annoying pop up every few mins

I am experiencing this same issue on my Macbook Pro. Mac OS 10.13.4.

I agree that this needs a fix, not a "just disable the feature" response. It's especially disconcerting when antivirus software starts acting 'buggy'.  It leaves you wondering: what other features aren't working properly? 

Hi Sinclair/Brian, 

This issue has been fixed in the upcoming version which will be released soon, please stay connected for the update.

I've just started to get the same problem today. I'm using OSX El Capitan 10.11.6. I do wonder when the mentioned fixed version was released. I suppose that my computer upgraded to a new version and the issue hasn't been resolved completely. Please advise!

Hi Tamas, 

An update on the fix for the above-mentioned issue is not been scheduled yet, kindly follow this thread or Twitter for more updates.

Hi Haridoss,

Thanks for your reply, i appreciate it. The problem i experienced is gone now. That is, i experienced it only for one day. Should i be concerned? You say that no update by Sophos has been released, i.e., any change to the software Sophos installed on my machine is not brought forward by the company Sophos. Is that right? If so, could it be that mu machine is infected? Or, could it be that the software can exhibit such "autonomous" behaviour that this problem came up and then after one day it's gone??? I guess you and Sophos recognise the gravity of this question. I would very much appreciate some answer to this.

Kind regards,

Tamas

Has there been any news on the release of a fix for this problem?  I'm running Sophos Home Premium under MacOS High Sierra on a MacBook with an external Thunderbolt display, and I'm still seeing these annoying messages pop up quite frequently.  Would be nice if the capability to turn off the Mic was something offered as a solution (rather than just turn off the alert).  

@haridoss I have been using Sophos Home Free for many years across many platforms of macOS and have been running without issue on macOS High Sierra since its release.

Yesterday the Sophos client triggered UAKEL https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2459/_index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40017658-CH1-TNTAG4 on several of my machines so I can only assume that a new version was installed automagically, which included an updated version of the kext. Generally I don't track the Sophos client version in my home environment but it is now 2.0.4. Yesterday I also updated several machines to macOS 10.13.6 (17G65) however the UAKEL behaviour was consistent on machines still running macos 10.13.5 (17F77), which is also now running the same v2.0.4 version of the client.

The issue I'm now having seems related to the original ops post but what I've worked out is that the "Microphone is currently active alert" is now being triggered by default system sounds. For example if I place an item in the Trash the system sound related to this action triggers an alert. As far as I'm aware the in-built mic is always on and indeed even when I adjust the Internal Microphone input volume to its lowest possible setting, the alert continues to be triggered by any system sounds.

Then overnight I received an email form Sophos stating "We have just launched our new security software, Sophos Home Premium. As a special thank you to our early adopters of Sophos Home, we are upgrading your account to a free 30-day trial." I then realised that the microphone monitoring feature was actually part of "Privacy Protection" in the Home Premium product that would have only just been activated as part of the free trial. This seems to suggest that the problem may in fact not be related to the OS/client versions I'm running, but rather it is a defective feature that I previously wasn't using however other ops obviously have been.

In your previous post from 30 Apr 2018 8:09 AM you stated to the ops that "This issue has been fixed in the upcoming version which will be released soon, please stay connected for the update." As explained above I have just updated to the current OS/client version yesterday and only now begun to experience the issue, so obviously the "fix" has not been successful.

Yes I can disable microphone monitoring for the client but this seems to defeat the purpose of the feature. I could even disable the Sophos system notifications in macOS entirely but then that would be rather like using a sledgehammer to drive in a nail, and would additionally have the effect of disabling valid Sophos notifications. I know that it's possible to monitor the mic without system sounds being considered 'mic activation" because the "Oversight" product from Objective See manages this nicely. https://objective-see.com/products/oversight.htm.

I however quite like the Sophos Home product and in particular the convenience of managing all my home devices from the dashboard which a product such as Oversight cannot offer so can you please advise how to proceed with support around this issue? Is there a way I can file a bug report?

As a gesture of goodwill I have also just upgraded to the paid product so as I am now an active subscriber. As such is it possible to open a ticket directly with Sophos support?

Cheers,

Ben

Hi Ben,

Sorry for the late response. We would have to investigate further on this. Please allow me to check on this with my engineer, In the meantime, yes, being a premium user you can create a support ticket. Please refer to the article Contacting Sophos Home Support. 

Hi Haridoss,

No problem.

In the interim I've already raised a ticket with support but unfortunately they were little to no help with the reply being "We would be happy to pass your feedback along to our development team along with the application you mentioned."

I was at least hoping they would acknowledge whether this is a bug or expected behaviour but I find it difficult to believe it is by design.

Still any further insight you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ben

BTW the ticket reference was 10399.

Hi Ben,

Sorry for the inconvenience, I will look into the support ticket and expedite the service. I really do appreciate your patience. 

Hi Ben,

Sorry for the inconvenience, I will look into the support ticket and expedite the service. I really do appreciate your patience.