You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can't open FILE - "unidentified developer" error?

1) I export a Keynote file to PDF.

2) I double-click the PDF in Finder, and it opens in Preview.

3) in Finder, I "Get Info" and change "Open with" to Acrobat Reader.

4) When I double-click the file, I get "can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer."


I know I can go into Acrobat Reader and open the file from there. Or I could go to System Prefs>Security>General and "Open Anyway." But I have a large number of PDFs that I need to open in Reader. I don't want to have to do each and every file, one by one.


(And why does Mac OS suddenly think a PDF is an application anyway???)


MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 25, 2020 12:49 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 25, 2020 12:56 PM

The error is for Acrobat Reader, not the file, unless you changed the file's extension to ".app". You may be trying to use an old, no longer compatible copy of Acrobat.

Similar questions

1 reply

Can't open FILE - "unidentified developer" error?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.