olca-app: macOS: “openLCA.app” is damaged and can’t be opened.
When you start openLCA on macOS the first time you may see an error message like this:
The reason for this is that openLCA is not a signed application and the security settings of macOS do not allow to run it. To fix this, do the following steps:
- move the
openLCA_macOS_*.tr.gzto some other folder than theDownloadfolder - extract this file using the macOS native Archive Utility
- open the Terminal app and navigate to the folder where you extracted openLCA
cd folder/with/openLCA - execute the following command:
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine openLCA.app
Another option is to change the security settings globally via sudo spctl --master-disable but this does not seem to work on new macOS versions.
Sources:
About this issue
- Original URL
- State: closed
- Created 2 years ago
- Reactions: 11
- Comments: 43 (4 by maintainers)
I’ve got quite a few “dev” friends and I will apologize on their behalf for not being so good at explaining these things to mere mortals with little background of troubleshooting/coding/etc. Its not their fault they live in their world and tend to assume that everyone can work out the missing puzzle pieces 😉
Here are slightly clearer steps and combined with others’ contributions that will hopefully help.
Download the file openLCA_macOS_*.tr.gz (Using Firefox seems to be a better choice)
Move the file openLCA_macOS_*.tr.gz to some other folder than the Download folder (“Applications” folder is best)
Extract this file using the macOS native Archive Utility (this is a built in tool in Mac OS, not another downloaded app). Option A. Usually right click on downloaded file, then “open with”, then select “Archive Utility” Option B. Search for it using Spotlight search.
Option C. Navigate to this folder to find it “/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications”, then “File” and “Expand Archive”
Open the Terminal app (also built in and searchable with Spotlight) and navigate to the folder where you extracted openLCA (Navigate to folder means type the “cd” command “space” then location of the file). You should have followed step 2 of course, and if you moved the file to the “Applications” folder then you type “cd /Applications”, then Enter.
Execute the following command: Means type “sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine openLCA.app” then Enter. It asks for the password of your current user account then Enter (needs to be administrator user. See msrocka’s link if you don’t understand). Note: nothing appears on screen as you type your password so avoid mistakes.
If you do not get an error message, it will seem like nothing happened after pressing Enter. So now you can try opening the App as usual from the Applications folder! (delete the downloaded compressed file if you wish)
Hope this helps 😃
This issue is solved with the introduction of openLCA2.0 (silently released on May, 16th). The application has been signed, notarized and stapled. Gatekeeper should now recognize the application. Any Mac user should be able to download the DMG from https://www.openlca.org/download/, mount the disk image and copy the bundle into
Applications/without issue. Stay tuned for more exciting news about openLCA2.0 (release note, showcase webinar, Q&A, …)!@okworx many thanks Oliver! Yes, we plan to register for such a developer ID. I will come back to you when there are questions. Thanks!
on MacOS Ventura (13.0), when following what’s described here, I get another error that tells me to check the logs. Here are the logs :
Click to see logs
In order to provide a seamless user experience for openLCA users on macOS, the application simply needs to be signed by the vendor and notarized by Apple. All that requires is a Developer ID for $99/year and a few calls from the command line on a macOS system in order to submit the signed binary for notarization. See for example here https://scriptingosx.com/2021/07/notarize-a-command-line-tool-with-notarytool/ @msrocka I’ll be happy to assist should you guys decide to go route and need some guidance.