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Fix documents that won’t open as expected using Quarant2

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A new drag-and-drop app to change quarantine extended attributes on documents, so enabling you to double-click them to open when they won’t otherwise.

June 15, 2026 Macs, Technology

Why can’t Preview open that PDF?

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Preview commonly refuses to open PDF documents. This explains why, and how you can work around its bizarre errors and warnings.

June 11, 2026 Macs, Technology

Use Providable to check file histories

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Verify that the app doesn’t change file extended attributes, discover why false flags result from updating apps in place, check who has been changing your preferences, and how to add App Store apps to Provenance tracking.

December 26, 2025 Macs, Technology

Inspect provenance and quarantine info in Providable, a Christmas present

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A new app to check files for Providence IDs and Quarantine information, so providing info about the origin and recent edit history of those files.

December 25, 2025 Macs, Technology, Updates

Quarantine, MACL and provenance: what are they up to?

Why do so many files now have quarantine and other extended attributes, although they’re not apps, and may never have left that Mac?

December 5, 2025 Macs, Technology

App Store apps can be translocated

It has often been assumed that App Store apps don’t undergo app translocation. That isn’t true: here’s an example of one that gets stuck in eternal translocation because it comes with an unwanted gift.

May 27, 2024 Macs, Technology

Lost in Translocation

Gatekeeper may decide to run a new app from a random location, in translocation. The rules for this are explained, and how to ensure that doesn’t affect your apps.

May 14, 2024 Macs, Technology

Inspect and control extended attributes with xattred 1.4

New version of this GUI utility for inspecting and editing extended attributes, for High Sierra and later.

May 18, 2023 Macs, Technology, Updates, xattr

How macOS now tracks the provenance of apps

Which extended attributes are attached to downloaded archives and apps? How do they fit in with provenance tracking?

May 10, 2023 Macs, Technology

App first run, quarantine and translocation

There’s more to the quarantine flag, as it’s not binary on/off, and app translocation can trap even notarized applications if you don’t move them right.

September 9, 2022 Macs, Technology

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