I sent the following feature request to Harmony. If you think this would be a suitable replacement of the "automatic propagation" feature please email them as well. Hopefully, they'll be willing to add this if there is enough demand:

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Now that Logitech updated the Harmony software to remove the automatic
propagation of custom buttons across activities that share the same device
there is now a need to re-add this tossed behavior in a more intelligent
fashion.

Consider a TV device. A user might want all activities to share certain
buttons, such as "input" and "aspect". Also, some users might not want any
TV buttons to be used for their "Watch movie" activity (which, as I
understand it, is the reason you dropped the propagation feature).

It seems as though Logitech has gone from one extreme to another and
upsetting many users in the process (as you can see on the Remote Central
forum). However, a simple solution that should be able to satisfy the
majority of situations without upsetting users would be the following
implementation:

Currently, when viewing the device level buttons you have 2 pages: "Standard
Buttons" and "Additional Buttons". However, if you added a 3rd page "Shared
buttons" (or similar) which would be empty by default which would indicate
that no buttons will be shared across activities. Alternatively, a user can
add a complete set or subset of the device buttons. Any buttons added to the
"Shared buttons" would be applied to all activities that use the device. So
if all activities that used the TV device need the "Aspect" button then that
could be added to "Shared buttons". Each activity that uses the TV would
then have the shared buttons, but the user can add additional TV buttons for
specific activities.

With this implementation, a user has the option of not having any buttons
propagate or having some buttons propagate which should satisfy both
extremes.

I understand that if you have a lot of activities, instead of entering the same commands for each activity it's easier to propagate commands. But, you only have to do it ONCE. Since you can add the same commands to other activities I really don't think Logitech is going to expand resources to make this a feature...this is how big companies are. They have a lot of remotes, a lot of bugs, software & hardware that still need resolving.

Personally, I only have two commands that need to propagate, and they're still going to be there with the new website software because the new website doesn't seem to change your settings whatsoever.

I'm sorry if you have to re-enter any propagation commands all over again, but it's really all you can do at this point. Besides, I highly doubt Logitech reads these forums, even though they should. If you want to be heard, you should call them and tell them outright.

Since the buttons on the LCD (additional buttons) are now saved in the order specified, how would a third page work? how would they fit into the ordering on the additional buttons screen?

The issue with propagation now that there is a specific command order is: where exactly do the propagated commands go? If a command is position 1 in one activity, does it get position 1 in every other activity? does it overwrite the existing command? Or bump all commands down, changing the ordering you initially specified?

I don't think command ordering and automatic button propagation can co-exist.

What they could do fairly easily, is have a button that you click on the configuration site that automatically propgates the commands only if you click the button. At that time, you can then go into each activity and reorder as you please.

They could be added anywhere, in the same order that you specified. Since these commands would be specific to a single device, they would logically be grouped w/ other commands for that device. If they wanted to implement this and go the extra mile they could even prompt for placement. The bottom line is, that the feature would allow you to take advantage of it if you wanted to without impacting users that have no interest in propagated commands.

Essentially, Logitech went from one extreme to another, leaving some satisfied and some disgusted. The fact that they dropped propagation for everybody rather than trying to accommodate those that want it and those that don't seems to be the worst solution they could have implemented. The current implementation does not satisfy me one bit so I'd like to see any feature implemented that gives me more control not less.

Thats exactly what this change is allowing, more control not less...

A common complaint (which I shared) for quite a while in this forum has been over button propagation because:
a) you can't have seperate button configurations for each activity; and

b) you can't set the specific order of commands (because they span activities).

Now we have MORE control over where our buttons go, and MORE control over what buttons appear in each activity.

All that is being lost is a bit of extra time setting up buttons for activities. And to be honest, the only buttons you would really need to do this for are any extra LCD commands, because the defaults work properly in almost all cases (numbers, play commands, volume, channel etc.).

So there are two FUNCTIONALITY improvements (things you can now do that simply weren't possible before), and no functionality losses (if you want the same commands in all your activities, it's possible, just add the ones that aren't there by default!)

That being said, there may be some shortcuts that can be added, like copying commands to multiple activities. But that is just to save time, it's not anything you couldn't do yourself; and if you have to review each of your activities to choose the command order after you add a new 'propagating' command anyways, are you really saving that much time? Besides... how many times do you customize buttons anyway? Setup the remote, get the buttons how you want them, and thats it!

R0B0T0, you are missing something.
The ability to make a single button send different commands to different devices was removed.


but you have LESS control over what the buttons _do_.


Absolutely untrue.
there are two minor LAYOUT improvements and one huge FUNCTIONALITY loss.

I do the same thing that was mentioned previously: when I hit Play or Pause in my DVD activity it lowers and raises the lights by sending a lighting control. A feature that is still advertised in the user manual. Now I can't do that unless I can manage to learn the two button presses as a pseudo macro. The button propogation simply affected the amount of time and effort required to do the initial setup, not the functionality.

1) One big advantage of the new S/W is we no longer have to explain (over and over) the command propagation and custom command regrouping workarounds :-)

2) Akirby, I hope you kept your old 659 Harmony remote. You can use it to setup a Start activity macro, and then teach it to the other Harmony remote as a single command name in RAW mode. Also the Activity Start macro supports delays. You are no longer at the mercy of the latest inter-device/inter-key delay bug. I had to use that technique for some of my lost pseudo macros. The delay became very handy for some of those macros. If you decide to use that technique, create a new account, set the device power settings to always on (so it won't send any power command), set all device delays to 0 ms so that you can control them via the Activity Start macro, and use the Generic activity type (under Utility) to allow selecting "I don't need to set the input" so it won't send any input command.

alexo, I'm afraid you are missing something. If you actually read the original poster's complaint you would see it was about button propagation, and has nothing to do with multiple commands per button.

I'm addressing his complaint... and since there are other threads dealing with the off topic issue you raise, I'm not sure what relevance anything you posted here has?

Yes, I still have it and understand the procedure. Thanks for the reminder.