Find routing mistakes

Find Routing Mistakes searches your browser history for links you opened in the wrong browser and then in the right one. Each one can become a rule.

A routing mistake is the same link opened in two different browsers or profiles. The two opens must be within 120 seconds of each other.

1. Go to Settings > Rules and click Find Routing Mistakes. A sheet opens.
2. Click Search History. The button reads Scanning… while Bouncer searches.
3. Review the list. The columns are URL, First opened in, and …then opened in. The count at the bottom reads “N missed connections”.
4. Click Create Rule on a row. The rule editor opens with that link filled in. The browser and profile from …then opened in are chosen under Open in….
5. Or select several rows and click Create N Rules. The checkbox in the header selects every row. Bouncer makes one rule per row and adds each one at the top of the Rules list.
6. Click Done to close the sheet.

Note

Bouncer reads history from Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave only. Safari is not supported. The sheet says so: “History search only works for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave”. Bouncer reads a copy of each history file on your Mac and deletes the copy when it is done. As the sheet puts it: Your browser history never leaves your device.

Hide existing rules

After a search with results, a Hide existing rules checkbox appears at the top of the sheet. It is on by default. It hides rows that one of your rules already routes.

Turn it off to see those rows too. They appear dimmed with a caption, for example “Covered by “GitHub"". The count then reads “X of N missed connections”.

If you click Create Rule on a covered row, an alert titled Rule May Already Exist asks whether to create a new rule anyway. Click Create Rule to continue or Cancel to stop.

If your selection includes covered rows and you click Create N Rules, an alert titled Some Links Already Covered asks the same. Click Create Rules or Cancel.

What the rules look like

A rule made with Create Rule starts from that link as its example link. The most useful match is selected under When…. Change anything before you save. There is no Save & Reopen button on this path.

A rule made with Create N Rules is named after the domain, for example “github.com rule”. It matches every page on that domain and its subdomains. It opens in the browser and profile from …then opened in. Open it in the rule editor to change anything.

No results

If nothing is found, the sheet reads No Routing Mistakes Found. Bouncer reads up to 10,000 history entries per profile.