Skip to main content
dsol21
dsol21
Known Participant
August 21, 2023
Question

Over-zealous plugin security issues in After Effects 2023 on Mac OS

  • August 21, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 952 views

Since the release of After Effects 2023 on Mac OS, I've been plagued by issues launching it every time I do an update. The issue seems to be some new security protocols that have been implemented, which mean that older plugins (which haven't been compiled using the more recent versions of Xcode) trigger a security alert on launch - bringing a up a popup window that says "Plugin: xxxxx is from an unidentified developer" and the option to cancel or move that plugin to the bin.  You can force it to ignore this by opening security preferences in system preferences and then manually approving it for each individual plugin (by clicking "cancel" on the popup, then clicking "allow" in the security pref pane). As you can imagine, if you've got a couple dozen plugins that trigger this, it's a bit of a pain in the bum.
Now, I'm sure some white knight will now speak up and say "Well, Dan - just update your plugins, you dinosaur!" But it's not as simple as that. This issue affects many popular free plugins, like VC Sabre and Orb. And I've got older commercial plugins that are still useful but aren't being developed any more.  I just want a way to just tell After Effects / Mac OS to stop nannying me about my plugins. Honestly - they're good. They're not harming anyone!
Here's a video showing the issue:
https://youtu.be/IczJ5G3Or5A

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

nishu_kush
Community Manager
nishu_kushCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 14, 2024

Great, thanks for sharing the workaround.

Moving the thread from Bugs to Discussions.

 

Thanks,

Nishu

dsol21
dsol21Author
Known Participant
November 23, 2023

I think I might have found a solution of sorts for this issue, using a terminal command. I actually learned about this while I was installing some Insydium plugins for Cinema4D. Here's the command:

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine <After Effects plugin folder>

 (top tip: just paste in the first part up to the end of "quarantine" in terminal and add a space at the end -  then, drag the plugins folder to the terminal window and it will add the correct pathname to the command).

This command invokes SUDO (temp admin priviledges) so you'll need to put in your admin password.  I already signed off the plugins via the security panel in macOS, so I can't test it right now. But as soon as I have this issue again, I will give it a whirl (probably when the next major release of AE comes out)

    dsol21
    dsol21Author
    Known Participant
    August 21, 2023

    I feared it might be an OS/Apple mandated thing. I'll have to see if there's any other way of easily "blessing" that cluster of plugins that seem to fall afoul of it, so this issue doesn't keep happening every time I update. Thanks for responding!

    J
    Community Manager
    jenkmeister17177426Community Manager
    Jenkmeister
    August 21, 2023

    This is an OS level issue. Plugins require being officially signed by the OS now and these older plugins need to be updated. Nothing AE can do here. 

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices