Hector MacInnes

I am coming up against what I gather is a common problem, which is that I have a standalone app for MacOS made in maxmsp. It works fine on another mac when I take it over on a flash drive, but if I email it, wetransfer it, dropbox it, even put it on my own ftp, etc. I get the "this app is damaged, move it to trash" error message.

I've tried wrapping it in a .zip, and a .dmg but that doesn't help.

Does anyone have any tips for getting around this that *doesn't* involve the end user needing to open terminal?

I am coming up against what I gather is a common problem, which is that I have a standalone app for MacOS made in maxmsp. It works fine on another mac when I take it over on a flash drive, but if I email it, wetransfer it, dropbox it, even put it on my own ftp, etc. I get the "this app is damaged, move it to trash" error message.

I've tried wrapping it in a .zip, and a .dmg but that doesn't help.

Does anyone have any tips for getting around this that *doesn't* involve the end user needing to open terminal?

Hi folks,
I am coming up against what I gather is a common problem, which is that I have a standalone app for MacOS made in maxmsp. It works

making-mac-standalones-downloadable-any-recent-tips

Sorry I should add - I'm working with maxmsp 8.0.1 on macos 10.10.5 and attempting to test on another 10.10 mac, so this is not fresh M1 trouble. Ta! H.

or your users will have to open terminal.

your problem is xattr com.apple.quarantine which gets set to downloaded stuff.

Your users have to remove that using terminal.

Or they try to right-click on the app and select open,

Or you make your app downloadable using curl

downloads and expands tar.gz compressed file directly into applications.

all this has been described many times in the forum.

You either codesign your app,
or your users will have to open terminal.
---------
your problem is xattr com.apple.quarantine which gets set to downloaded stuff.
Your users have to remove that using terminal.
Or you make a script which does that.
Or they try to right-click on the app and select open,
which might work on some systems.
Or you make your app downloadable using curl
which bypasses that, if one
downloads and expands tar.gz compressed file directly into applications.
Needs again root run script or terminal.
all this has been described many times in the forum.


You should first update Max to the latest version available, and then read through the guide here for Mac standalones - 

https://cycling74.com/articles/max-8-1-mac-os-10-15-catalina-support-and-notarization

If you only want to distribute without triggering gatekeeper (ie are not interested in the app store), then I believe the only step you are concerned with is code-signing the app (hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong here).

In theory, anyone can open your app without code-signing, as long as they open via right-click -> Open rather than via double-click (at least that used to be the case).

You should first update Max to the latest version available, and then read through the guide here for Mac standalones - https://cycling74.com/articles/max-8-1-mac-os-10-15-catalina-support-and-notarization 

If you only want to distribute without triggering gatekeeper (ie are not interested in the app store), then I believe the only step you are concerned with is code-signing the app (hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong here). 

Yeah I am not hoping to use the app store, or even widely distribute - I simply want to be able to email a project to collabs who don't have maxmsp and make it easy for them, which is why I was wondering what the shortest cut is. I'll have a good look through the Catalina stuff as I'll be moving over soon, but the right-click option seems to work so far.

Thanks both,

Yeah I am not hoping to use the app store, or even widely distribute - I simply want to be able to email a project to collabs who don't have maxmsp and make it easy for them, which is why I was wondering what the shortest cut is. I'll have a good look through the Catalina stuff as I'll be moving over soon, but the right-click option seems to work so far.

Making mac standalones downloadable - any recent tips?