Big Sur Problem?: "You do not have permission to open the application"

to install upx, I was running this:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL http s://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" < /dev/null 2> /dev/null

what was working, afterwards I was running this:

brew install upx

But then I am getting this answer:
==> Searching for similarly named formulae...
Error: No similarly named formulae found.
Error: No available formula or cask with the name "upx".
==> Searching for a previously deleted formula (in the last month)...
Error: No previously deleted formula found.
==> Searching taps on GitHub...
Error: No formulae found in taps.

What have I done wrong?

Hey guys! I figured it out. If the app that you want to download says you don't have permission to open it, try this:

1. Drag the app to your "Applications" folder

2. Open Terminal

3. Type "sudo chmod -R 755"

4. Find the app that you want to open and drag and drop it into Terminal, and then it should look something like this:

"sudo chmod -R 755 /Applications/HelloWorld.app"
5. Click Enter
6. Go to the app and right-click on it, and then click "Open"
7. It may give you an error message, just click "Open" again

This worked for me, and I hope it helps!

hey friends,

Trying to open xf-adsk20.app and still having trouble to open on Big Sur. Nothing has worked here.

anything extra that I can try ?

I have the same issue since installing Big Sur. The problem with all the work-arounds is that a "normal" user should not have to "do" anything to get a standard app to work. Each time the app crashes, it sends a report to Apple, so they must have literally 10s of thousands of reports, all with the same issue. Why haven't they done anything about it?

My problem with Permissions is related to multiple PDF apps. I do not have a single PDF app that will do everything I need. So when I need to do a specific type of editing I will use another PDF app that is not my Default app. After completing the work the Default app will flash the error that "YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION". After trying more things than I want to waste your time with I came upon a solution that for the past 48 hours has worked with no exceptions. Solution: Open the System Preferences. Open the General Preferences. Change the RECENT ITEMS to NONE. Reboot and the problem for me was resolved.

I have the same problem with a new HP SmartTank printer: I can print but I can not open the printer app. Hence no scanning possible, What is odd is this happens on MacBook Pro M1 where the user was installed cloning an older MacBook. On a MacBook Air M1 where the user was created from scratch this does not happen. it probably has to do something with the cloning process. I have tried all the suggestions, updated the driver, switched to Secure AirPrint as the driver: nothing works. Any help would be most welcome.

I'm on an MacBook Air (M1, 2020) running macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 (20D74). For me, I had an issue with my printer app. It's a Brother HL-L2395DW. I was able to right click the app, select "Get Info" and then select "Open with Rosetta".

This is only a workaround, as macOS does report it to be a universal app, and it should run natively on M1. But when I look at the file with the "file" command-line program, it reports a "Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64e:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64e]". This seems to be the root of the problem, as non-Apple arm64e apps aren't currently supported on M1 systems without jumping through hoops. But this is getting well beyond my wheelhouse.

I used the following steps to get myself the "Execute" permission:

1. Right click on the application. E.g., HP Easy Start

2. Select "New Terminal at folder"

3. At the Terminal command line, type chmod -R 777 .

(Note: make sure you issue the entire "chmod -R 777 ." including the dot
4. you should able to execute the application by now

Guys... you should use homebrew + upx it works!
no need chmod 777 . or something....

Open Terminal or iTerm and type sudo chmod -R 755 , then drag the .app into the window, which will bring the full path into Terminal or iTerm. This worked for me, moving the -R option directly after chmod.

This workes fine for me :)

I found a very simple solution (in my case).

It all depends on the extraction method. i was using winzip and then use the unarchiver method to unzip the app and that´s it. it worked for me. i hope this solves a problem to anyone.

For Matlab, the MathWorks Support Team recommends installing Rosetta by running the line below from Terminal. It solved the issue for me.

sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta

Code Block 
sudo chmod -R 755 <file path> 

has worked by my side

open Terminal -> goto your app path -> chmod -R 755 file.app

Let me list just a few of my experiences.

The Desktop, Documents, and Downloads directories have some additional rules. If your executable is located in one of these places, see if moving it will help.

Even if the main Mach object is a universal format with ARM and Intel, it may be that some of the embedded frameworks don't contain ARM version. I had some programs with this situation try to run using ARM because the main program was universal but then fail to open when it tried to load the frameworks.

Make sure that it runs on an Intel MacOS system. There were some changes with Big Sur, and you want to make sure it isn't those issues burning you rather than the ARM/Intel issue.

Make sure that try setting the file to use Rosetta using the options in "get info" in the finder.

Some of the options for granting the programs privileges won't allow the privileges to be executed until you have run the program. For example, some programs won't let you read or write the Desktop or Documents directory. However, after you have read and written files in other directories, it will let you add privileges. Note that a program that contains a save or open panel that allows all directories will sometimes need privileges even if you aren't using those directories at the time.

Please note that having 777 permissions on the files and directories will not grant you full privileges. There are other rules that do not belong to the rwx (read, write, execute) security domain.

There have also been with network attached shares. Some programs will treat networked attached files differently. I believe that somebody mentioned Samba and that could be a problem. There have also been problems on the remote Apple directories.

Some of these have been mentioned in other posts but a lot of them don't follow the logical rules that you think they are following. Please remember Murphy's Correlary: Murphy was an optimist when he wrote his eponymous law.