app.app is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to trash

No, wait. Don’t move it to trash as of now. We have got a fix for this! Let’s try together to make it work for you.

So it happened to me when I installed an app from a DMG file and as soon as I opened it up, it showed up this error and never let me run this app. The reason is the macOS’s infamous “gatekeeper”. The role of the gatekeeper is not to let anything work inside your computer which is suspected or is not from a trusted source (for mac the trusted source is the mac App Store). As many of us will understand the risk of running a software by downloading it from any external source, we can go ahead and use the fix as mentioned below in order to make this app work!

Step 1. Ask mac’s gatekeeper to shut up
Open ‘Terminal’ (ideally from the launchpad or search)
Type exactly as below:
sudo spctl –master-disable

and hit enter/return, type your password (invisibly) and hit enter again to get it done.

Step 2. Ask gatekeeper to allow you to run apps you downloaded from anywhere on your computer
Go to Settings > Security & Privacy > General
Now you can see there’s an additional option of ‘Allow apps downloaded from:’ and select ‘Anywhere’ radio button.

Also, when you find a need to revert the Gatekeeper setting as earlier, you may follow the step 1 and type the command exactly as:
sudo spctl –master-enable

That’s it! You’re done. Now go back and run the same app again which threw the error at you earlier and make it run.

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I just fixed an error with my mac “app is damaged and can’t be opened” referring swapnilbhatnagar.com blog @swbhatnagar #diy #troubleshooting #mac

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