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Unable to launch a few apps with the following pop-up ("XXX app” is damaged and can’t be opened. ...)

When I try launching a few of my apps, I get the following pop-up:

“XXX.app” is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete “XXX.app” and download it again from the App Store.


I tried setting the "Allow apps downloaded from: Anywhere", then deleted the apps and re-installed them multiple times, but no change. The two apps I'm most concerned about are:

My Movies 2 Pro - Movie & TV

MetaDoctor Pro


The strange thing is that they were both purchased from the App Store and are still being actively supported. I have over 150 apps, and this only affects a small handful of apps (I think 5). This issue has been around since I migrated to my new Mac Pro about a year ago. Just been too busy to try to address this up until now.


When looking through the system log, I see the following:

com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Coalition Cache Hit: app<application.dk.mymovies.mymovies2proformacosx.96012537.96012653(501)> [340743]

com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Coalition Cache Hit: app<application.STARware.MetaDoctor-Pro.105341507.105341514(501)> [341049]


Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks.


---Ken


Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 19, 2021 1:20 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 20, 2021 12:26 PM

Hi Kenneth Humphries1,


Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having issues with a couple apps on your Mac. We'd like to help.


What happens when you delete these apps and redownload them again? Do you continue to get the same error message?


How about if you try to open these apps in safe mode? Are you then able to open these apps? How to use safe mode on your Mac


Let us know how that goes.


Take care!

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 20, 2021 12:26 PM in response to Kenneth Humphries1

Hi Kenneth Humphries1,


Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having issues with a couple apps on your Mac. We'd like to help.


What happens when you delete these apps and redownload them again? Do you continue to get the same error message?


How about if you try to open these apps in safe mode? Are you then able to open these apps? How to use safe mode on your Mac


Let us know how that goes.


Take care!

Jun 20, 2021 11:23 PM in response to Kenneth Humphries1

When you migrated these apps over from your older mac it would have migrated the apps with their associated files.

The associated files probably had information imbedded which tied them to the other mac and therefore gave you the

errors experienced.

I wouldn't use Migration Assistant for importing apps to your mac, best to use it for importing your own personal data and then just installing the apps afresh on the new mac, and setting the mac up yourself.


You also said you deleted the apps and reinstalled them but that did not work.

Some apps can be easily deleted from the Applications folder and reinstalled and they should work.

Some apps though install files throughout the mac and then need an uninstaller usually provided by the software developer

which would remove these files, if you had only deleted the app from the Applications folder and not used the uninstaller

this could explain why the apps would not launch.


When booting to Safe Mode the mac runs disk repairs and clears out caches and user caches, clearing out the caches probably allowed your mac to be free from the residual information from your older mac.



Unable to launch a few apps with the following pop-up ("XXX app” is damaged and can’t be opened. ...)

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