operation not permitted safari download

How to fix Safari not downloading files on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

You may, at times, encounter an issue where Safari refuses to download photos, videos, audio, PDFs, documents, and other files from a website. In this article, we’ll explore common reasons why Safari may not be downloading files on iPhone, iPad, or Mac and provide solutions to help you get back to downloading with ease.

The issues you may be facing

• Clicking the download link opens a new blank tab, and no file download starts.
• Safari is refusing to begin file downloads from one or all sites.
• File download starts, but it fails immediately in a second or two.
• The download happens up to a point and then fails midway or just before completing.
• Safari downloads a file but opens it and then deletes the original files (this happens with ZIP and other compressed files).

The solutions below should help fix all the above issues and also ones similar to them.

Before you begin

It’s possible that you’re not following the right steps to download the file. On Mac, it’s super easy, but on iPhone and iPad, downloading files may not be as obvious. With that said, even if the file has been downloaded, you may not know where it’s saved and how to find it. So, look at these tutorials, if needed:

• How to download videos from Safari on iPhone and iPad
• How to download files and documents to iPhone or iPad
• How to access downloaded files on iPhone and iPad

Retry the download

In many cases, initiating the download again does the trick. Try hitting the download link again, and it should work. If not, refresh the webpage and click the download button again.

Note: Some websites put downloads behind a login wall. So, make sure to honor that.

Pause and resume the download

The download may look like it has started, but it will pause or fail in a few seconds. If that happens, hit the tiny retry button a few times, and it should start the download. If not, hit the download link again on the website.

Check your internet

Make sure your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is connected to a stable Wi-Fi, Cellular Data, or Ethernet connection and the internet is working properly.

Some useful tips

• Turn off VPN if you’re using one.
• Restart your Wi-Fi router.

Troubleshooting internet problems

• How to fix cellular data not working on iPhone or iPad
• What to do when your iPhone or iPad can’t connect to Wi-Fi
• Internet not working on your Mac? Here are 16 solutions to fix it

Allow the website to download files

When you try to download a file from a website for the first time, it doesn’t start immediately. Instead, you will see an alert asking your permission to allow this site to download and save files locally or not. Make sure you allow that. If you choose to block the download, follow these steps to fix it:

On iPhone and iPad: Hit the download link again on the website and tap Allow or Download when asked. If you don’t see the Allow button, clear your browser data.

On Mac: Open Safari and click Safari > Settings from the top menu bar. Now, go to Websites > Downloads > click the drop-down menu next to the website name and choose Allow . While you’re here, also make sure it says ‘ Ask ‘ or ‘ Allow ‘ next to ‘ When visiting other websites .’

Force Quit and reopen Safari

On iPhone and iPad: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and hold or double-press the Home button to enter App Switcher. From here, drag the Safari app card all the way up to close it .

On Mac: Save your work in any other open Safari tabs. Next, click the Apple icon  and choose Force Quit . Here, select Safari and click Force Quit .

Now reopen Safari and try downloading the file again.

Use alternate download links

You may see more than one download link on a website. If one link fails to work, try the other one. Note: Sometimes, picking a different download quality (for a video, audio, or image) should do the trick.

Set Safari download location to anything other than iCloud Drive

If you have set Safari to download files to iCloud Drive,  switch it to any other local storage folder using the steps below:

On iPhone or iPad: Settings > Safari > Downloads > On My iPhone or Other .

On Mac: Open Safari and click Safari > Settings from the top menu bar. From the General section, select Downloads , Desktop , or any local folder next to ‘ File download location .’

Stop Safari from automatically opening files after download

By default, Safari on Mac is set to open files after downloading them. That means if you download a ZIP file, Safari will automatically unzip it after downloading. In rare cases, this may cause the download to fail, not complete successfully, or not even start in the first place if the file you’re trying to download is incompatible. Therefore, it’s best to turn it off from Safari Settings > General > uncheck ‘ Open “safe” files after downloading .’

Restart your device

If Safari is unable to download files due to minor glitches, save your work and do a restart .

Make sure your device has sufficient free space

New file downloads will only succeed if your iPhone, iPad, or Mac has enough free space. So go to Settings, and check how much free storage you have. If it’s full, use these tutorials to free up space:

• 50+ tips to free space on your iPhone and iPad
• 30+ ways to free storage space on your Mac

Clear Safari history and cache

One of the most reliable solutions to fix Safari issues is clearing its history and website data .

On iPhone and iPad, you can do this from Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data .

On Mac, click History from the top menu bar and select Clear History .

Try disabling a recently installed Safari extension

If you could download files earlier but can’t after installing an extension, then that extension is likely the culprit. Remove it, restart your device, and now you should have no problem downloading files.

On iPhone and iPad: Head over to this guide on installing and removing Safari extensions .

On Mac: Go to Safari Settings > Extensions > select the extension and click Uninstall .

Update Safari

Safari updates are tied to system updates on iPhone and iPad. So, go to Settings app > General > Software Update and get the latest version of the operating system.

On Mac, you can update Safari from System Settings .

Update your Mac

If you’re on an older version of macOS, consider updating to the latest version, which should improve your computer’s overall working and stability.

On macOS Ventura and later, go to System Settings > General > Software Update . And on macOS Monterey and earlier, go to System Preferences > Software Update .

PSA: Websites asking you to allow downloads? Here’s the solution …

An increasing number of people are finding a wide range of websites – including ours – are asking permission to allow downloads to your Mac from googlesyndication.com …

The problem is a rogue ad that has made it through to the Google ad network, which is used by a great many websites. If you do allow the download, it’s just a harmless text file, but it’s annoying to have to keep hitting Cancel to block it.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to stop the alerts. In Safari , go to the Safari menu, select Preferences and then Downloads from the left-hand menu. Beneath the list of Allowed and Denied sites is an option: When visiting other websites . Just set this to Deny.

You may need to explicitly grant permission for sites you do want to be able to offer you downloads. Simply visit those website and they will appear at the top, under Currently Open Websites. For each of these, select Allow or Ask as desired. They will then be added to your Currently Configured Websites list.

We can also reassure Dave Mark that no cats are involved.

This just popped up on my Mac. My cat was next to my computer, my back was turned, no idea what just happened. 😲 pic.twitter.com/TvmSvtNI7T — Dave Mark (@davemark) September 23, 2020

Google should soon block the specific ad causing the problem, but this is a useful thing to configure anyway.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

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Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!

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Manage push notifications

Safari User Guide

• Change your home page
• Import bookmarks, history and passwords
• Make Safari your default web browser
• Go to websites
• Find what you’re looking for
• Bookmark web pages that you want to revisit
• See your favourite websites
• Use tabs for web pages
• Pin frequently visited websites
• Play web videos
• Mute audio in tabs
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• Autofill contact info
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading articles
• Translate a web page
• Download items from the web
• Share or post web pages
• Add passes to Wallet
• Save part or all of a web page
• Print or create a PDF of a web page
• Customise a start page
• Customise the Safari window
• Customise settings per website
• Zoom in on web pages
• Get extensions
• Manage cookies and website data
• Block pop-ups
• Clear your browsing history
• Browse privately
• Autofill username and password info
• Prevent cross-site tracking
• View a Privacy Report
• Change Safari preferences
• Keyboard and other shortcuts
• Troubleshooting

If you can’t download an item from the web using Safari on Mac

Safari can download most types of files, but if you have trouble with a file, try these suggestions.

Open Safari for me

If Safari is still downloading the file, wait for it to finish. You can’t open a file while it’s being downloaded.

If you see a message that the app can’t be opened because it’s from an unidentified developer or wasn’t downloaded from the Mac App Store, you can open the app by overriding the settings in Security & Privacy preferences .

Sometimes a download is incomplete because the file was damaged. Try downloading it again.

Make sure you have the app needed to open the file. If you do, the file may have been corrupted during the download. Delete it, then try downloading it again.

The downloaded file may be a compressed archive or disk image that contains the file you want. If the file is from a trusted site, double-click it to decompress it.

macOS: How to Manage Download Permissions in Safari 13

Although Apple hasn’t released macOS Catalina yet, it did update its browser to Safari 13. It has a new downloads section where websites have to ask permission to download stuff.

Download Permissions

• Open Safari. Make sure it’s Safari 13 by going into the menu bar and clicking Safari > About Safari .
• Open Safari preferences by pressing Command (⌘) + Comma (,) .
• Click on Websites . In the left sidebar, click on Downloads .

Whenever you download files with Safari 13, the website will have to ask you permission. You can select different options: Ask, Deny, Allow. Ask makes the website ask you every time. Allow means that it can download files to your computer. Deny means that it can’t download files.

