7.2.4 update, annoying "Must be in the Applications folder"

artemsyd
artemsyd
Community Member

I store 1Password (like any other applications I have) in ~/Applications. Starting with 7.2.4 update 1Password started showing me this dialog:

I would be fine with it being shown only once, but it is shown every time I launch 1Password and that is pretty annoying. Can it be disabled?

1Password 7
Version 7.2.4 (70204000)
AgileBits Store

Comments

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator

    You would do better to put 1PW and other applications where Apple prefers them to be, in the main Applications folder, rather than insisting on keeping them in ~/Applications.

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator

    And the answer is that you can't, because that's not the way Apple (primarily) and AgileBits (secondarily) have things set up.

    I agree with you that I would prefer to be able to put apps where I want (for me, not in the same folder as you) but the reality is that sooner or later an app will fail to work properly if you don't put it in /Applications.

    Your choice. Do what you want or have all your apps work as they should.

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator

    As security levels and threats change, Apple change their requirements. It will need an AgileBits staff member to explain why 1PW must be in /Applications to work properly with Safari. But that is the situation, and is not likely to change.

    It may well be that the warning is new. But I have seen people coming to the forums with problems for which the solution provided by AgileBits was to move 1PW into /Applications. Maybe they thought it time to tell people that this is required for proper working.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    I would do better to store applications where I'm pleased to do so :) and that is ~/Applications.

    @artemsyd: You will find it otherwise. Sandboxing means what you're trying to do just won't work going forward.

    For all the years I've been using Mac OS, I never had a single issue with applications being stored in ~/Applications. And 1Password never bothered me with that kind of alerts before.

    Yep. And there are a lot of tools I used to use which simply can't work at all on modern versions of macOS. Things change, and we have to change with them, both as users and as folks making software for the platform.

    By the way, ~/Applications serves its purposes on computers with several different users, so it makes all the sense for users to keep their applications separately.

    macOS has had great multi-user support that allows for different users to run instances of the same app in separate accounts for as long as I can remember. And 1Password itself works just fine for multiple people as a single app in the system /Applications folder. There is no benefit to what you're doing, and apart from the sandboxing issue there's also the drawback of wasting disk space if you're duplicating apps for each user.

    However, that was not my question. I asked how can I get rid of this annoying dialog.

    danco gave you the solution. If you do what he suggested, you will not get the error anymore. Be cool, especially to people who are trying to help you. :+1:

  • The only way to avoid this message is going to be to install 1Password into /Applications. Sorry for the inconvenience.

    Ben

  • I'll pass the suggestion along to the team.

    Ben

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @artemsyd - I don't know of any specific Apple documentation offhand, but this is a sandboxing requirement. In order to be fully sandboxed (which 1Password 7 for Mac is, for the first time in our history, for not just the Mac App Store version but our own version as well), you must be installed into the main /Applications folder. That's why the Mac App Store installs by default in /Applications and not anywhere else. Other applications that are not sandboxed can - for now, in macOS 10.14 (“Mojave”) - still be installed in other locations such as ~/Applications...but not if you want to be sandboxed.

  • @artemsyd,

    The reason that the 1Password must be in the applications folder is because of the code signature verification APIs being used, when used in conjunction with a sandboxed application requires that the application be in /Applications in order to succeed.

  • @artemsyd,

    I'm not going to go into details about which APIs we're using for this purpose, but the behavior won't be changing.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @artemsyd - thanks for the feedback. We appreciate your sincere concern for our software. :)

  • glennv
    glennv
    Community Member

    Please improve the messages you get for this error. They're very confusing.

    The messages say that the application (whether it's a browser or 1Password itself) "must be in the Applications folder". But it already is! ~/Applications is an "Applications" folder. It shows up in the Finder sidebar as simply "Applications". For many years now, it has served as a first-class Applications folder on the Mac; Launch Services has always recognized it as such.

    I'm not upset about this new requirement (or at least, not upset with AgileBits). But I'm annoyed that the messaging is so confusing. I've been getting that message for months now and was completely at a loss for what might be wrong, because both 1Password and Firefox were sitting right there in Applications, where the message said they had to be!

    Please make this messaging clearer so that others don't have the same confusion.

  • Welcome to the forum @glennv. Thanks for the note. I'll share that thought with our development team.

    Ben

This discussion has been closed.