Trouble opening InDesign files from network volume

[Jacotjie]

Since updating my macOS in December to the latest version I get the following message whenever I try to open an InDesign file that is on a network volume:  Apple could not verify “xxx.indd” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy. Then I have the option to click Done or Move to Bin.

Anyone else having this problem and found a fix? All the permissions are set to anyone can edit.

[leo.r]

It appears that the operating system believes that your InDesign file is in fact an application. Because this error can only appear when launching applications. I'm not sure why it would happen and what's the solution, but it may give you a hint as to what to look for.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Jacotjie

You forgot to blur copy of the file name at the top of your screenshot.

[Jacotjie]

🤦🏻‍:male_sign:

[Jacotjie]

I will blame it on the lack of sleep.

[Conrad_C]

That is a little odd since the message is supposed to come up only for applications, not for documents.

Does this happen when you double-click the file? That makes macOS figure out how to open it, and it’s obviously figuring it out wrong. Instead, does the file open if you open it directly into InDesign using the File > Open command in InDesign, or dragging and dropping the file on the InDesign app icon? My guess is that it happens only when you try to open it by double-clicking.

What kind of network volume is it? From an NAS of a particular brand? A share from another Mac or PC? A cloud sync service? Just looking for more info that might narrow it down. For example, maybe the network file system is not preserving some file attributes that macOS uses to know what kind of file it is (just brainstorming, I don’t really know).

Something is making macOS wrongly think that these files are applications. Because macOS sees them as applications, it thinks “Better check them against the list of notarized apps from identified Mac developers.” But they’re not really apps, so macOS can’t verify their provenance as apps, so macOS puts up this kind of message.

If you’re wondering about some of the terms I used in that last paragraph, they’re from the Apple help article about this, linked below. Maybe read it and see if it leads to some kind of solution. 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102445

In that article, I don’t think it will help to do the steps it suggests, especially under “If you want to open an app that hasn’t been notarized or is from an unidentified developer.” They won’t work since you’re getting the message with documents, not applications.

[Jacotjie]

The only way to open the files are within InDesign File > Opoen command. Double clicking or dragging and dropping them on the InDesign icon causes this problem. We use an older iMac that can't take the latest OS anymore as a file server. It is on macOS 13 while my computer is on macOS 15.2. I am not sure if that is the reason why. I will go through the Apple article and see if I am able to find a solution, thank you.

[Conrad_C]

OK, that is weird. But at least we know the file itself hasn’t been corrupted over the network, because InDesign doesn’t encounter problems opening it on its own, directly. I suppose drag-and-drop is like double-clicking, where the operating system makes the connection…but there it’s failing.

The Apple article probably won’t help you solve the problem then, because it’s only going to tell how it works when it’s working as designed. I don’t think it will have any useful solutions for this strange variation.

Another thing to look into is whether this affects other Adobe or non-Adobe documents. For example, if there are Photoshop, Illustrator, Word, and Excel files on the server and if double-clicking them fails the same way, then we know the issue is more related to macOS. If those all work and InDesign doesn’t, then maybe there is something InDesign needs to fix.

I’m only guessing but it does sound like it might have to do with upgrading to macOS 15.2, maybe there’s a new bug in macOS network access, it might even be specific to accessing macOS 13 network shares. You might have to contact Apple tech support to see if they can help confirm that or suggest settings to change.

[leo.r]

Try to ask this question on MacRumors:

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/macos.69/

I recall seeing a discussion there some time ago about the same issue (albeit not with InDesign). Unfortunately, I don't remember the solution, and I couldn't find this discussion again. This was quite some time ago.

In fact, I now recall having this exact problem myself when opening a PDF file in Preview. This was also long time ago and affected only a single file, as far as I remember.

As @Conrad_C mentioned, it's also important to know if you have this problem with InDesign files only or any file on your network in general.