Further Reading:

[ Safari 13 Just Killed uBlock Origin and Other Extensions ]

[ Safari 13 Adds CPU Timeline to Web Inspector ]

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, fix terminal “operation not permitted” error in macos sonoma, ventura, monterey, big sur, catalina, mojave.

If you’re a Mac command line user you may have noticed that many frequently used commands entered into the Terminal (or iTerm) result in an “Operation not permitted” error message since updating to MacOS Mojave 10.14 or later, including Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, and Big Sur. The “Operation not permitted” error in the Terminal can be seen after issuing even simple commands like using ‘ls’ ‘mv’ and ‘cp’ within the users own directory, but also in many other directory locations on the Mac, and when trying to use many defaults commands. Obviously this type of error message makes navigating and using the command line in MacOS to be quite difficult if not impossible for many purposes. Don’t worry, the Terminal is not broken in new MacOS versions.

This walkthrough will show you how to fix “Operation not permitted” error messages seen at the command line in Terminal for Mac OS in Mojave 10.14 or later.

How to Fix “Operation not permitted” Error in Terminal for Mac OS

• Pull down the  Apple menu and choose ‘System Preferences’
• Choose “Security & Privacy” control panel
• Now select the “Privacy” tab, then from the left-side menu select “Full Disk Access”
• Click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the preference panel and authenticate with an admin level login
• Now click the [+] plus button to add an application with full disk access

• Navigate to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and choose “Terminal” to grant Terminal with Full Disk Access privileges

• Relaunch Terminal, the “Operation not permitted” error messages will be gone

If you have not encountered the “Operation not permitted” error message in the Terminal of MacOS (Mojave 10.14 or later) yet, then it’s likely because you haven’t wandered into a directory or file path that has the additional access restrictions (or that you don’t use Terminal, in which case this entire article is not for you).

While many of the various core System and root directories will throw error messages in macOS Terminal too, you can also find the error message even when trying to work in the users own Home directory, including in many of the user ~/Library/ folders, like ~/Library/Messages ( where iMessage attachments and chat logs are stored in Mac OS) and ~/Library/Mail/ (where user-level mail plugins , mailbox data , and other Mail app data is stored), and many others.

You can test this yourself, before and after making the settings adjustment outlined above with a simple command like using ls on one of the protected folders:

ls ~/Library/Messages

If Terminal does not have Full Disk Access granted, you will see the “Operation not permitted” error message.

If Terminal does have Full Disk Access granted, or if SIP is disabled, you will not see that error message in the MacOS Terminal.

In case you were wondering, yes that does mean there are actually two ways to fix the “Operation not permitted” errors you may encounter in MacOS Terminal; the first which we detail here is rather simple that grants additional access privileges to Terminal app, and the other is a bit more dramatic which involves disabling System Integrity Protection on the Mac which is generally not recommended and we won’t specifically cover here, though simply disabling SIP and rebooting is typically enough to make the error go away if you’d rather go that route.

The “Operation not permitted” message is one of a variety of command line errors you may encounter in Mac OS Terminal. Another frequently seen command line error is the the “command not found” error message which can also be encountered in the Terminal for MacOS for a variety of different reasons as well.

If you have any other tips, tricks, suggestions, or thoughts about the command line in MacOS or this particular error message, share with us in the comments below.

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• MacOS Monterey Problems – Fixing Issues with macOS 12
• Troubleshooting macOS Sierra Problems
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76 Comments

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I also toggled `sshd-keychain-wrapper` to allow SSH incoming sessions to see my Mac’s ~/Downloads/ folder. Thanks to https://superuser.com/questions/1615072/getting-an-operation-not-permitted-error-when-running-commands-after-to-sshing for details.

THANK YOU. In 2024, this answered my question after reading COUNTLESS apple support threads without finding a resolution. In the new OS system it’s much easier to navigate to the Full Disk Access, and I had to add “Disk Utility” to the application list so I could create a read-only image of my Time Machine backups. I am wholly grateful.

thank you, it worked for me.

Thanks for this article, very helpful :- )

Thanks for this it worked!

Enable [Full Disk Access] “Terminal” solve the issue!

