PortableApps.com - macOS and Wine Support

Manually Un-quarantine The macOS Helper App Before Posting

John T. Haller — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 21:16:05 +0000

Users will currently have to manually remove the quarantine flag on the macOS Helper app or they'll get a damaged/corrupt app warning. This is due to macOS no longer allowing unsigned apps downloaded over the internet to run. Instructions are here: https://portableapps.com/download/macos#installation

We've applied for the Apple Developer Program and paid our $100/year fee. Once our application is complete and we've set up our signing certificate, we'll be releasing a signed version to alleviate the quarantine issue.

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

macOS Helper and Wine Support Forum

John T. Haller — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 21:12:13 +0000

This forum is for reporting bugs with our macOS Helper app and Wine support issues within the PA.c Platform and our tools. Note that we can't help with Wine bugs or with specific app compatibility issues as we don't control Wine or the apps themselves.

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Problem mit Installation besteht immer noch

Gerd Kuhlmann — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:17:33 +0000

Hallo,

Mein System:
MacBook Pro, 16 Zoll, 2019, Prozessor: 2,3 GHz 8-Kern Intel Core i9, Grafik: Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB, Speicher: 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4, macOS Tahoe 26,1

Mit Terminal.App Quarantäne aufgehoben:
Letzte Anmeldung: Di. 9. Dezember 19:57:17 auf ttys001
gk@Gerds-MacBook ~ % sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Documents/PortableAppsMacHelper.app
Kennwort:
Gk@Gerds-MacBook ~ %

Installation mit PortableAppsMacHelper.app: Installationsverzeichnis: Kann nicht individuell ausgewählt werden. Vorgabe ist das benutzerspezifische Dokumenten-Verzeichnis
Installationsfenster (Link): Https://c.gmx.net/@1447614354332587352/uPjyMiJEpwPGyem0lpx1-g

Gibt es inzwischen eine praktikable Lösung? Die älteren Beiträge drehen sich ja größtenteils um das gleiche Thema.

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Trying to install on Mac (failing)

isxpro — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 16:55:08 +0000

Trying to install on:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
Processor: 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
Memory: 24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M395 2 GB

PortableMacAppsHelper.app is located on an external SSD drive connected via USB. Confirmed to be writeable. Downloaded today.

Tried on two separate machines (OSX) and get the same error each time:

"Error! Can't initialize plug-ins directory. Please try again later".

This looks to be a WINE error, but Googling shows this usually happens in Windows.

Any pointers to what I'm doing wrong here?

TIA

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Folder created by installation

comandante72 — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 09:37:18 +0000

Hi!

When I use the install app, it creates a folder with an awkward name, full of symbols, and the installation stops. Is there any solution for this?

I have a MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon M4 and MacOs Sequoia Versión 15.6.1 (24G90).

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Carlos

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Helper does not properly recognize the Home directory

CmptrExpr — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 13:03:35 +0000

When running the helper to install, I get to the panel to start the install and then it gives me an error message with some funny characters in front of '/Documents' -- so it cannot create or write the installation directory for the platform. This prevents me from installing on my M2 MacBook (Sonoma).

Are we supposed to be using the helper?

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Won't install

CmptrExpr — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 13:20:17 +0000

None of the installation files will write and the output folder is goofy.

This is after the first write error:

Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁
Preparing to upgrade PortableApps.com Platform...
Installing PortableApps.com Platform...
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents
Can't write: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents\Desktop.ini

This is after I ignore the Desktop.ini errors:

Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁
Preparing to upgrade PortableApps.com Platform...
Installing PortableApps.com Platform...
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents\Music
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents\Pictures
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents\Videos
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\Documents
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\7-Zip
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\AppInfo
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\Bin
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\DefaultData
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\Graphics
Output folder: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\Graphics\AppIcons
Can't write: 뙸«ʨ l⡁\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\App\Graphics\AppIcons\AssaultCubePortable.ico

What gives?

Steve

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

K-Meleon crashes w latest Apps platform on latest Wine

noalternative — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 04:41:05 +0000

Here is the error message. backtrace.txt

https://pastebin.com/ZU9n9U18

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

My web browser tabs keep crashing when I'm running PortableApps on Linux with Wine.

Avalanche369 — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 22:07:43 +0000

I tried watching YouTube on Firefox, and each time I try to watch a video I'll get a message saying "Gah. Your tab just crashed."
Why are my tabs crashing?

My Linux distro is Linux Mint 21.2

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

PortableApps.com Platform

pastor — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 02:14:29 +0000

I am trying to install the platform for PortableApp.com, but I kept on getting the error message: Error opening file for writing.

My device is: macOS Ventura 13.4.1

Sorry, I do NOT see any option here to include a screenshot.

Thanks for your help!

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Mac Version Will Not Install

blanesheffield — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 10:50:39 +0000

When I download the Mac version of Portable Apps and execute it, it appears to unzip ok. Then when I open the installtion fike I get a message that the file is corrupted and I am advised to eject it.

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support

Errors Writing Documents Folder macOS Helper 1.2 + PortableApps.com Platform

hoabut — Wed, 17 May 2023 06:19:11 +0000

Well, Hello, There,

I am seeing errors writing to Documents folder (i.e., Desktop.ini) although my user has read and write to the Documents folder.
I open the PortableAppsMacHelper.app from the Documents folder and it just says "Can't Write ~/Documents/Desktop.ini".

Anybody seeing the errors as well?

Thank you.

Best,

Hoa

Forums:

macOS and Wine Support