Field Report: Getting ZIP Stat (app) to Run on macOS
Yesterday I spent the better part of the evening wrestling with ZIP Stat (app) from OrchardKit on my MacBook Pro M1 running macOS Ventura 13.6. My goal was simple: open the tool, drop a few archives in, and get some quick stats. Easy, right? Not quite.
First launch greeted me with the familiar macOS roadblock:
“ZIP Stat can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.”
Ah, Gatekeeper strikes again. My first instinct was the usual: right-click → Open → “Open Anyway.” Dock icon bounced, nothing happened. No crash report, no feedback. That’s when I realized it wasn’t a corrupted download.
Next, I checked the extended attributes in Terminal:
xattr -l /Applications/ZIP\ Stat.app
Sure enough, com.apple.quarantine was attached. My initial thought was to disable Gatekeeper globally (spctl --master-disable), but I decided to be smarter and remove the quarantine only from this app:
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ZIP\ Stat.app
That did the trick. Launch dialog appeared, and this time, clicking “Open” actually did something. Progress.
But then the app hung on initial analysis. Console logs revealed it was attempting to access files in Documents, but macOS hadn’t granted permission yet. Once I went into System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders and allowed access, it started processing archives as expected. Performance was fine, CPU usage moderate, memory stable—no crashes.
While digging, I saved/bookmarked this page because it clarified macOS handling of quarantined and notarized apps: https://planetgpa.com/file-management/81680-zip-stat.html
Lesson learned: the “can’t be opened” message rarely means the app is broken. Usually, it’s a combination of quarantine flags, Gatekeeper policies, and file permission restrictions.
If I were doing it again, I’d skip the initial guesswork and go straight to checking quarantine flags, removing them selectively, and ensuring proper file permissions.
Apple’s official notes on Gatekeeper and notarization are always useful: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/open-a-mac-app-from-an-unidentified-developer-mh40616/mac https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution
After this, ZIP Stat ran smoothly. Small hiccup, simple fix—but worth noting for anyone handling direct-download macOS apps outside the App Store.