Plover 5.1.0 hangs on open on Intel macOS Tahoe

[abotkin]

Describe the bug

When opening up Plover 5.1.0 on macOS Tahoe 26.2, users will encounter a bouncing app icon that never completes opening. Looking through the logs, it appears that Plover is ending up in an infinite loop due to being block by kernel system policy around library loading. This issue is a regression and does not reproduce in Plover 5.0.

Workaround: Install Plover 5.0 instead.

Console logs:

default	13:09:54.113432-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /Users/abotkin/ffi6LScct) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy
error	13:09:54.113828-0800	syspolicyd	Unable (errno: 2) to read file at <private> for process path: <private> library path: <private>
error	13:09:54.113857-0800	syspolicyd	Disallowing load of <private> in 5315, <private>
default	13:09:54.113877-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /private/var/folders/qd/b3kcwgkn1ql48gwb4wyv7yn80000gn/T/ffiIehdoT) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy
error	13:09:54.114255-0800	syspolicyd	Unable (errno: 2) to read file at <private> for process path: <private> library path: <private>
error	13:09:54.114281-0800	syspolicyd	Disallowing load of <private> in 5315, <private>
default	13:09:54.114300-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /private/tmp/ffiQCNojM) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy
error	13:09:54.114708-0800	syspolicyd	Unable (errno: 2) to read file at <private> for process path: <private> library path: <private>
error	13:09:54.114737-0800	syspolicyd	Disallowing load of <private> in 5315, <private>
default	13:09:54.114756-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /private/var/tmp/ffiJCJnRy) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy
error	13:09:54.115170-0800	syspolicyd	Unable (errno: 2) to read file at <private> for process path: <private> library path: <private>
error	13:09:54.115200-0800	syspolicyd	Disallowing load of <private> in 5315, <private>
default	13:09:54.115220-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /Users/abotkin/ffiyIMJHa) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy
error	13:09:54.115618-0800	syspolicyd	Unable (errno: 2) to read file at <private> for process path: <private> library path: <private>
error	13:09:54.115648-0800	syspolicyd	Disallowing load of <private> in 5315, <private>
default	13:09:54.115669-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /private/var/folders/qd/b3kcwgkn1ql48gwb4wyv7yn80000gn/T/ffiwW0pH5) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy
error	13:09:54.116060-0800	syspolicyd	Unable (errno: 2) to read file at <private> for process path: <private> library path: <private>
error	13:09:54.116089-0800	syspolicyd	Disallowing load of <private> in 5315, <private>
default	13:09:54.116111-0800	kernel	ASP: Library load (/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13 -> /private/tmp/ffiI0mKMq) rejected: library load disallowed by system policy

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install Plover 5.1.0 on macOS Tahoe
2. Attempt to open following steps in wiki with Control-click and Open.
3. Watch that the Plover app icon bounces in Dock but never opens.
4. Open up Console and observe logs from syspolicyd and kernel.
5. Install Plover 5.0 and note that this opens just fine. Reinstall Plover 5.1.0 and note that issue reappears.

Expected behavior

Plover 5.1.0 should be able to open on macOS Tahoe successfully.

Screenshots

N/A

Operating system

• OS: macOS Tahoe 26.2
• Plover Version: 5.1.0

Hardware

Intel iMac, Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020

[mkrnr]

Thanks a lot for reporting this! I think recently someone reported the same issue on our Discord.

Sadly I can't reproduce this one on macOS 26.2. For me Plover 5.1.0 installs and runs fine.

There's the issue of the menu bar icon not showing up (#1768). For that, a workaround is to run Plover like this in the commmand line:

/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/MacOS/Plover &

Does that work for you or do you get the same bouncing behavior? Also, do you get anything in the Plover log (~/Library/Application\ Support/plover/plover.log) or does it not get that far?

My suspicion: Plover 5.1.0 introduced code signing and notarization. We might need to add an entitlement to allow for this library load. It's unfortunate that I can't reproduce it though.

[abotkin]

So some quick additional tests:

1. Issue does reproduce on an Intel MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019 with macOS Sequoia 15.4 installed. The Application Support folder for plover is not yet created so no logs to retrieve there. The Console app shows the same errors about library load disallowed by system policy. Attempting to open via the command line workaround does not lead to success & does put the system in a worse state as there isn't an easy UI affordance to quit the process that's spinning (outside of Activity Monitor and finding the python3.13 process) so users systems may see CPU impact until they kill the process manually in Activity Monitor or restart their system.
2. Issue does not reproduce on Apple Silicon Mac Mini (M1 2020) running macOS Tahoe 26.2

This does related to code signing and notarization - maybe an issue in code signing the Intel binaries in the Universal? If your setup involves an Apple Silicon device, that may be the difference in reproduction.

[mkrnr]

That's a great finding, thanks for that!

Indeed, I'm running on Apple Silicon so this does look like an Intel-only issue.

I do have an Intel Mac that I can test this on. I'll try to make time of it next days.