Thankyou, it worked for me :)

I got this issue once randomly. I realized what happened was i had deleted and then re-added the directory i was working in in another terminal session so the terminal window inside my IDE was “lost”. Just backed out of the directory and then back in and all was well :)

You saved my day. Thank you!

That helps! Thanks.

awesome saved my life, for me it worked with single quotes on Application Support folder: sudo ln -s /Volumes/WDeasy/iOS/Backup ~/Library/’Application Support’/MobileSync

It worked for me. Thanks a lot!

thanks a lot !

Thx for the help!

Thank you so much for posting this clear and concise fix.

Phew! This worked! Thanks

Allowing the terminal app full disk access was not enough. I had to unselect the firewall (F-secure Save app) option “Viruses and Threats>Files and apps can be blocked on their internet reputation”

After doing that, the shell scripts worked as expected.

I found that virtual box running ubuntu could do stuff sroot on terminial on macos could not WTF. But that does mean I have a separate spot to go whenever there is a problem without having to open terminal up for ALL users ( IE me when am just mis-typing)

This works like charm! Thank you

A million thanks worked perfectly!!!

work like a charm, thanks for safe my days

Thanks, hint about how to give Terminal full disk access saved my day

Remember when Apple’s slogan was “it just works”? That was nice.

thx a lot I had to give permission to the terminal in order to use a dd command to clone a HDD drive

that’s really helpful, thanks very much!

This fixed my problem under macOS 11.2.2. Until now, I never encountered such a problem. Thanks.

Still impossible to issue rm commands

Thank you so much. Helped fix my error related to XCode not recognizing my modules and not being able to open one of the files associated to the modules. Much thanks!

Cheers, Derek

Just fixed this problem for the following scenario in Catalina. I have a backup script that runs from /etc/daily.local and therefore needs full disk access. The /etc/{daily,weekly,monthly}.local scripts are run by “periodic”, so you’d think dragging /usr/sbin/periodic to “Full Disk Access” under System Preferences > Security & Privacy would work. No, it turns out that “periodic” is run by /usr/libexec/periodic-wrapper and that’s the program that has to be given Full Disk Access.

Figured that out by having daily.local run a program called “treeps.pl” that puts out a tree-oriented process list. From that, you can work back up the tree to see who ran “daily.local”. You can find treeps.pl here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/11770/linux-ps-f-tree-view-equivalent-on-osx (search for “treeps”, not “pstree”).

I hope I stuffed enough good keywords in there to save someone the time it took me to track that down!

This may be helpful if you are trying to replicate the tree command on Mac too:

https://osxdaily.com/2016/09/09/view-folder-tree-terminal-mac-os-tree-equivalent/

I upgraded an unsupported machine (MacPro 4,1) to Mojave using the DosDude1.com patch, and now my numerous Ruby scripts won’t work.

First, the Apple-supplied /usr/bin/ruby is ancient. I renamed it /usr/bin/ruby-2.3.7, and did “ln -s /usr/local/opt/ruby/bin/ruby” to link to the Homebrew-installed ruby (version 2.7.2).

That didn’t help, so I change all my scripts to refer to the Homebrew version, by making “#!/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin/ruby” the first line. Still no joy.

When trying to run any ruby script, I get:

/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin/ruby: bad interpreter: Operation not permitted

However, strangely enough, I CAN do “/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin/ruby <MyRubyScript.rb" and it works just fine! (I can simply do "ruby <MyRubyScript.rb" successfully, too.

I have SIP disabled and can do things that SIP would not allow, so I don't think that's the issue.

Been hacking UNIX for nearly 40 years, and this has me stumped.

this worked for me! thank you so much!

Thanks ! it works for me too !

Bonjour j’ai un soucis avec mon terminal je suis mac os Hugh sierra 10.13.6 je voudrais faire reconnaitre ma carte USB wifi a partir de mon terminal avec cette instruction sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /System/Library/Extensions/RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/Info.plist demandant mon mot de passe administrateur après mon mot de passe il écrit Illégal instruction:4 que faire

Just like Jeff and Marius before me I couldn’t get rid of the ‘Operation not permitted’ error despite following these instructions.

Is there anything else I can try?

What worked for me at the end was to add “/bin/bash” to the list of Full Disk Access. (After hitting “+” in Step 5 above, hold “Cmd-Shift-G” and type “/bin”, then click on “bash”.)

I have seen the posts about “how to add users to the sudoers list”, but if I have no sudoers, I can’t execute any SUDO commands. Ho can I add a sudoer without using terminal “sudo” command.

