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Application permission

After updating to Big Sur 11.0.1 I get an error saying "you do not have permission to open the application …" when trying to run some (but not all) applications. What's going on? How do I get around it?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 3, 2020 12:18 PM

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6 replies

Dec 7, 2020 8:35 PM in response to Rich_in_NFPA

This is really driving me crazy. I've been googling everything I can think of that might help and am getting nowhere. I've tried Ctrl-right_click-"Open" with no success. Based on suggestions in another post for this same problem, I checked my permissions — here they are:




The other post mentioned that "custom access" means there's an ACL that could override the permissions shown & gave a command to list the ACL(s) — here's the results:




Honestly, I don't know what that tells me — it's probably been 30 years since I took a class in Unix (I know this isn't Unix but the commands are similar). Since so many users are running into this problem with Big Sur 11.0.1 I was hoping someone would have come up with a solution by now but apparently not. I guess I could always regress to Catalina but I'd rather avoid that if I can.


Help!

Dec 7, 2020 9:02 PM in response to Rich_in_NFPA

Yes. I saw many posts about the issue. I cannot figure out a unique cause yet.


It seems that a command line command like the following works in some cases::


xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine <app>.

Then run the App. A permission dialog may show up.


I suggest it only if you know what you're doing. Type man xattr for the exact syntax.


BTW. It is Unix!


WD

Dec 7, 2020 10:32 PM in response to Rich_in_NFPA

Rich_in_NFPA Said:

"Application permission: After updating to Big Sur 11.0.1 I get an error saying "you do not have permission to open the application …" when trying to run some (but not all) applications. What's going on? How do I get around it?"

-------


Safe Mode:

Boot into Safe Mode, wait 30 seconds once logged in, shutdown the Mac, and then log in as normal. In Safe Mode, login items do not run, and corrupt system files(caches) are fixed. So, see if that fixes this. To boot into Safe Mode, hold down the shift key upon boot.

Dec 8, 2020 9:13 AM in response to Wilddrums

Thanks @Wilddrums — screen time (and everything within it) is turned off — I'm the only user of this MBP. I've been retired from IT for almost 15 years now & wasn't sure the environment for MacOS was still considered UNIX. Considering I date all the way back to the Apollo Project I think I'm doing pretty good feeling comfortable talking to my watch and expecting a reply! 😂🤣😂


I'm going to try the safe mode suggestion now...

Application permission

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