MacOS Sequoia 18.5 Flags Pale Moon As Unsafe/Virus

Discussions for the Apple Mac OS builds of Pale Moon

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Desolace
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Joined: 2025-06-02, 21:33

MacOS Sequoia 18.5 Flags Pale Moon As Unsafe/Virus

Unread post by Desolace » 2025-06-02, 21:46

Operating system: MacOS 18.5 Sequoia
Browser version: Current/Most Recent Download
32-bit or 64-bit browser?: 64-bit Intel
Problem URL: N/A
Browser theme (if not default): N/A
Installed add-ons: N/A
Installed plugins: (about:plugins): N/A

Good afternoon!

I was searching for a new browser to try out today, and I stumbled across Pale Moon which immediately caught my eye because I, too, am a Moonchild. The idea of it being portable/mobile also caught my attention, and I was excited to see what it might be capable of. Upon downloading, however I ran into a small issue with both. First, the portable can only be created on a Windows platform as it is exe (unless I am wrong). And second, Apple flags the Pale Moon browser as unsafe and a potential malware virus and refuses to open it even with terminal work arounds.

Thank you in advance for your dialogue!

Des
**PASTE troubleshooting information here**

dbsoft
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Joined: 2020-02-21, 17:35

Re: MacOS Sequoia 18.5 Flags Pale Moon As Unsafe/Virus

Unread post by dbsoft » 2025-06-03, 05:07

The Intel builds to maximize compatibility are not signed and notarized. That process causes compatibility problems with very old versions of MacOS, so modern versions will complain that they are unsafe. You can override that in the System Preferences on the Security tab, click "Open Anyway"