Thanks Paul, Terminal in OSX is working now, but when SSH to mac it still says Operation Not Permitted when listing some directories. Tried adding /bin/ssh and sbin/sshd if I remember correctly still same problem. Any clues? Thanks!

Thank you for this tip, was very helpful and easy. I ran in to this issue after updating to Catalina and it helped me. I was getting below error and it is fixed now.

XXX-MacBook-Pro:Downloads root# ls -l ls: .: Operation not permitted

Thanks so much for posting this and making it very easy to understand, it helped fix my problem on my own Mac, as well as my mom’s MacBook. It’s so great to have forms like this to help fix problems that Apple has made.

Glad this could help you resolve your issue with “Operation not permitted” errors in MacOS, thanks for reading! This applies to Catalina too.

Gracias, i was facing the issue after i upgraded to Mac OS Catalina, and ur fix worked for me.

Thanks for publishing the solution. It solved my problem.

I can confirm what Jeff said. After adding Terminal to the Full Disk Access List, and restarting it (even rebooting), I still see:

myprompt:~$ cd /usr myprompt:/usr$ sudo chown myuser:staff local/ Password: chown: local/: Operation not permitted myprompt:/usr$

This doesn’t appear to work for certain files or folders. After giving full disk access to Terminal, as described, and restarting Terminal:

Jeffs-MacBook-Pro-2:~ jeffsidell$ cd /usr/bin Jeffs-MacBook-Pro-2:bin jeffsidell$ sudo mv python python2.7.10_JPS_mv_python Password: mv: rename python to python2.7.10_JPS_mv_python: Operation not permitted

I do NOT want to give terminal full disk access for ALL users. I want to give terminal full disk access ONLY for root. Is there a way to do that?

Thanks budy, this really solved my terminal issues with “Operation not Permitted”.

Great tutorial.

I did the first few steps but I can’t find the Full Disk Access option. Help

Same here can’t find the Full Disk Access. Help us :(

Couldn’t also find the Full Disk Access.

Hi, I have put a file into my trash. When I try to empty the trash, it says I dont have permission. So I right-clicked on the file to Get info and give permission to “read and write” the file. But, when I do the Get info, it says in the Sharing and permission section (below) “You have no permission”. How do I fix that problem ? How do I force delete a file that does not want to be deleted ?

First you could try emptying the trash securely. [Finder->Secure Empty Trash…].

If that doesn’t work, go to the terminal and navigate to the trash folder. It will probably be in [/Users/your_user_name/.Trash].

So, “cd /Users/your_user_name/.Trash” ls -l (see if your file is listed) rm -iv “your_file_name” Answer “remove your_file_name?” with a “y” and it should be gone. You may have to add “sudo” to the beginning, as in: sudo rm -iv “your_file_name” Authenticate with admin password. Answer with “y”

If that doesn’t work, you will have to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection)

I had the same problem. Like stargood said, you probably have to disable SIP (see link in this article). This should let you delete the files. Don’t forget to turn it on afterwards, if you don’t explicitly need it off.

For anyone writing a shell script that’s run by `cron`, e.g. you use `rsync` in a script to backup your files on another server…

You will notice that adding “Terminal.app” to the “Full Disk Access” does not work, because cron does not use “Terminal.app”.

Now you could grant “Full Disk Access” access to the `rsync` program, and that solves some of the permission problems, but this is not enough if you need access to:

~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

Instead, you should add `cron` to “System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access”.

I did this by running `open /usr/bin/`, which opened a Finder window that allowed me to easily drag/drop the `cron` program into the “Full Disk Access” list.

After one year your post saved my scripts life ;)

After 1.5 years, this helped resolve my issue as well. Thanks.

If you expect “security” and “privacy” in a closed source operating system, you’re a lost cause anyways. If you aren’t even allowed to understand how your online banking balance was being rendered on your screen, you should overthink your ways. Remember: If the number on your online banking page is all wrong, you’re going to starve. So this isn’t some “minor thing only nerds should care about”. Security in Mac OS X. Pff.

These new “security” features and alerts of 10.14 are nothing more than annoying and unnecessary tactics to trick fools into believing they’re safe. Apple calls these things “features”, but for skilled administrators those are nothing more than “bugs”, simply put. Because they break stuff. Render it unusable, unless intervened.

