I start an app on my rebooted Mac and it 'verifies' the app, er, taking 3, 4, 5 times more time to start.
Is it possible to stop this horribly annoying feature?
Many thanks
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6
FWIW, the only time I ever see the verification dialog is if there was an update. That's on any of my 7 Macs running Catalina through Monterey and beyond. The problem would seem to be local to your machine. It's not a "bug".
There are a few problems here:
1) Every "internet security researcher" and Apple competitor in the world is furiously searching for Apple security bugs to publish and/or exploit. This is intense. Even the smallest bug that might affect 4 people in the world gets headlines. So Apple is ramping up security to keep its users safe. Part of that security is verifying the digital signature of apps when they are launched.
2) Every app in the world is furiously releasing updates. The "standard" now is 2 weeks between updates. So you have something like Adobe Creative Cloud, which has, what, 9 apps maybe? Each one is being updated every 2 weeks. That's about one update every single day. Often these apps have automatic updates in place.
3) Popular productivity apps like Microsoft and Adobe know about Apple's security changes. But ironically enough, major security vendors usually do not. 😄 So sometimes they will automatically launch apps in the background just to clear the Apple quarantine bits. That way, when you actually need to run these apps, they launch right away instead of forcing you to wait for the signature verification.
4) All of this constant updating and verifying takes time. If you have an older computer, especially one with a mechanical hard drive, this can take a long time.
So that's what's going on.
What you can do to fix it:
1) Adjust your 3rd party apps so they do not auto-update as frequently, or at all.
2) Purchase a new computer with a super-fast SSD. Apple's new M1 and M2 computers have SSD drives that are 50-80 times as fast as the mechanical hard drive on a 2019 iMac.
Hi guycruls,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. This may be due to your security settings. For example, if you have apps that are installed outside of the App Store, make sure the 'App Store and identified developers' is selected in the Allow apps downloaded from section from Apple menu () > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General. The following information is from Safely open apps on your Mac - Apple Support.
Open a developer-signed or notarized app
If your Mac is set to allow apps from the App Store and identified developers, the first time that you launch a new app, your Mac asks if you’re sure you want to open it.
An app that has been notarized by Apple indicates that Apple checked it for malicious software and none was detected.
Have a great day!
Thank you.
All my Adobe apps are downloaded via the utility app 'Creative Cloud', and I would have thought that was credible enough a medium for macOS not to bug me with this quite regular 'verification' routine. we're not talking about newly installed apps, we're talking about apps being used on my mac for over a year.
In my book, that's a bug.
I confirm that 'App Store and identified developers' is already ticked in my security settings.
Hey guycruls,
You may want to test by booting using safe mode and see if you are still prompted every time you open the app. Let's get a little more information to help narrow this down.
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
Is it asking you to verify every time you reboot the computer?
If you don't reboot does it ask to verify again?
Is this happening only to Adobe apps?
Take care.
what's with macOS 'verifying' apps so often?
