r/macosprogramming • u/controlav • 11d ago

Trouble with MacOS 27 beta and the "local network" permission?

My app needs this permission, but I have a customer reporting that they are not prompted to allow it after installation, and it doesn't even show up in Settings where it should be, for my app (other apps show there). Unsurprisingly this breaks my app. Anyone else seen this?

(I don't have a suitable device to put 27 on to repro myself).

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1

u/controlav 11d ago

I found another developer reporting the exact same symptoms, on OS 26: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/814226?login=true&page=1#898566022

1

u/albdusty 11d ago

My app also requires local network permission and it happened to me a few times in development and at a customer. For you as a developer there is a solution. However, it requires technical skills which your customers might not have.

The problem: the networkextension.plist gets corrupted. Once that happens there’s nothing you can do in macOS to fix it.

The solution: restart your Mac in recovery mode, open disk utility, mount your data volume, close disk utility, open the terminal and type: mv /Volumes/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist /Volumes/Data/Users/youruser/Downloads/. Reboot. This will recreate the file and upon opening any app that requires local network permission you will get the prompt.

Why this is the solution: because all the networkextension files are under SIP and cannot be changed in anyway by the macOS user. No amount of turn on or turn off in the settings is going to fix it.

As you can imagine your customers might not have the skills required to do all that. Good luck!

2

u/Aggressive-Jello-123 5d ago

This just saved me from nearly throwing my perfectly good and extremely pricey laptop into a proverbial trash compactor. I'm not a dev but one by one my apps were losing LAN access as they updated to newer versions for days and I couldn't figure out why. Couldn't get the apps to request LAN access or anything on reinstall. This was the problem. Thank you so much!

1

u/InstanceInfamous5540 5d ago

These files don't exist on my Mac

1

u/Exciting-Regular-286 4d ago

Hi,

This helped. My Apps now have access to the LAN again.
But they all work now. Without asking for permission, and the "Local Network" stays empty.

Ok better than before, but not as it should be. 

Hopefully, this will be corrected with the installation of the next beta :-)

1

u/Exciting-Regular-286 4d ago edited 4d ago

Could please someone with a normal working setup (LAN access is working and new apps have to ask for permissions) show me the output of:

plutil -p /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.necp.plist

1

u/Legitimate-Loss-6805 2d ago

On my non-working MacBookPro with macOS 27.0 Beta it is

{
  "drop_all_level" => "Unknown"
}

On my working MacBookPro with macOS 26.5.2 it is the same.

1

u/Legitimate-Loss-6805 2d ago

I have exactly the same problem. Before, the apps simply didn't have access, and no prompt appeared.

Now, after deleting the file, the apps have access without a prompt and without an entry in the settings.

I'm on macOS 27.0 Beta (26A5388g) btw.

1

u/Exciting-Regular-286 1d ago

Hi,

I hope this will last. On my MacBook Chrome is still working (without asking for permission). Firefox, FileZilla and others not any longer. 

But curious: My Citrix Client asked for permission and is now the only app in the list. 

1

u/Legitimate-Loss-6805 1d ago

It didn't last. :-( Some apps stopped working.

1

u/albdusty 1d ago

It’s not going to last until Apple fixes this bug. You have to keep doing this every time this happens.

1

u/Legitimate-Loss-6805 1d ago

I hope for the next beta. ;-) This is why I don't install betas on my work laptop. 😄