"WP Debug" is damaged and can't be opened

[slaFFik]

Got this popup after opening the app in my M1 Max:

The question mark leads to this page: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/the-app-has-been-modified-or-damaged-mh40619/15.0/mac/15.2

[jonathanbossenger]

Thanks @slaFFik. I'm guessing this has to do with the wonderful world of signing a macOS app.

Since I don't plan to make any money off this app, would you be prepared to follow the steps detailed in this doc on Open an app by overriding security settings to try it out?

I appreciate this means you have to trust that there's no malware in the code, but as the source code is entirely open, you can scan through it to confirm that there's nothing nefarious going on.

[slaFFik]

Unfortunately, this guide doesn't work as there is no WP Debug app shown in the Settings > Privacy & Security > Security section to allow to open it.

[jonathanbossenger]

Can I confirm something? Could you let me know if you copied the app to your Applications directory to open it from there?

The first time I used the app on my MacBook I run the file after extracting it, which I seem to recall triggered the security warning. Are you able to try that out?

[slaFFik]

Yes, I did copy to the Applications folder, and then tried to launch the app
I'm on 15.2 - and don't have an option to enable the app launch.
A college of mine is on MacOS 15.0 - and he was able to do that.

It looks like Apple changed the rules/settings in one of the latest MacOS releases.

Here is how the Security section looks for me:

[jonathanbossenger]

Ah, interesting; thank you very much for that context.

I'm still on 14.6.1, so I will see about updating my OS version and testing. I will also do some digging into if there are other workarounds for 15.2. I can't afford to fork out $99 for an app I don't intend to make anything profit from.

[jonathanbossenger]

@slaFFik this isn't a perfect workaround, but are you able to remove the quarantine on the app from the terminal, to run the app?

sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Applications/WP\ Debug.app

[slaFFik]

@jonathanbossenger That fixed the issue for me. That app now runs!

[jonathanbossenger]

Thanks. I'm going to leave the issue as open for now, until I can figure out if there's a GUI way to do the same thing.

[slaFFik]

Same issue after upgrading to v1.0.2.

I removed the app from ~/Applications, installed it using dmg from this repo release - this installs it globally and not per user (which is fine in my case as I'm the only user on my MBP). And then ran this command:

sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/WP\ Debug.app

[jonathanbossenger]

Thanks @slaFFik. The only way I can fix this is by buying an Apple developer license, which I refuse to do. Unfortunately, this will have to remain open as wontfix.

[slaFFik]

@jonathanbossenger is it possible for you to then include those instructions from my last comment into the release post as a note for MacOS users? As there is no auto-update functionality inside the app, we need to subscribe to GH releases, then download the file from the latest release - and it would be handy to see that note of what needs to be done right in the release where we download the file from.
Thanks!