After having migrated from an earlier macOS/Mac OS X release to 10.14, you’ll find your Macintoshes automation techniques struggling hard. In order to get your deserted Mac up and running again, I suggest the following:

1. Open up System Preferences.app, navigate to “Security & Privacy” > “Privacy” > “Full Disk Access” 2. Press option & command & spacebar, this should open up a spotlight window 3. Enter “kind:application” into the search field 4. Drag every result from that window into the “Full Disk Access” list in System Preferences 5. Open up a terminal 6. “$ echo $PATH” 7. open up every path from that, e.g. a default 10.14 install will say “/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin” by using “$ open”. So “$ open /usr/local/bin” and then “$ open /usr/bin” and so on and so forth. 8. Drag every executable in these folders into the “Full Disk Access” list in System Preferences (9). Bonus: Repeat these steps with the “Accessibility” tab to get rid of those alerts/breakages as well.

Doesn’t fix every annoyance, as it won’t mute alerts that will pop up from applications and executables you’ll install in the future, but it is a step forward. And please don’t give me crap about how I lure users into doing “dangerous” things. Keep your security hysteria to yourself. If Mac OS X managed to strive without a malware epidemic from 2001 until now, it will continue to do so, even if you enable the “evil evil” disk access.

I’m critically fed up with Apple in 2018. We’re reaching idiocy and greed levels that shouldn’t be possible.

Rather than complaining and moaning, why don’t you simply disable System Integrity Protection? It takes like two minutes, tops. *eyeroll*

Is there a list of “restricted” directories?

This is really disappointing to hear. I was on a Windows machine the other day and couldn’t delete a file. Tried using the command line as admin and various applications. It made me think about why I prefer Mac over windows, one of the reasons being that I (the user) have complete control over the OS. Guess Apple is now deciding that after almost 20 years of macs running OS X that users shouldn’t have access to one of the core features- the unix/bsd base system.

It’s not that big of a deal as you can see this is an easy fix to gain the additional privileges to unix Terminal on Mac.

Until you access your Mojave system via SSH and face a whole new raft of permission wrangling headaches. Mojave has been a real disappointment. Apple Server app lost DHS, DHCP, Mail, Web…pretty much everything you’d use a server for, permissions/access are now so walled off it’s a constant game of access whack-a-mole.

All the while trying to keep users happy :(

Until you need to manage your system remotely, and now you need to add sshd to the list too. This will turn into security whack-a-mole :(

more Apple stupidity! Why do they not listen to users! Each and every update continues to hobble and restrict the OS to something completely useless and unusable by anyone with significant skill! Take your crap OS APPLE and keep making it utterly useless! Moving on to real operating systems from Red Hat, Windows were users can still actually accomplish work and configure systems as needed!

Good luck trying to sell anything you stick a PRO label on with an OS this useless

Since upgrading to Mojave, when trying to run flush.app flash cookie remover, I get an error message:

Not authorized to send Apple events to Terminal (-1743)

Another reason not to upgrade?

Looks like crApple is charging ahead with converting all OS’s to iPads where users have ZERO control over their devices because computers are now considered AD delivery and tracking devices and users are captive audiences.

Thanks for the pictorial representation.. this really helped me to solve my issue. Thanks a lot.

Thanks! this also solves issues with Macscan and PrivacyScan. add these to the applist too!

Granting apps full disk access has potential for problems, with Terminal it makes sense if you are a terminal user but for others it’s not a good idea to randomly add apps to that list. This is a protection mechanism in new macOS.

That makes me wonder, what is MacScan and PrivacyScan? What do they claim to do and what makes them? Be wary of junk cleaner apps that aren’t needed by the Mac. Be wary of apps that claim to scan or clean anything, they’re usually junkware trying to put more junk and tracking on your Mac.

Strict Gatekeeper settings and privacy settings, only trusted source apps, Malwarebytes free edition, regular web browser cache and cookie removal, some of the ObjectiveSee apps, that’s really all you should need on a Mac if anything at all. Don’t download sketchy stuff from anywhere and that alone prevents most problems on Mac.

Does this happen even if you are root? I currently don’t have a machine capable of running Mojave so cannot test this. But from the sounds of thing, Apple is making their OS like their hardware, unable to open or look inside anymore.

