Local Network permission appears to be ignored after reboot, even though it was granted

App & System Services Networking Privacy

Created Jul ’25

Replies 16

Boosts 0

Participants 4

We have a Java application built for macOS. On the first launch, the application prompts the user to allow local network access. We've correctly added the NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription key to the Info.plist, and the provided description appears in the system prompt.

After the user grants permission, the application can successfully connect to a local server using its hostname. However, the issue arises after the system is rebooted. When the application is launched again, macOS does not prompt for local network access a second time—which is expected, as the permission was already granted.

Despite this, the application is unable to connect to the local server. It appears the previously granted permission is being ignored after a reboot. A temporary workaround is to manually toggle the Local Network permission off and back on via System Settings > Privacy & Security, which restores connectivity—until the next reboot.

This behavior is highly disruptive, both for us and for a significant number of our users. We can reproduce this on multiple systems...

The issues started from macOS Sequoia 15.0

By opening the application bundle using "Show Package Contents," we can launch the application via "JavaAppLauncher" without any issues. Once started, the application is able to connect to our server over the local network. This seems to bypass the granted permissions? "JavaAppLauncher" is also been used in our Info.plist file

Answered by DTS Engineer in 850070022

Cool.

We regularly find and fix local network privacy problems [1]. It’s possible that this is what you’re seeing here. It’s also possible that you perturbed the system enough that the bug was masked. As the old saying goes: Bugs that mysteriously disappear can mysteriously reappear (-:

Still, it does put the kibosh on debugging this right now. But if you see it come back, please reply back on this thread.

Oh, and you should definitely test on the macOS 15.6 release candidate that we’re currently seeding. It contains at least one important local network privacy fix.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

[1] Sometimes we introduce new ones too, which makes me sad )-:

Boost

compiler_flags OP

Hello Quinn,

Thank you for the response. I previously filed a feedback ticket and the app's and macOs .tar.gz and a System_Profile_full.spx. I believe the ticket was FB20989430. This was running 26.2 (25C56). I've had the issue on machines in the field running on 26.0, 26.1, and 26.2.

That said, I have found that the bug doesn't reproduce on the 26.3 (a) beta build. I've put this on another mac mini and results so far are positive.

I have been testing across three different programs to look for problems. These are the NetworkIssueTest app that I sent you the github project and compiled .app for, our internal software product, and Dan Nagle's Packet Sender (https://github.com/dannagle/PacketSender)

I'll work on getting you github link to our internal software. I've been testing this by either creating a persistent netcat listening port ($ nc -l -k PORTNUM) on another mac with a fixed IP or by trying to reach a fixed IP device (usually an ethernet to serial converter or programmable logic controller) with a know open port and fixed IP.