“Application” is damaged and can’t be opened

Have you ever seen something like

as you tried to open a purchase from the Mac App Store?

What a dramatic way to ruin your day! Words like “damaged” and “delete” can terrify you because – heaven forbid! – they sound like your data is about to evaporate (it’s not), never to be seen again. Just know this: You’re not alone. We’re right here with you and, with a few exceptions, we’re going to help you get everything back to normal in 5 easy steps. Here we go:

  1. Before we dive into step 1, please be assured this message does not mean your data is at risk. Yes, you’re about to remove and reinstall the application, but your data lives in a separate document file, fairly safe from anything that can happen while installing a fresh copy of an application. Once more, just to put you at ease, your data is safe.
  2. Click the OK button to dismiss the alert telling you the application is damaged.
  3. Click the Finder icon on your Dock, the row of icons that’s usually at the bottom of your screen.
  4. Go to the Go menu at the top of your screen, above all open windows, and click the Applications menu item.
  5. Drag the application, in our example CheckBook with a full-sized checkbook, credit card, and green pen icon, never an icon of a sheet of paper with a dog ear, to the Trash. You may need to enter your Mac user account password to continue.
  6. For folks who’ve purchased one of our applications, click one of the following to go directly to its product page on the Mac App Store:

      Audiobook Builder 2.x
      CheckBook 2.x
      CheckBook Pro 2.x
      PixelGriddle 1.x
      Return Labels 1.x

    For anyone reading this who purchased another developer’s application, go to the Apple () menu at the top left corner of your screen, click the App Store… menu item to go to the Mac App Store, then use the Search at the top of the window to find your application and go to its product page.
  7. Click the Install button next to the application icon at the top of the page.

That’s it. You’re back in business!

But… what if you didn’t see the Install button in step 6? If you see a price, instead, then the Mac App Store is asking you to purchase again. In that case, one of the following is true:

  • The Apple Account (or Apple ID, as they were known until macOS 15 Sequoia) signed into the Mac App Store isn’t the one you used for your purchase. This usually happens when you’ve switched Apple Accounts at some point. Go to the Store menu at the top of the screen, above all open windows, click the Sign Out menu item, click the Sign In button at the bottom left corner of the window, sign in with your other Apple Account, then repeat step 6 (though you may need to repeat step 5 first).
  • Apple processed a return for your purchase so there’s no record of the application belonging to your current Apple Account. If you don’t recall returning your purchase or you’re sure you didn’t purchase with another Apple Account, you’ll want to get in touch with Apple to verify what’s happened lest you purchase again without need. Start at https://support.apple.com/billing.
  • The Mac App Store is malfunctioning in some way and doesn’t know your Apple Account has a valid purchase on record. Like the point just before this, you’ll want to get in touch with Apple to verify what’s happened lest you purchase again without need. Start at https://support.apple.com/billing.

Those ideas should help you figure out where your Apple Account stands with Apple, in terms of what you’ve purchased or returned. You can decide where to go from there. Some folks have an aha! moment, remember they used a different Apple Account long ago, and away they go to sign in that way and reinstall from there. Others don’t remember or can’t get to previous Apple Account passwords so their only option is to purchase again. We wish there was another way to make this work, but if you want to keep getting updates from the Mac App Store it’s the only way. Still other folks have their own aha! moment, recall returning their purchase, and choose to purchase again. We’ve never heard of an actual malfunction, per se, on the Mac App Store where purchases couldn’t be found, but it’s always possible. We really just threw that in for completeness.

Don’t forget: When all else fails, reach out to support@splasm.com and we’ll be happy to help you figure it out.

A bit more (technical) detail

If you’re wondering what’s really happening under the hood, it boils down to this: The Mac App Store places a receipt file in each purchased application. The receipt includes a certificate the application uses to validate that receipt to be sure you’ve made a bona fide purchase. That certificate is only valid for a limited amount of time – in our experience, up to about 25 months, though sometimes significantly less, which could indicate the App Store renews these certificates every so often. So, when you see this “damaged” message out of the blue, it’s almost surely because the certificate in the receipt has expired. You could set the date on your Mac back a bit to work around it, but you really want to straighten things out so you don’t have to go through that fun every time you sit down to use an application.

Usually, as long as your current Apple Account has a valid purchase for the application in question, you won’t ever see the “damaged” message because the application will tell the Mac the receipt’s invalid, the Mac will automatically refresh your receipt, and you’re on your way. You should only see the message in those three cases we outlined above. And, in a touch of irony, the latest versions of most of our applications won’t show you that message in any case: Instead of telling the Mac your receipt is invalid, our applications now ask the Mac App Store directly for a fresh copy of your receipt. If that fails, instead of “damaged” you’ll see a blurb that the receipt couldn’t be refreshed that asks you to reinstall and takes you directly to the product page on the Mac App Store. So, less drama and fewer steps, but the same result – you’ll still need to sort out why the Mac App Store doesn’t want to refresh your receipt.

