How to fix 'The application ". " can't be opened' on Mac?

dialog box

I get this: Some people said use chmod to fix the execution files thing, but I still don't understand how to do it. Can some one tell me step by steps please?

77.3k 22 22 gold badges 157 157 silver badges 238 238 bronze badges asked Aug 3, 2018 at 6:08 seven tang seven tang 361 1 1 gold badge 3 3 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges Can you provide the path to the application? Where exactly on your filesystem is it? Commented Aug 3, 2018 at 6:43

I've seen this once in a while. A reboot will clear it in many cases. I haven't dug into the exact cause.

Commented Aug 5, 2018 at 2:11 @Fanatique it's in application section Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 2:09

Using "The Unarchiver" to unzip the application worked for me (regular Archive Utility bundled with macOS Catalina did not -- see Dmitriy Pavlukhin's answer below!)

Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 20:11 @JamonHolmgren the Unarchiver thing did the trick.. not even the zip command worked. Commented May 20, 2020 at 19:12

4 Answers 4

In my case nothing helped until I accidently opened context menu on .zip file. Open With -> there were

1) Archive Utility (default) which always broke my app when unzipped

2) The Unarchiver, unzipped with this and application started

answered Aug 22, 2019 at 16:29 Dmitriy Pavlukhin Dmitriy Pavlukhin 461 4 4 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges

Can you describe your solution more accurately? I have been fighting this problem for 3 days :( On some MAC's, application runs without a problem on others (especially new ones) gets information as in the subject

Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 12:30

@user1100353 just try another archive managing utilities. In my case standart Unarchiver which was installed in system helped.

Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 15:24 unzipped with unzip command and it worked. Commented Nov 11, 2019 at 11:13 This worked, thank you Dmitriy! Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 20:11 The Unarchiver works just fine. Thanks. Commented Jun 20, 2020 at 16:43

This happens because the application doesn't have execution permissions.

To make the application executable:

  1. Open a terminal window (CMD + Space -> terminal);
  2. Using the cd command, navigate to the place where the application is stored: cd
  3. Run chmod +x to make it executable. If it doesn't let you, sudo it:
    sudo chmod +x .

The command from point 3 should look similar to this (thanks to @CJK):

chmod +x "/Applications/ShadowBat.app/Contents/MacOS/ShadowBat"
answered Aug 3, 2018 at 6:49 4,983 1 1 gold badge 21 21 silver badges 30 30 bronze badges

Just to clarify by example for the OP, your command should look something like this: chmod +x "/Applications/ShadowBat.app/Contents/MacOS/ShadowBat" , adding sudo at the start if needed.

Commented Aug 4, 2018 at 11:46 Thank you @CJK. Not an OSX user, so didn't have an idea. Will add that to my post. Commented Aug 5, 2018 at 8:41 when I type: cd , it load: -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'. what should I do? Commented Aug 6, 2018 at 23:57

and when I type like: chmod +x "/Applications/ShadowBat.app/Contents/MacOS/ShadowBat" it load: No such file or directory.

Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 0:14 Not working anymore with MacOS 10.14 Mojave. Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 19:40

@Fanatique is right, but be advised -

There are many possible causes for this problem, and most cannot be fixed using chmod . Handling program bundles with inappropriate tools often will "damage" executable bundles.

You shouldn't use chmod unless you have a good understanding of both file modes and ACLs, and more important, of what exactly the problem is, so you can fix it. this innocuous tool is well capable of recursively ruining your whole filesystem (and may even keep your system from booting).

If in doubt, I'd recommend deleting and reinstalling the pertaining app.