Yes, it happens even if you are root. Apparently Mojave adds additional “protections” above and beyond the Unix/Posix security model. I wonder if Apple can still claim they are “Unix” under these conditions.

I have a cron job that runs rsync to backup my home directory to another machine. Since Mojave I’m always getting errors from it. I can run it fine from Terminal because I gave full disk access to Terminal, but I haven’t found a way to give permission to cron or rsync, which are plain unix executables. I believe you can only give permission to apps. Any advice?

I Don’t have a solution for you, but this is the sort of crap from Apple that keeps me from updating/upgrading… Tim Cook assumes that all Apple users are all brain dead morons.

I was able to add /usr/sbin/cron in the same way as /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

The issue I have isn’t the Terminal getting that message; but the Finder, when manually copying files from one tab to another in the same Finder Window. If in two separate windows, it works; but when the Dock PreferencePane’s “Prefer tabs when opening documents” is set as Always, I get the error. Anyone experience this and any solutions? I could in theory add the Finder.app found in /System/Library/CoreServices; but this is a very risky kludge and not a valid solution.

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How to Fix Terminal Operation Not Permitted Error on Mac

One of the issues that you may run into when learning to use Terminal is the “Operation Not Permitted” error. Luckily, this error is pretty simple to fix. It simply means that the Terminal does not have access to whatever file you are trying to reach.

As someone who is always toying with macOS, either to fix an issue on one of my customers’ computers or to work on one of my own projects, I have seen just about every Terminal error under the sun. 

Let’s check out a few tips you can put to use if you run into the “Terminal operation not permitted” error.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

The causes of “terminal operation not permitted” on mac, fix #1: ensure the file you are accessing is not locked, fix #2: remove apple quarantine extended attribute, fix #3: ensure full disk access is enabled for the terminal, disable sip, final thoughts.

• Terminal Operation Not Permitted Error on Terminal on your Mac is a relatively easy fix, and typically it is caused by one of the following possibilities.
• The file being accessed is locked , meaning you might need to unlock it via Finder.
• The folder has Apple Quarantine Extended Attribute , which you can easily remove via Finder.
• If Terminal does not have Full Disk Access , you can easily check this.
• Lastly, System Integrity Protection (SIP) might need to be disabled . But This is a temporary fix, and SIP should be reenabled as soon as possible. 

For more seasoned Mac users, the Terminal app is a very convenient way to do many things on the backend of your Mac that you wouldn’t normally be able to do on the GUI (Graphical User Interface). 

For less seasoned Mac users, it can be a bit more complicated, but if you have the right commands and understanding of the terminal, it is easy to learn. 

If you’re running into the error “Terminal operation not permitted,” it could be due to the file being locked, the file having a quarantine attribute, the terminal not having full disk access, or a system integrity problem . 

Let’s start with the easiest fixes first.

The first (and arguably easiest) problem that could be causing the Operation Not Permitted error is simply that the Terminal cannot reach the file you are trying to alter because it is locked. To check if the file is locked, we can use Finder. 

Step 1: With Finder Open, Navigate to the desired folder. Right-click (or click the trackpad with two fingers). Choose Get Info . 

Step 2: Verify that the Locked box is not checked and blue (like the image below), if it is, click to remove the check. 

Step 3: Try to run your Terminal Command again.

Sometimes, when your MacOS detects that there is a file that can be executed located in your folder, it will add a com.Apple.Quarantine attribute to the folder. This prevents the executable from running. If this is the case, then Terminal may not be able to run properly. 

Open the desired folder in Finder, if you see a folder or file with the name com.Apple.Quarantine, then move it to the trash bin.  

If Terminal does not have Full Disk Access , then it may run into problems when it has to access the file that you are trying to work with. 

Take the following steps to ensure you have full disk access.

Step 1: Open System Settings using the Apple menu. 

Step 2: Navigate to Privacy & Security on the left and Full Disk Access on the Right.

Step 3: Click to turn on Terminal.

Step 4: Enter your TouchID or Password to Confirm.

Step 5: Terminal will now show as turned on.

Fix #4: Temporary: Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection)

System Integrity Protection, or SIP is a very important feature on your Mac that helps to keep the entire computer safe from unauthorized programs and code. 

Because of this, this is not a recommended fix if you are not familiar with Terminal . Additionally, if you choose to move forward with this method, be sure to re-enable SIP when you are done.

