I needed to reinstall Firefox on this computer, so I started up Chrome to download the latest version and it blocked the download as unsafe! I had to manually tell it to download anyway.
Fuck Chrome. I’m glad I only used it to download one file and went back to Firefox.
Just reproduced it here-
I just tried to reproduce this and couldn’t either. I’m also using a mac. Had to download a fresh copy of chrome since I didn’t already have it on my machine and it let me download 121.0 without hiccup. I’m curious what blocked it on yours.
I don’t use Chrome but maybe that Google Malware scan option is not set to the strictest?
Huh. Me too. Very weird. It’s not a problem obviously, but I’m curious too.
Apple MDM. You can lock down a computer in all sorts of ways.
Source: I manage thousands of Macs.
Your safe browsing was disabled, as another commenter said. Either you had it disabled manually, or it was momentarily down and couldn’t fetch the list. Either way, it marks all downloads as unsafe just to be sure in that case.
Are you using a company (work) laptop? Chance that it’s a rule configured by your company’s sysadmin. Chance that they configured it to block downloads for executables. Try downloading other apps to confirm.
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7579271?hl=en
No, although I did use it for work, which is the only reason Chrome is on the computer. But the sysadmin didn’t touch it.
If you have a good functioning IT dept, that laptop was fully configured to their specifications long before you got a hold of it and it certainly happens automatically.
I didn’t get it from work. It’s my personal machine. I just used it when I had a hybrid schedule. But I don’t log in with that account because it doesn’t exist anymore since I don’t work there anymore.
Gotcha
Perhaps the download was corrupted? Like maybe the checksum didn’t match. Did it happen a second time or after you did a force refresh?
Actually, the second time I did it on a Macbook. A separate machine. However, they are both Intel Macs, so they are older and running an older OS (Monterey). Could that be it?
So far the browsers all seem to be universal apps, and I’d bet they stay that for many years.
My rule of thumb is that an issue isn’t an issue until it affects at least 10% of the fleet. Before then, it’s a fluke and not worth investigating.
I think you had a fluke. Seems like it’s worked for you since then.
For future reference, the correct way to install Firefox on a Mac is
brew install --cask firefox, not downloading it manually like some troglodyte.Edit: unamused downvoters be like:
Sorry, folks, I was trying to make a joke, not an insult!
Or you could use nixos-darwin. But yeah if that was a joke I missed it far
They don’t need to touch it. If you login using your company’s google account, they automatically has access via their MDM console.
I don’t. I don’t even work there anymore. I quit a couple of weeks ago.