. Look at your Keychain and try re-authenticating the app. This is best done after you reinstall it and ripping out any related entries

I hope I have given you a couple more things to try, let me know if you were successful using one or more of these methods.

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  • I thought I'd try your suggestions one-by-one to isolate the solution, if one suffices. After copying smcFanControl.app to /Applications, I noticed already one change. I needed to be sudo/admin once, rather than twice. Now it does indeed survive sleeping. Will wait a couple of days to make sure this nails it. After upgrading I was running smcFanControl.app from my ~/Downloads folder. This seems to make a difference. – Calaf Oct 17 '17 at 22:29
  • @Calaf I am trying to grow may reputation on Stack Exchange and was hoping, if all is well, you could mark my solution as the answer. That way others who stumble upon it in the future can benefit too. – ProGrammer Oct 20 '17 at 5:29

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