Again, if any of this overwhelms you, or if you need reassurance about your data (it’s fine, as long as you only throw out the application itself and not the document file, but we completely understand data anxiety!), contact us at support@splasm.com and we’ll jump into the mix with you!

In Audiobook Builder, CheckBook, General, Return Labels | Tagged | Leave a comment

The document “Your document here” is no longer accessible

Some folks who’ve recently upgraded to macOS 15 Sequoia have let us know they’re seeing a message stating CheckBook or CheckBook Pro needs permission to open their Accounts document, with an accompanying I’ll click the Allow button, followed by a window where they can click the Allow button, followed by yet another message stating the document is no longer accessible. It’ll give you the chills, as if your data is at risk, but there’s no reason to panic: the Mac is giving the application mixed signals about whether it can access the last document you opened, triggering CheckBook’s system for handling when the document is well and truly no longer accessible. It’s overreacting, because the document is both accessible and not at the same time, but it’s enough to allow you into your document so you can get back to work. So you’re not really in a pickle, but it still annoys you every time it happens.

And, according to Apple’s engineers at https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/764435, it’s going to annoy you a bit longer, potentially until macOS 15.1 is released sometime in October. Since this affects the Mac’s ScopedBookmarksAgent, you can expect related issues in any sandboxed application from any developer, like failure to automatically reopen documents or empty File > Open Recent menus. Apple’s advice is to restart when the issue arises, temporarily getting ScopedBookmarksAgent back on its feet…until it happens again.

We’ll let you know if we come up with any kind of workaround in the meantime before macOS 15.1 hits. Thanks for hanging in there!

In CheckBook | Tagged | Leave a comment

macOS 15 Sequoia updates now available

Audiobook Builder, CheckBook, and CheckBook Pro are now ready for macOS 15 Sequoia, so get your updates now!

In Audiobook Builder, CheckBook, General | Tagged | Leave a comment

macOS 15 Sequoia updates coming very soon

macOS 15 Sequoia is a welcome win-win this year, bringing several nifty new features for all Mac folk to enjoy (and Apple Intelligence yet to come!) without any major showstoppers for our applications. Audiobook Builder, CheckBook, and CheckBook Pro have their share of minor glitches, to be sure, so updates are on the way. Read on for details.

Audiobook Builder 2.2.9 will correct an issue with dragging a folder of audio files to Chapters, as well as a crash that can happen when you use the Audiobook > Rename feature to rename a batch of Chapters. In testing now and likely available 9/17 or 9/18 9/19 or 9/20*, depending on Mac App Store review. Audiobook Builder 2.2.9 is now available from the Splasm Store but is still in Mac App Store review so it could be tonight or early tomorrow before it’s available there. You can use the Splasm Store version, if needed, and switch back to the Mac App Store version when the next update is released. Get the update now.

CheckBook and CheckBook Pro 2.7.32 will correct corrects a small handful of interface & layout issues, including restoring our date pickers’ ability to use any date format you can select in System Settings. Expect this update 9/16 or 9/17, depending on Mac App Store review. These updates are now available: Get CheckBook or CheckBook Pro 2.7.32.

Please reach out to support@splasm.com if you come across an issue you think we might’ve missed and we’ll get right on it. Thanks again for your support!

In Audiobook Builder, CheckBook, General | Tagged | Leave a comment

CheckBook and CheckBook Pro 2.7.31

2.7.31 fixes Category autofill in split line items, which we broke in 2.7.30, and brings a tweak to OFX/QFX imports so you’ll see better compatibility out there. Grab the update and reach out to support@splasm.com if you need a hand with anything!

In CheckBook | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sneak Peek: CheckBook 3’s Budgets

Did we just say “CheckBook 3” for the first time in public? Why, yes. Yes we did.

We’re nearing the finish line with a major upgrade to CheckBook and CheckBook Pro and just realized we haven’t shared so much as a peep, let alone a pic. Here’s a first look at some new features (note the purple Smart Folders are just in CheckBook Pro) to give you an idea of what’s coming:

Budgets give you a simple way to make sure you don’t overspend. To start, you might set up a certain amount per month (or day, week, quarter, or year). If you want to get nitty, though, you can set up amounts per month per year and see all of that in a neat yearly view. You’ll also find our usual search, with options, plus printing (with the option to simplify the bars or just not print them at all) round out things.

And oh, yeah, we do dark mode now:

You’ll also get to tweak the colors for both light and dark mode so your work looks just right.

One more thing… Look closely at the list of Accounts and how it’s no longer in a drawer. You can still hide it, resize it, or move it from one side to the other, but now that it’s part of the document window you can also take it fullscreen without the weirdness of drawers.

So that’s a sneak at what’s coming. We expect it’ll be a month or two, yet. We’re not quite ready to talk pricing, but we can say anyone who purchases 2.x within 12 months of 3.0’s release will get a free upgrade, so if you’re considering purchasing now we’ve got you covered, and everyone else will likely get a 40%-ish discount.

What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts at customerservice@splasm.com. More details are coming so stay tuned!

In CheckBook | Leave a comment