How to Allow Opening Apps from Anywhere in MacOS Sequoia, Sonoma

Have you ever downloaded an app to your Mac and been unable to open it? Typically if this happens you’ll get some kind of alarming message, stating something to the effect of “App Not Opened. Apple could not verify (app name.app) is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy” with two options; Done, or Move to Trash. But what if you trust the app and its developer, and you actually want to open that app anyway? Because of how strict Gatekeeper is in modern MacOS versions, including MacOS Sequoia and macOS Sonoma, you will need to take some additional steps to allow the Mac to open apps downloaded from anywhere.

Because this tweak requires modifying Gatekeeper permissions to be less secure, and using the terminal to do so, this is really only appropriate for advanced Mac users who wish to allow the “Anywhere” option for opening unverified third party apps that have been downloaded from anywhere, including apps that have not been verified by Apple, or produced by developers who did not go through the typical Apple verification process. If you’re a casual Mac user, you likely won’t want to make this change to your MacOS.

How to Open Apps from Anywhere in MacOS Sequoia, Sonoma

This change will add the “Anywhere” option for opening apps to the Security preference panel in MacOS Sequoia and Sonoma, which is hidden by default otherwise:

1. Open the Terminal application on the Mac, this is found in /Applications/Utilities/ folder but you can open it with Spotlight too by hitting command+spacebar and typing Terminal and return
2. Enter the following command string exactly:

sudo spctl --master-disable

3. Hit return, and then authenticate the change with an admin password (the password will not show up as you type, that is normal)



4. You’ll see a confirmation reported back stating: “Globally disabling the assessment system needs to be confirmed in System Settings.”
5. Quit out of Terminal
6. Now go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Settings”, and then go to “Privacy & Security”
7. Scroll all the way down to the ‘Security’ section and click the dropdown menu next to “Allow applications from:” and you can now choose the “Anywhere” option, allowing you to open apps that are not verified or from unknown developers

Now you will be free to open apps without seeing the alert message that says something like “App Not Opened
Apple could not verify ‘AppName.app’ is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.”

It’s important to recognize that allowing apps from anywhere can theoretically pose a security risk, which is another reason this is really only an appropriate change for advanced Mac users who understand those risks, and who have their own independent capacity to verify trust of third party apps and apps from different sources.

Many advanced Mac users need to make this change so that they can use apps downloaded from Github, Gumroad, social media, or even internal apps used within personal, corporate, educational, or government environments.

Enable Default Gatekeeper Security in MacOS Sequoia, Sonoma

To return to the default security status of GateKeeper in MacOS, and remove the ‘Anywhere’ option from the Security preference panel, you can return to the terminal and enter the following command:

sudo spctl --master-enable

Again hit return and authenticate, and after relaunching System Settings you will find the change has been made again.

If you’re already familiar with turning off Gatekeeper (or turning it back on again) then you might already know these steps, as the core command for Terminal has remained the same, despite the alert dialogs, warnings, and System Settings itself changing dramatically.