MacOS 'Verifying Files'

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Level 1

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MacOS 'Verifying Files'

Apple has never answered this question despite numerous threads here and on other boards that I have seen. Why does Mac OS (any recent version in past years) take 10 minutes or longer to "Verify" software applications like Microsoft Excel or Apple's own XCode? I challenge anyone from Apple to break the years of silence and to answer this question. I understand that there is a security process in play but a '17 iMac should not take 10-15 minutes to open Excel regularly. This behavior repros on my '19 MBP13 identically and my older MBP13. How do your users fix the problem of taking minutes versus milliseconds to start an application?

(I was required to tag Catalina but this existed before then)

Posted on Apr 20, 2021 11:19 AM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,144 points

Apr 20, 2021 11:32 AM in response to Aphex_242

Apple product teams do not participate in these public, user-supported communities, and therefore, Apple will never answer your question here. If an application is installed on the Mac from outside of the Mac App Store, then the built-in operating system security will verify the application is not malware each and every time it is launched.

You can solve the second sentence in the first paragraph by right-clicking on the individual application, choosing Open, waiting for the verification progress, and then clicking OK on the subsequent dialog that informs you that the application is external to the Mac App Store. This is a one-time ritual for each application that is not installed from the Mac App Store, and afterward, the launch verification will be gone — until the application is updated, and this procedure is required again.

I have downloaded Xcode directly from Apple's developer site and no version of macOS through Big Sur has verified it, because it is code-signed by Apple.

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MacOS 'Verifying Files'

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