Verifying "<various program name>" xprotectservice?

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Verifying "<various program name>" xprotectservice?

Since the iMac updated to Catalina and I launch an application like MS Word, Excel, PP, OR Pages, KeyNote, Numbers, the XProtect service seems to run a window that reads it is "verifying" the application and it is a slow process in some cases. Prior to the Catalina upgrade the programs would just open like flipping a light switch. Attached is a screen shot example.

I reached out to Apple and they've had me re-install Catalina. Do a hard drive First Aid, and then again re-install Catalina. It's still happening.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Posted on Oct 19, 2019 4:31 PM

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Answer 1

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MrHoffman

Level 10

158,941 points

Oct 21, 2019 8:09 PM in response to GSDP

Remove CleanMyMac. Add-on cleaners and add-on security apps have a long history of causing issues. Some problem or some incompatibility here involving this cleaner would be my first assumption, too.

Files owned by root:wheel? That’s unexpected. I’d expect files in your home directory would be owned by you, and not wheel.

Profiles? Is this system managed, or Apple Configurator in use? Otherwise, that’s not an auspicious sign.

Those system modifications are probably involved in this mess, too.

OSXFUSE is almost certainly not 64-bit, based solely on the age. That TimeMachineScheduler looks ancient, too. And SilverLight is long dead.

I’d look for any existing installed 32-bit apps too, using Go64. Either update those apps, or remove them. 32-bit apps will not work on Catalina.

As an aside, I‘d look at replacing the HDD with an SSD, too. That’ll substantially increase your performance, for most folks.

But start by removing CleanMyMac per the vendor documentation, reboot, and try again. Some corruptions by some of the add-on cleaner apps have required wholesale macOS re-installation.

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Answer 2

MrHoffman

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158,941 points

Oct 20, 2019 4:16 PM in response to GSDP

GSDP wrote:

Nothing that wasn't on before without issue (and very minimal).

That wasn’t the question. Are there any add-on security products, add-on anti-malware, or add-on cleaners? Those tools can cause problems, entirely independent of macOS upgrades. If there are any such products installed, please remove all of those per the vendors’ instructions, reboot, and try your tests again.

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Answer 3

MrHoffman

Level 10

158,941 points

Oct 22, 2019 9:38 AM in response to GSDP

Remove the cleaner. Reboot. Try again.

Cleaners have a history of causing issues.

Many folks view this whole class of tool as unnecessary, and problematic.

I suspect this one is poking at something within the apps that then triggers re-verification.

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Answer 4

VikingOSX

Level 10

128,214 points

Oct 19, 2019 5:36 PM in response to GSDP

You may have to perform this Catalina ritual [ Safely open apps on your Mac ] for each Microsoft application to avoid the above verification process each time that you run them. It may be necessary to repeat this process after updates to these applications too.

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Answer 5

MrHoffman

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158,941 points

Oct 20, 2019 7:34 PM in response to GSDP

Please post the EtreCheck data, opening a new reply here and pressing the button that looks like a printed page to get a text input box big enough to paste the hardware and software configuration report here.

Also please post an ls -ale@ of one of the files, from the command line session of Terminal.app. Launch Terminal.app, then enter ls -ale@ {space} and drag one of the problem files from Finder into the command line session. That won’t move the file. That will add the full path of the file onto the command, though. Then press return. Post the output of the command here.

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Answer 6

MrHoffman

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158,941 points

Oct 19, 2019 9:16 PM in response to GSDP

Any add-on security tools, or add-on cleaners, that sort of thing?

If so, remove those per the vendor instructions, reboot, and try again.

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Answer 7

John Galt

Level 10

159,724 points

Oct 31, 2019 7:14 AM in response to GSDP

Profies do not get installed without consent.

sudo /usr/bin/profiles -P

Anything other than "There are no configuration profiles installed" needs further investigation.

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Answer 8

GSDP Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 22, 2019 5:04 PM in response to MrHoffman

So, even if not solving the issue, this has been interesting. I logged on as root and ran the command, which resulted in:

NameA [1] attribute: profile identifier: system.siri.digital_health_restrictions.system.siri

NameB [2] attribute: profile identifier: system.siri.digital_health_restrictions.system.siri

NameA [3] attribute: profile identifier: system.web.contentfilter.basic.digital.health_restrictions.system.webcontentfilter.basic

NameB [4] attribute: profile identifier: system.web.contentfilter.basic.digital.health_restrictions.system.webcontentfilter.basic

NameA and NameB actually have names of two other people who have a user account on the system. Interestingly, there are also two other people who use the system, but they don't show up with any of these config profiles.

What are they? Do they get removed manually? Terminal Window? Could they be running some kind of interference?

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Answer 9

MrHoffman

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158,941 points

Nov 1, 2019 1:59 PM in response to GSDP

It’s unlikely anybody would confirm the efficacy of re-installing—what you’re asking about here—based on the available information.

Reloading–sans add-on appss—does clear up both corruptions, and sketchy add-on software, though.

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Answer 10

MrHoffman

Level 10

158,941 points

Oct 22, 2019 1:15 PM in response to GSDP

Anything shown from the following command?

/usr/bin/profiles -P

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Answer 11

GSDP Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 19, 2019 8:49 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks; this article doesn't deal with the issue above. The apps (including Apple apps) will open after the verification completes. The article reference only seems to deal with apps that cannot be opened or are malicious. Because they eventually open, there is no opportunity inside of Security & Privacy to do what the article suggests.

The issue is: Installed applications like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc, and/or including MAC applications like Garage Band, Pages, etc... all seem to be going through this "Verification" process when run for the 1st time after a restart. If closed and reopened, they do not; they open quickly as they did before Catalina.

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Answer 12

GSDP Author

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6 points

Oct 20, 2019 3:41 PM in response to MrHoffman

Nothing that wasn't on before without issue (and very minimal). The system with the exception of some Microsoft products is almost out of the box in terms of software.

So, you don't get that verification box on Catalina when running an app for the 1st time?

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Answer 13

GSDP Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 21, 2019 4:39 PM in response to MrHoffman

Using MS Word

---

total 0

drwxrwxr-x 3 root wheel 96 15 Oct 14:21 .

drwxrwxr-x+ 52 root admin 1664 21 Oct 17:34 ..

0: group:everyone deny delete

drwxr-xr-x 11 root wheel 352 15 Oct 14:21 Contents

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Answer 14

GSDP Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 22, 2019 8:00 AM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback. While some of them seem to be generally good practice possibilities, they don't really address the issue I initially posted. I'm not really having overall "performance" issues with the system and replacing a hard drive far exceeds anything I need to do, even as an aside. Having said that, I did do some manual clean-up resulting with no progress on the initial problem.

The initial problem is that the system initiates a verification window for various Apple and Microsoft software programs. It didn't do this prior to the Catalina update. It also seems to take a long time to do this validation (sometimes up to one minute).

I'm hoping to understand what is triggering that verification window in hopes of resolving it without blindly doing a complete re-install in hopes it resolves the issue, so that whatever steps (if any) outside of the Catalina update may have contributed to this, aren't repeated.

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Answer 15

GSDP Author

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6 points

Oct 22, 2019 10:13 AM in response to MrHoffman

The cleaner was actually installed after the issue came up as a means to trouble-shoot. The reference you saw was some left-over file that has been since been removed and the system re-started. The issue remains.

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Verifying "<various program name>" xprotectservice?

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