Makaka36574 (@Makaka36574)

Hey—listen, I was poking around with Locker Password Manager (app) yesterday, and I figured I’d write this up while it’s still fresh. This is one of those “why is macOS being dramatic again” afternoons, but there is a clean fix once you see what’s actually happening.So the setup: I grabbed Locker because I wanted something lightweight for vaulting a few shared credentials on my Mac. Install went fine, icon bounced once…and then macOS hit me with the classic “can’t be opened” dialog. You know the one—either “Apple cannot check it for malicious software” or the even scarier “is damaged and can’t be opened.” Super reassuring.What I tried first (and why it didn’t help):My first instinct was the usual right-click → Open trick in Finder. Sometimes Gatekeeper chills out after that. This time? Nope. Same warning, same dead end. I even re-downloaded the app, thinking maybe the ZIP got corrupted. Same result. At that point I knew this wasn’t a bad download—it was macOS deciding it knew better than me.What I realized:Locker itself was fine. The issue was Gatekeeper treating it as an unsigned or newly signed app that macOS didn’t trust yet. Newer macOS versions are extra strict here, especially if the app wasn’t notarized in a way the system recognizes immediately, or if it was built with a newer toolchain than your OS expects. None of this means the app is unsafe—it just means Gatekeeper is doing its “better safe than sorry” routine.Apple actually documents this behavior pretty clearly, but it’s scattered. The key thing I learned is that there’s a right way to tell macOS “yes, I really do want to run this,” and a wrong way that just keeps you stuck in warning dialogs. The relevant Apple doc is here, in case you want the official word instead of my rambling notes:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491What actually worked:Instead of fighting the popup, I went straight to System Settings → Privacy & Security. Scrolled down (this part matters), and there it was: a note saying Locker Password Manager was blocked from opening. There’s an Open Anyway button that doesn’t appear unless you’ve already tried launching the app once.Clicked that, confirmed with Touch ID, and—boom—the app launched normally. No Terminal commands, no disabling Gatekeeper system-wide, no sketchy overrides. From that moment on, Locker opened like any other app.For extra sanity, I also checked that I had the latest build. The App Store listing is here if you want to compare versions or just install from Apple’s side instead of a direct download:https://apps.apple.com/us/search?term=Locker%20Password%20ManagerWhile I was at it, I skimmed Apple’s notarization overview to understand why this happens more often lately (especially on Apple Silicon Macs):https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distributionThat page explains why some perfectly normal apps trip Gatekeeper until you explicitly allow them.I should also say: the developer branding checks out. Locker is published under OrchardKit, and once past Gatekeeper, the app behaved exactly like you’d expect from a modern password manager—keychain access prompts were clean, no weird background processes, nothing phoning home unexpectedly.At one point I stumbled across this page and found the notes there useful as a sanity check while I was troubleshooting: https://manheimgrace.com/security/76068-locker-password-manager.htmlIt lined up with what I was seeing locally, which was reassuring.One small thing I didn’t expect:On first launch after Gatekeeper approval, Locker asked for permission to access the keychain and to run a background helper. If you miss or deny those dialogs, the app still opens, but features quietly fail. It’s not a crash—it just feels “broken.” So if someone says “it launches but doesn’t save passwords,” this is probably why.For the future, here’s my short checklist:Launch once, expect it to fail, then go straight to Privacy & Security.Use Open Anyway—don’t reinstall in a panic.Approve keychain/background access prompts on first real launch.If something feels half-working, quit and relaunch once more.That’s basically it. No heroics required, just knowing where macOS hides the real control switch. Once past that, Locker’s been stable for me—no startup crashes, no weird CPU spikes, and sync behaved normally.Anyway, figured I’d pass this along so you don’t burn an hour yelling at Gatekeeper like I did. macOS security is great… right up until it gets in your way.