Mac App Store Kerfuffle Prevents Purchased Apps from Running

This is one for the Department of WTF. I noticed on Twitter this morning that several people were having issues launching apps downloaded from Apple’s Mac App Store. I’m not seeing this on my iMac, but on my MacBook, most – though not all Mac App Store apps – display this alert when I try to launch them:

Mac app store wtf

There’s something going on with the way apps are validating with the Mac App Store. Apparently, the only solution is to delete the apps and re-download them from the Mac App Store. One at a time.

It’s not clear why this is only affecting one of my Macs, or whether this is a permanent issue with these apps, or just a temporary glitch that may resolve later today or tomorrow. Some people are reporting only getting a dialog to sign into their Mac App Store accounts. If you start work today and see a bunch of these dialogs, arm yourself with patience as you re-download a lot of your apps.

This is great for those who, like me, have very slow internet connections… Thanks Apple.

Oh, and this is yet another reason to buy apps directly from developers instead of from the Mac App Store.

Update: Oh, it turns out that Apple’s certificate has expired. Seriously, what a bunch of noobs sometimes…

Update 2: Michael Tsai has an excellent overview of the problem, the reactions, the solutions, and the blame game.

16 thoughts on “Mac App Store Kerfuffle Prevents Purchased Apps from Running

  1. Oh, good, glad it is not me alone… I had both the “this app was purchased from another Mac, please sign in” and the “this app is damaged bla bla”.
    And I could’t open App Store correctly, it would hang every time. I restarted my Mac, that solved at least the App Store issue, and haven’t seen the “damaged app” one. Yet.

  2. Oh, good, glad it is not me alone… I had both the “this app was purchased from another Mac, please sign in” and the “this app is damaged bla bla”.
    And I could’t open App Store correctly, it would hang every time. I restarted my Mac, that solved at least the App Store issue, and haven’t seen the “damaged app” one. Yet.

  3. I got both of those errors on different applications; when I restarted, they went away. No idea what’s going on.

  4. I got both of those errors on different applications; when I restarted, they went away. No idea what’s going on.

  5. Thanks for the heads-up Kirk. What happens to the data associated with these apps? Like 1Password or custom music apps like Ampliflac? Does this information disappear? If so, that could be a major issue!

      • Thanks. I got nervous when iPassword would not open & required re-downloading. I wouldn’t know where to begin to reenter my 100 or so passwords!

      • Curiously, I just tried opening Apple App Store on my Mac, searched for 1Password (which I don’t believe was listed among my applications to be updated), when I found it the update button was highlighted. So I downloaded the update (without deleting the original version – which Apple’s message said I should) and 1Password opened and it runs fine. No deleting the original app after all. I’m certain a multi-billion dollar company can do better than this …

  6. Thanks for the heads-up Kirk. What happens to the data associated with these apps? Like 1Password or custom music apps like Ampliflac? Does this information disappear? If so, that could be a major issue!

      • Thanks. I got nervous when iPassword would not open & required re-downloading. I wouldn’t know where to begin to reenter my 100 or so passwords!

      • Curiously, I just tried opening Apple App Store on my Mac, searched for 1Password (which I don’t believe was listed among my applications to be updated), when I found it the update button was highlighted. So I downloaded the update (without deleting the original version – which Apple’s message said I should) and 1Password opened and it runs fine. No deleting the original app after all. I’m certain a multi-billion dollar company can do better than this …

  7. Any suggestions? I was recently speaking at a conference where there was no internet access. When I went to launch my presentation software I got the dreaded certificate notice. Which of course meant I could not open the application for my presentation. I won’t bore you with how that made me feel … ? My concern is, with dozens of applications that I’ve downloaded from Apple’s App Store, how can I make sure this won’t happen again with any one of them? I went to the Genius Bar and the fellow that worked with me was not even aware there was an issue. He then went in the back room to look at some secret database of issues, and emerge to informed me there was no mention of it there either. How can thousands of people be affected by something Apple’s done to its customers, and the Genius Bar database makes no mention of it. He suggested I turn off my internet service and open every application I thought I had purchase from the App Store. Needless to say, I left there unsatisfied … Any suggestions?

    • Apparently Apple has fixed the issue (and has apologized, at least to developers). But yo may need to restart your Mac to erase the certificate cache.

  8. Any suggestions? I was recently speaking at a conference where there was no internet access. When I went to launch my presentation software I got the dreaded certificate notice. Which of course meant I could not open the application for my presentation. I won’t bore you with how that made me feel … ? My concern is, with dozens of applications that I’ve downloaded from Apple’s App Store, how can I make sure this won’t happen again with any one of them? I went to the Genius Bar and the fellow that worked with me was not even aware there was an issue. He then went in the back room to look at some secret database of issues, and emerge to informed me there was no mention of it there either. How can thousands of people be affected by something Apple’s done to its customers, and the Genius Bar database makes no mention of it. He suggested I turn off my internet service and open every application I thought I had purchase from the App Store. Needless to say, I left there unsatisfied … Any suggestions?

    • Apparently Apple has fixed the issue (and has apologized, at least to developers). But yo may need to restart your Mac to erase the certificate cache.

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