How to open the "Allow applications from" setting on Mac
The setting is real, it is at the very bottom of Privacy & Security, and there is a faster way than changing it.
You have downloaded something and macOS will not open it. The dialog says either that the app cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software, or that it is damaged and should be moved to the Bin.
The setting that governs this is called Allow applications from, and it is in System Settings, under Privacy & Security, at the very bottom.
If you are in a hurry, the fastest fix is not that setting. It is below.
The fast way, when an app has just been blocked
Do not change the setting. Approve the one app instead.
- Try to open the app. Let it fail, and dismiss the dialog.
- Open System Settings and go to Privacy & Security.
- Scroll to the bottom. Under the Security heading there will be a line naming the app you just tried to open, and a button saying Open Anyway.
- Click it, authenticate, and try the app again.
That button only appears for a short window after the block — roughly an hour — so if it is not there, try opening the app again and go straight back.
This is the route worth using, because it approves that single app and leaves the protection in place for everything else. Changing the setting changes it for every app you will ever download.
Where the setting itself is
System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll all the way down, past Screen & System Audio Recording, Speech Recognition, Sensitive Content Warning, Blocked Contacts, Analytics & Improvements, Apple Advertising and Apple Intelligence Report → the Security heading → Allow applications from.
It is a long scroll. That is not you missing something.
Why there is no direct link to it
macOS can open most settings panes from a URL, and many of the privacy sections have their own anchors, so an app or a script can put you directly in front of Screen Recording or Microphone. There is a full list of those URLs here.
The Security section is not one of them. The Privacy & Security pane vends no anchor for it. Any app can open the pane; nothing can address the setting. The only way to land on it is to open the pane and then scroll the window, which means driving the interface, which needs the Accessibility permission.
That is why every set of instructions for this setting — Apple's support pages included — ends with "scroll down". There is nothing better available.
The options, and which one to choose
App Store. Only software from the Mac App Store will open. The strictest setting, and fine if that is where everything you use comes from.
App Store and Known Developers. The default. Software signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple will open too, which covers most Mac software sold outside the App Store.
Older versions of macOS had a third option, Anywhere, and it is no longer shown. Advice to bring it back with sudo spctl --master-disable still circulates; on current macOS the flag is --global-disable, and either way it disables a real protection for every app on the machine rather than the one you are trying to open. If you are here because of one app, use Open Anyway.
If it says the app is "damaged"
That message usually is not Gatekeeper. It is the quarantine attribute, which macOS attaches to anything downloaded from the internet, and which can end up in a state the system reads as broken — most often when an app has been distributed as a zip that expanded oddly, or moved between machines.
Removing the attribute is one command:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/TheApp.appBe honest with yourself about whether you trust the software before you run it. That command removes the check; it does not make the app safe. For anything you downloaded from a developer you know, downloading a fresh copy — ideally a disk image rather than a zip — often fixes it without touching anything.
Nothing here worked
A few things that are not this setting at all, and which produce similar symptoms:
- The app is for the wrong architecture. An old Intel-only app on Apple silicon needs Rosetta, and macOS will offer to install it.
- A profile or MDM is enforcing the policy. On a Mac managed by an employer or a school, the setting may be locked and Open Anyway greyed out. That is deliberate and it is not yours to change.
- The app really is broken. A partial download produces exactly this. Check the file size against what the developer says it should be.
I write a small menu bar app called JumpDock, and this setting is the reason it exists. It opens Privacy & Security and scrolls to the Security section, which is the only thing any app can do here — there is no URL to link to. One shortcut is free, so you can have that one without paying for anything.