Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I created two *.webarchive files today under macOS 11.6 and Safari 15.0. Although I can open older *.webarchive files with Safari, I cannot open these new ones. The error message I get is as follows:
I am not ready to upgrade the OS yet so need a resolution that will work with 11.6. This appears to me to be a bug and not a feature of gatekeeper.
I did use Control-click (what you call right-click) to override Gatekeeper. That overcomes the barrier albeit with language that many users will find quite intimidating. Note that macOS misidentifies the file as an app, degrading confidence to some degree. I suppose that a webarchive can contain malicious code and behave as a malicious web app but since I created this file with Safari myself, I did not feel even potentially endangered.
So the underlying question is why macOS is so obtuse about the creator of this file and why it is so unsure that no one has altered it since its creation. I created the file and no one has messed with it since then. Thus, I find this behavior "buggy."
I did use Control-click (what you call right-click) to override Gatekeeper. That overcomes the barrier albeit with language that many users will find quite intimidating. Note that macOS misidentifies the file as an app, degrading confidence to some degree. I suppose that a webarchive can contain malicious code and behave as a malicious web app but since I created this file with Safari myself, I did not feel even potentially endangered.
So the underlying question is why macOS is so obtuse about the creator of this file and why it is so unsure that no one has altered it since its creation. I created the file and no one has messed with it since then. Thus, I find this behavior "buggy."
Even Safari 15.1 in macOS 11.6.1 complains, and it shouldn't. Right-click on the .webarchive, and choose Open with > Safari. You will still receive a complaining dialog but with an Open override button.
Once you click the Open button on this dialog, the same .webarchive can be opened directly in Safari by double-clicking it, and without the same dialog reoccurrence. I would only encourage this if you absolutely know where the .webarchive originated.
I cannot open webarchive files recently created by Safari
