Re: How do I check my SSD for damaged files?

On 2024-11-12 16:00:38 +0000, J Burns said:

On 11/11/24 4:30 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2024-11-11 17:50:39 +0000, J Burns said:

 I used WIFI to migrate from an M1 Mac to an M4, both running OS 15.1. Thunderbird still worked on the M1, but when I tried to launch it on the M4, the system said it was damaged and should be discarded.

 That sounds like the usual MacOS Gatekeeper anti-malware system message. It usually means nothing (unless you're downloading dodgey pirate apps) and can be bypassed, although gets more difficult with every new version of MacOS.
 Gatekeeper would check on the first run, find the certificate is no longer current or the app doesn't match the original install version, and so complains that the app might be dangerous, when in reality it isn't dangerous and isn't corrupt. Possibly the developer's certificate was fine when the app was first run on the old computer, but for some reason had been changed (e.g. renewed under a different name) by the time it was first run on the new computer. Some apps alter themselves after install for things like preference settings, auto-updates done via the internal check, etc.

 Thank you! I wish Apple had made it clear.
 

Do I need a third-party utility?
 Since the app almost certainly was not corrupt, I wouldn't waste your time.

 I did waste 65 seconds running First Aid. I think the warning that it could take hours was hogwash, as was the recommendation that running it from Recovery would help. Sequoia isn't compatible with any Mac before 2018, and I guess the biggest internal drive is 1 TB SSD. How could it take hours?

Disk First Aid can't repair some potential problems when booting and running it from the same disk because it needs to unmount the drive. Starting up from the Recovery partition and using that copy of Disk First Aid allows the usual boot drive to be unmounted if needed.
It shouldn't take "hours", especially on an SSD, but can take a while if you have lots and lots of files and/or a huge capacity drive.