FixTim: a user space reboot for macOS, without reloading the kernel

The problem it addresses: glitches that only a restart seems to fix

FixTim is presented as a tool to fix every runtime bug on macOS, and the README opens in the plainest possible terms, It fix bug on macOS. The scenario is specific and familiar. There are numerous instances where we may need to restart our Mac to rectify a glitch, and this user-friendly tool is designed to resolve most runtime bugs without necessitating a full system restart, and it can restore your applications to the state they were in before the issue arose. That last clause is the design constraint. A macOS restart is expensive not because the machine is slow to start but because everything you had open, every unsaved document, every half-finished conversation, is lost. A tool that reloads the user space and then brings your applications back is trying to keep the second cost out of the first.

The list of symptoms it targets, and they are all familiar ones

The symptoms enumerated in the README are specific enough to be a useful filter. Screenshot sucks on desktop, meaning the macOS screenshot tool misbehaving. Lagging Input Method Editor, the IME that has stopped keeping up with your typing. Disrupted core audio stream. AirDrop malfunction or inefficiency. Wi-Fi failing to scan or connect. Any unresponsive or spinning app. iCloud sync issues. Xcode not looking for devices, and Xcode Simulator not booting, which is a specific and annoying failure for anyone doing iOS work. And debugserver not responding. Then and more. The list covers three distinct layers, the window server, the audio stack, the network stack, and it covers one developer stack, so the tool is a general utility with a specific concentration in iOS development pain. The last line before the next section is the limit: the app does not have the ability to fix hardware problems or kernel bugs.

How it works: launchd reload and reopen, which is a user space reboot

The Principles section explains the mechanism, and it is the part that makes the project coherent. The tool initiates a reboot process using launchd and reopens applications afterwards, and this reboot does not involve reloading the kernel but instead only reloads the user space. The README compares it to a soft reboot on Android, which is fast and does not consume a lot of resources. The mechanism matters because launchd is the system's service manager and the thing that owns the per-user session, so reloading it tears down and rebuilds the processes that make up your login session, and the applications that were running are started again afterwards. Everything the kernel owns, the drivers, the hardware, the extensions, is untouched. That is why a user space reload can fix a wedged WindowServer or a broken audio daemon and cannot fix a kernel panic.

Administrator privileges, and the --now parameter

Most of the issues will not require administrator privileges, but some of them will, and the README is specific about what to do about that. If you need it, execute the binary in terminal with a parameter --now, with the command given as sudo /Applications/FixTim.app/Contents/MacOS/FixTim --now. The distinction between the normal run and the --now run is therefore about privilege escalation rather than about a different operation, which is a sensible design, because a tool that always demanded a password for the common case would train people to type a password reflexively. The path in the command is also a reminder of the shape of the artefact, a macOS application bundle with a Contents/MacOS directory holding the executable, which is what a signed, distributable Mac app looks like on disk.

sudo /Applications/FixTim.app/Contents/MacOS/FixTim --now

A separate command line tool for macOS below 13.0

There is a section for macOS below 13.0, and it is not a small thing. You can compile the command line tool located at ./Resources/CommandLineTool.swift and execute it, with the two commands being swiftc to build it and then running the resulting binary. The implication is that the app bundle route is the modern path and the command line tool is the fallback for older systems, which is an unusual thing to find in a project whose primary artefact is a Swift app. The practical value for a reader is that it shows the tool's core logic is small enough to be a single Swift file you can compile yourself, which means you can read what it does before running it, and you can build it yourself if you would rather not install an app bundle on a machine running an older macOS.

swiftc -o fixtim ./Resources/CommandLineTool.swift
./fixtim

The repository layout, and what it says about the project

The top level of the repository is very small. There is FixTim.xcodeproj/, the Xcode project file, a FixTim/ directory with the app sources, a Resources/ directory holding the command line tool and the demo GIF, a LICENSE, a README and a .gitignore. There is no test directory, no CI configuration and no build scripts outside the Xcode project, which is consistent with a utility that is a single Xcode target rather than a framework. The primary language is Swift, the licence is MIT with the text in the LICENSE file, and the copyright is held by Lakr Aream for 2024, with All Rights Reserved. The releases are 1.2.0 on 2024-02-06 labelled Initial Release and 1.2.1 on 2024-02-07 labelled Always Dark Theme, and the last push to the repository was on 2026-05-18.

What to expect in practice, and where the boundary sits

The honest reading of the README is that this is a tool for a specific class of problem, and a small one. The list of symptoms it addresses is real and recognisable, and the mechanism, a launchd reload plus reopening applications, is the right mechanism for exactly those symptoms because they are symptoms of per-user session processes having gone bad. The boundary is equally clear. It cannot fix hardware problems, and it cannot fix kernel bugs, and since the mechanism deliberately does not reload the kernel, anything rooted in the kernel is out of reach by construction. The last push was on 2026-05-18 and the last release was in February 2024, so the code has been touched more recently than the last tagged version, but the published artefact is two years old, and for a tool whose value is in doing one thing correctly and predictably, that is the fact to weigh before installing it on a machine you rely on.

Editorial conclusion

FixTim suits a Mac user who hits the familiar symptoms, a spinning app or an input method editor that has stopped responding, and who would rather reload the user space than restart the whole machine. It is the wrong tool when the problem is a hardware fault or a kernel level bug, because the README states plainly that the app does not have the ability to fix those, and a poor fit for anyone on a Mac where the affected application holds unsaved work, since the process reopens applications and a reload can still cost you the state of what was open. Before running it, note that most issues do not require administrator privileges but some do, in which case the --now parameter is needed, and that the command line tool path exists for macOS below 13.0.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Lakr233/FixTim on GitHub
3. License: MIT
4. README
5. Releases