How to repair application permissions in macOS Sierra?

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Level 1

50 points

How to repair application permissions in macOS Sierra?

Having a really annoying problem on a brand new MacBook Pro 15" (Touch Bar model). Setup from scratch, no migration. Setup my account, installed a bunch of apps, got everything configured. Then made a new account for my wife. About 12 of the apps I installed won't open, and show a generic icon. I've tried checking the permissions on the files and it says Read & Write for both my user and her. When I try to open the apps, they either just immediately and quietly close, or show a "Unexpectedly Quit" error.

Now here's where it gets really weird and frustrating. I tried copying the app out to the desktop (it asked for admin password), and then moving it back. Then the application opened perfectly. However, when I switch back to my user, the app doesn't open for me. If I copy it out and back in, that fixes it for my user, and then it breaks on my wife's user account.

What the heck is going on? How do I fix it? From my understanding, there is no way to repair permissions anymore in macOS Sierra, so what should I do?

I've checked Console and nothing gets generated. The crash report is extremely generic or says something like:

Application Specific Information:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** setObjectForKey: object cannot be nil (key: UNSearchSites)'

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

It's always a similar error.

Hopefully someone can help me ASAP, as this is a real problem. I will also be calling Apple about this tomorrow. Frustrating, to say the least.

Thanks for any help.

Posted on Nov 15, 2016 11:25 PM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Nov 15, 2016 11:47 PM in response to pfjellman

If they are unidentified app downloaded from google drag & drop them from download folder to applications .

Right click in app & then open .

Empty the download folder , there is no need to .dmg files to be stored , restart & empty the trash .

What about read and write permissions , press command + info , have you done any changes in it ? the correct settings are as :

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Answer 2

pfjellman Author

Level 1

50 points

Nov 15, 2016 11:51 PM in response to tygb

The apps are signed and I've tried the right-click > Open option. No go.

Strangely, the apps that don't open show the OTHER person's name in the permissions window. For example, apps that open show me as read and write, then admin and everyone Read only.

On the apps that DON'T open for me, I've tried adding me as Read & Write and it still doesn't work. If I copy the app out to Desktop, delete the original, and copy it back, it asks for my admin password and then it works fine. But when I switch to the other user account, that app will not open.

I've tried everything else I can think of.

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Answer 3

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Nov 16, 2016 12:31 AM in response to pfjellman

This is because you are the administrator of the computer and created a user name and password , so whenever you open an app it asks permissions from you to be opened , and prompts to enter the credentials

. Also Read & write permission is for you as admin & not for others , staff or everyone can only read , they can't write .

But there is no need to create an alias for an app may on the desktop .

And also you added an app so that everyone can read it and do not write it - you have to disable admin name & password and in users and groups > change from automatic login as off TO automatic login as ON so that everyone can login and use the app .

Now go to app . press command + info > open pad lock by entering username & password > click on gear icon and do the changes > click on revert changes > a small window appears change to staff > click apply , close the padlock .

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Answer 4

pfjellman Author

Level 1

50 points

Nov 22, 2016 5:52 PM in response to pfjellman

I wanted to post a follow up solution. If you're having issues moving apps from one Mac to another, especially when being used with multiple user accounts, what worked for me is ZIPPING the application before transferring it over to the new Mac. This eliminated all of the permissions and crashing issues, for all users.

Worked for me. Hope this helps someone else.

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Answer 5

pfjellman Author

Level 1

50 points

Nov 16, 2016 12:31 AM in response to pfjellman

Finally got it sorted out by deleting all the affected apps and re-downloading them all from the new account. Once I did that, they are now working in both accounts.

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