This copy of the MacBook Pro Install macOS Monterey application is damaged

hopemankind wrote:

Hello Guys... I recommend getting CleanmyMac

There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.  

There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   

Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.

There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is desshoigned solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  

The above include CleanMyMac. If you search these forums for CMM you'll see many, many posts where CMM was the major factor for the posters problem.

I have the exact same problem (except I am on a 2017 iMac). After re-downloading the same error pops up. Please, help.

This was one article I found with a simple search. I found it intriguing.

https://www.howtogeek.com/216209/how-to-connect-your-mac-to-any-vpn-and-automatically-reconnect/

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Interesting, I have this too. I'm very interested in what others have to say.

My file has a grayed out prohibitive icon and can't be deleted because it's "in use". I can get it into Trash but neither empty nor Delete immediately works. Safe Mode doesn't work. Various file shredders don't work. No reset works. Reinstallation of OS had no effect; didn't really expect it to but gave it a shot.

I actually have two files, Catalina and Big Sur; both files size 7.7GB which is not correct for Big Sur. Nothing is locked that I can find.

The best I can do is mark them for exclusion in TimeMachine and Carbon Copy Cloner, but this really baffles me.

The irksome thing is if this were Windows, I'd boot a Linux Live CD and delete it from there. That has worked perfectly in the past. I do wish Macs had that capability.

There is also a $4.99 app that allows a Mac to boot from any Linux distro. The web site indicated it's compatible with Monterey with the typical statement of any OS after, I think, Leopard but I'm not sure about that.

I did load my Win10 VM and try that. Windows seemed to delete the file but it popped right back. A Windows file shredder did nothing.

When I have some time, I might give the Internet recovery a try. I've used it successfully before just not for this.

Apparently, I am showing my ignorance with these questions.

Some searching and reading indicates that Generic VPN support appears to be an integral part of MacOS, but is not 'expressed' as choice on the System preferences > Network menu unless/until you choose to add a VPN.

My guess is that once you make that choice, connecting via some types of VPN does not require any additional software, but is simply 'activated'.

It is conceivable that activating certain types of VPN without the third-party software added is guaranteed to fail.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Some searching and reading indicates that Generic VPN support appears to be an integral part of MacOS, but is not 'expressed' as choice on the System preferences > Network menu unless/until you choose to add a VPN.

My guess is that once you make that choice, connecting via VPN does not require any additional software, but is simply 'activated'.

Interesting. I wasn't aware that MacOS offered native VPN support. I normally leave the VPN off unless I need to access something internal (remote connection via RDS to a Windows server for scientific/data visualization software e.g. Spotfire, our access security console, etc.).

I think we have strayed from the root question of resolving "This copy of the Install macOS Monterey.app application is damaged, and can‘t be used to install macOS." Has anyone yet found a canonical solution to this that works regardless of VPN-or-not or security-or-not also present on the machine?

I am currently running Big Sur (11.6.2) on a 15" MBP. I've never had a VPN (to my knowledge) and the only anti-virus I had (it has expired) was Norton which was provided by my internet company. I did delete "Install macOS Montery.app" and did another download. It didn't work. My system date is OK, and I've read that moving said date back in time to qualify for whatever certificate is out there is fraught with problems (and doesn't always work).

I am formally uninstalling Norton and will try again..

Thanks!

Yes, I agree. I attempted to run what I had already downloaded, and that failed — the installer gives a near instantaneous message that the copy is damaged.

The post below seems to suggest that I delete the "Install macOS Monterey.app" to trigger another (2 hour) download. I don't understand how doing the download in SAFE mode would affect the downloaded image. I *do* understand how running the installer in SAFE mode could make a difference; that is what I did, and that failed.

I am having the same issue. Can you tell what malware was the culprit?

Technically, F-Secure is not malware. It is security software. However, your experience demonstrates why such software is neither required nor recommended on a Mac.

I tried downloading Monterey from the App Store 4 times. Same problem each time, the installation file is damaged.

Mac mini (2018), 16 GB RAM, 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5.

Really frustrating.

Glad you figured it out!