• Start your Mac in Recovery Mode (Use Command-R keys at startup)
• Use the Utility menu to launch Terminal
• Enter the command: csrutil disable
• Restart your Mac normally
• Use the Utility Menu to launch Terminal
• Enter the command: csrutil enable

Seeing the Operation Not Permitted Error on your Mac can be quite frustrating. However, it is often an easy fix! 

One of the four fixes in this article should have helped you to solve this problem and continue to use Terminal normally. This could have been unlocking the folder that you were trying to alter in Terminal, removing the quarantine attribute, providing Terminal with Full Disk Access, or disabling SIP. 

Which fix worked for you? Were you able to solve the Terminal operation not permitted error? Let us know in the comments!

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Operation not permitted

I am trying to delete files from trash on my MacBook. I have tried to remove with:

Can not remove all files from Trash in OS X

But I get Operation not permitted error

Any help is appreciated.

• What you are trying to do is empty at the same time your own Trash / Recycle Bin and the system's. Some items may have been marked for deletion pending a reboot by the OS, but they will be deleted at its discretion, not yours. What happens if you just try a "sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash"? –  user1019780 Jun 11, 2020 at 11:23
• @Didier Still the same rm: /Users/Admin/.Trash/2e4/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted rm: /Users/Admin/.Trash/2e4/com.apple.Safari/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted rm: /Users/Admin/.Trash/2e4/com.apple.Safari: Directory not empty rm: /Users/Admin/.Trash/2e4/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted rm: /Users/Admin/.Trash/2e4/com.apple.Safari/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted rm: /Users/Admin/.Trash/2e4/com.apple.Safari: Directory not empty –  NathanGL Jun 11, 2020 at 11:37
• OK, this explains that: you're trying to permanently delete a file related to a preinstalled application (Safari). macOS won't allow that, not even in Recovery Mode, unless you disable System Integrity Protection first (sudo csrutil disable), reboot in normal mode, and use the commands you've already used in Terminal. Is there a reason why you tried to uninstall Safari in the first place? –  user1019780 Jun 11, 2020 at 13:38
• Thanks, @Didier turned off System Integrity Protection and can delete it now. Well, I couldn't uninstall Safari so I tried removing it totally and that happened. It simply didn't work for me. –  NathanGL Jun 11, 2020 at 19:54
• You're not supposed to uninstall Safari. It's part of macOS, same Internet Explorer is/was part of Windows. Only way to totally and cleanly uninstall it is via a third-party like AppCleaner, but it's not recommended at all. Glad you solved your problem, though. –  user1019780 Jun 11, 2020 at 22:02

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Safari Can't Open Page

I'm getting this error message "Safari Can't open page. The error is: "The operation couldn't be completed. Operation not permitted" (NSPOSIXErrorDomain:1)

MacBook Air running Catalina 10.15.4

Also, Google Chrome not loading. Was unable to open Norton app to "uninstall" it, tried just trashing the app. Also, Chrome installer keeps launching when I restart the computer and I'm unable to trash the installer. If I select "install" it tells me that Google Chrome is already installed, but the installer keeps launching!

I'm dying here - I have deadlines and cant connect to the internet! It's not the internet service because my Android phone is able to connect and open Chrome.

I'm also having trouble with other apps like Spotify.

Posted on Jul 12, 2020 1:30 PM

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• Safari will not connect to any website A few days ago I started having problems with Safari not connecting to any website. I have followed every known suggestion, clearing extensions, clearing history, restarting computer, even reinstalled the system, macOS Catalina version 10.15.7. Nothing seems to fix the problem. I'm now getting errors where I cannot connect to the App Store, even software updates says cannot connect because a secure connection to the server cannot be made. I have restarted my router and computer several times. All other devices can connect, iphone, ipad, and appleTV. I'm currently on my computer using Firefox with not connection problems. The problem must be with apple software but as stated I have already did and recovery and restalled the OS. I'm out of ideas any help would be greatly appreciated. 216 2
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Jul 12, 2020 1:38 PM in response to tennisstar36

Here are a few troubleshooting steps that may help:

If you can't open a website in Safari on Mac - Apple Support

Needless to say, if you are using, or have used at any time in the past, any non-Apple "anti-virus", "cleaning", or "Internet security" products including "banking security", anything at all in that broad category of utterly useless garbage, don't. A lot of things won't work if you do.