Why won't apps downloaded from the internet open?

Whenever I try to open an application downloaded from the internet, the little app icon jumps in the dock for a moment then disappears. I tried opening it in finder, right-clicking, and clicking "open" but with the same result--I've tried everything I can think of like uninstalling and re-installing the app, restarting the computer, moving the application out of the downloads folder, etc. I've already tried 4 different apps downloaded from the internet and none of them worked. How do I fix this?

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 25, 2016 1:10 PM

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9 replies

Feb 25, 2016 3:55 PM in response to XarisBaker

Please launch the Console application in any one of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take an action that isn't working the way you expect. Select any lines that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

Feb 26, 2016 8:21 AM in response to KiltedTim

I've tried downloading Rosetta Stone (which has had many irrelevant difficulties of it's own), "Ascension: Echoes in the Dark", "Yandere Simulator", "FNIA - the Novel", and "Calling Cipher". All of them have had the same problem; when I try to open it, the application icon bounces in the dock a couple times, then disappears as though I "quit" the application.

Feb 26, 2016 9:44 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc, I have a similar issue--in attempting an install software downloaded from a trusted source, I get the following errors in console:


2/26/16 10:31:29.148 AM xpcproxy[1388]: CFPreferences could not connect to its daemon.

Preferences using the connection 0x0 will be volatile and will not be persisted to disk.

2/26/16 10:31:29.172 AM xpcproxy[1388]: LaunchServices: received XPC_ERROR_CONNECTION_INTERRUPTED trying to map database

2/26/16 10:31:29.172 AM xpcproxy[1388]: LaunchServices: Database mapping failed with result -10822, retrying


It seems El Capitan is preventing the install. Is this a security setting? Thanks for your help!

Feb 26, 2016 11:11 AM in response to dialabrain

just an indexing (Mac installer) program for familysearch.org. Their tech support said to contact Apple... The file is named: FamilySearch Indexing Installer. The displayed error message says it cannot create the file--should it try again? Yes / No / Cancel. Pressing Yes does nothing--No allows the installer to cycle through attempting to create additional files for the install, and Cancel aborts the install, of course.


I'll start a new thread for this then. Thanks.

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Why won't apps downloaded from the internet open?

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