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Bench Buddy Mac OS Installation Guide

Installing Bench Buddy on macOS

Bench Buddy for macOS isn’t signed or notarized with an Apple Developer ID yet, so macOS will block it the first time you try to open it. This is normal for independently distributed apps — it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with the download. Pick whichever option below is easiest for you; you only need to do this once.

Why this happens

Apple’s Gatekeeper feature quarantines any app downloaded from a browser unless it’s been signed and notarized through Apple’s paid Developer Program. You’ll likely see a message like “Bench Buddy is damaged and can’t be opened” or “cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.” The app isn’t actually damaged — this is just Gatekeeper’s standard warning for any unsigned app.

Option 1 (Easiest): Run the included Fix & Launch script

  1. Unzip your download.
  2. Find Fix-And-Launch-BenchBuddy.command next to BenchBuddy.app (or download it here if it isn’t already in your folder).
  3. Double-click it.
  4. macOS will ask for your account password — this is the normal system authentication prompt. It’s only used locally on your Mac to clear the quarantine flag and apply a local signature; nothing is sent anywhere.
  5. Bench Buddy will launch automatically once it’s done.

Option 2: Right-click to open

  1. Unzip your download.
  2. Right-click (or Control-click) BenchBuddy.app and choose Open.
  3. Click Open again in the dialog that appears. This only needs to be done the first time — after that, you can open it normally.

Option 3: Terminal

If you’re comfortable with Terminal, this is the fastest route:

cd /path/to/folder/containing/BenchBuddy.app
xattr -cr BenchBuddy.app
codesign --force --deep --sign - BenchBuddy.app

The first command clears the quarantine flag; the second applies a free local (“ad-hoc”) signature, which is required on Apple Silicon Macs in addition to clearing quarantine.

Note: none of these steps require disabling Gatekeeper system-wide or lowering your Mac’s security settings — they only apply to this one app.

Still stuck?

Get in touch and we’ll help you sort it out.