Fixed! The Application Appears to Have Been Tampered with Error on Mac

macos tips
1

Some Mac users reported that they encounter the error saying “The application appears to have been tampered with” when opening the downloaded app on Mac, is it a variant of the problem message that periodically shows for some Mac users: “app is damaged and cannot be opened?” And what should I do to fix this error so that I can successfully run the app on Mac?

2

When Mac prompts the error “The application appears to have been tampered with,” it prevents you from launching the installed app. As the messages tell, the OS could have detected some errors with the downloaded app and kept it from running to protect your Mac.

The possible cause for the error could be that GateKeeper flags the downloaded apps especially those from outside the Apple Store, the download is incomplete because of unstable or poor network connection and file corruption, and the application is from an untrusted source.

3

According to the error message, the possible fix is to delete the application and redownload it from a legitimate source, you can follow Apple’s suggestion first.

To uninstall apps on Mac, there are multiple ways you can choose from, you can simply drag-drop it from the Applications folder to Trash, delete it in Launchpad, use the app’s built-in uninstaller, etc. A third-party Mac cleaner such as iBoysoft MagicMenu is recommended if you want to remove the app and its leftover files easily.

4

It’s unclear what caused the issue with BBEdit on an inactive Mac, but I recently ran into this exact error message when trying to open the program on an older Mac (2018 Retina MacBook Air, running the most recent version of macOS Monterey). Fortunately, the solution was very simple and exactly what the error message itself suggested: re-downloading BBEdit and opening the application again.

In addition, if redownloading doesn’t work, you can try the following solutions to further troubleshoot the “The application appears to have been tampered with Mac” error:

  • Modify GateKeeper settings on your Mac to allow apps downloaded from App Store and identified developers.
  • Temporarily bypass Gatekeeper by holding down Control while click the app, and choose Open from the Finder context menu.
  • Contact its original developer for assistance.
5

Thank all of you! I uninstalled the app and reinstall it, now it works on my Mac!