"Mailspring is damaged and can't be opened" error on M3 Macbook

Description

Downloading 1.14 and opening Mailspring for the first time gives the following error:
image

To Reproduce…

Steps to reproduce the behavior:
Download Mailspring from here on a Apple chip Mac: https://github.com/Foundry376/Mailspring/releases/download/1.14.0/Mailspring.zip

Install and open the app.

Expected Behavior

It opens without error.

Setup

  • OS and Version: Mac OS Sonoma 14.5, M3 Mac
    • Installation Method: Brew Cask install and download from releases
  • Mailspring Version: 1.14

It appears to be unsigned. There’s no _CodeSignature directory or CodeResources files in the package. The binary also doesn’t appear to have any of the entitlements or notarization elements in it. It’s essentially blank.

1 Like

1.14 also does not open on Big Sur (11.7, Intel) after installation via Homebrew: You can’t open the application “Mailspring” because this application is not supported on this Mac

(i was about to create a bug report thread, but think one thread for this OS family is enough. version 1.13.3 does not let me add my Microsoft account, so i will migrate to Thunderbird unless a new version is released soonish.)

2 Likes

Try this command on Terminal:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MailSpring.app

After you installed via Homebrew, does Gmail mail work for you?

Mailspring.zip is for Intel Macbooks, you are looking for Mailspring-AppleSilicon.zip which unfortunately failed to build for 1.14

Build pipeline: Travis CI

@macuser79, thanks for trying to help.

first of all, a Homebrew package installation should not require sudo/terminal intervention. macOS initiates a dialog to enable third-party applications. this is how i was able to use the previous version. after removing that (1.13.3) and installing 1.14.0, the Launcher did not display Mailspring so i tried to open it via a Terminal.

after this failed, i executed your xattr command:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MailSpring.app

after retrying, the same error occurred:


re: 1.13.3 and Gmail. i don’t use my Gmail account, but am able to access my Zoho account with 1.13.3 installed via Homebrew.

i let Homebrew manage all my third-party installations/upgrades, because doing this is simpler than using several techniques. the Homebrew installation statistics suggest that there aren’t many users like me. there isn’t much difference between the Cask code for 1.14.0 vs. 1.13.3 … will try to find time to look further.

I also manage my third party apps via homebrew, it makes installation/upgrading much easier, especially when you add in a Brewfile.

If its unsigned, it’ll have to wait for a new release to be correctly signed.
I’ve been unable to add my gmail account either, but that seems to be a separate issue with its own thread.

for 1.14.0, 41496e7 adds a build environment variable dependency. maybe the developer qua release engineer forgot to add this variable somewhere.

on the same day, 78fdf84 mentions the notarization requirement. i suppose forgetting this is also a possibility.

i happen to have Xcode 13 installed, but think i would dislike myself if i failed to build a working version for myself. i don’t need another reason :slight_smile:

i can imagine resolving the GMail OAuth issue before releasing a new version, but publishing a useless version via Homebrew is weird. needless to say, many things are weird these days.

Thanks for the report. I pinged the maintainer about the issue.

Hey folks thanks for spotting this - it looks like the Apple Silicon build was broken due to a codesigning problem, I rebuilt it and republished the file and verified both the intel and Apple Silicon versions again. Sorry for the hassle! This version included some changes that required a lot of testing on Linux variants, and I think I uploaded the Apple Silicon build without testing it first…

Cheers,

I’m still having this issue trying to install on M1 Macos 14.7. Tried both Homebrew and the Apple Silicon zip from getmailspring.com.