From time to time I get a pop-up window telling me that Manager is asking for access to data from other apps. I can click either Allow or Don’t Allow and the window goes away, but then another identical window pops up and that can go on for 4 or 5 times in a row. Then it is quiet for a while, but the next time I start Manager, the same thing happens all over again. It may or may not be related to me changing the data folder, which I do from time to time.
I have three questions:
why does Manager want access to data from other apps?
accepting that for the moment: why, if I have answered the question, does the same window keep appearing?
and, most importantly, how can I stop this annoying behavior once and for all?
[Manager Desktop 25.10.6.2901, macOS, both Sequoia and Tahoe]
@lubos: This is the pop-up. It is in Dutch. Translated it says: “Manager wants access to data from other apps. By keeping app data separate, it is easier to protect your privacy and security.” And then Don’t Allow and Allow buttons.
My understanding is that this pop-up comes from the system, presumably because it is under the impression that Manager wants this type of access.
Nobody else has reported this as far as I know yet. Perhaps it’s to do with your application data folder? Or Manager default folder on Mac is not recognized by Mac.
Either way, Manager is not accessing data from other apps. It’s more likely that it’s accessing its own data but Mac thinks it’s data which belong some other app.
@lubos: For the record, I probably found out why the pop-up appeared and what I could do about it.
I did a search and it seems that the wording of the macOS pop-up is a bit misleading. It shows whenever an app asks access to a location to which it has not obtained explicit permission. This includes data from other apps, but it is not restricted to that.
Recent versions of macOS are rather strict. You have to give explicit permission to apps to access most areas outside of their own control. This includes Desktop, Documents, external drives and others.
So after I gave macOS permission through its settings to allow Manager access to external drives, the problem seems to have gone away.
I guess it is a side effect of the - very handy - option to easily change Manager’s data folder. Before there was no need for macOS to ask for permission, since the data was normally all within Manager’s own folders.
Just for the record, I also started to experience this on OSX recently. It probably started after I upgraded both OSX and Manager, so I can’t pinpoint an exact cause.
What I found/find most confusing is when it happens. If it was just when Manager.io was launched that would be understandable, but for me it often happens when Manager is already running and I launch something else.
E.g. just now I had been working in Manager for a while then launched Whatsapp, and the dialog appeared. I’ve never seen that happen with any other app.
What really freaked me out was that it could also happen when Manager was (ostensibly) not running! I would open something, like Whatsapp or a text editor, and get a warning that Manager was trying to access data from other apps.
That lead me to discover that when I quit (cmd+Q) Manager, ManagerServer processes were being left running. Happily, an upgrade to 25.12.21 seemed to resolve that problem.
Apologies for not being able to provide a more useful report.
On a related note, the issue with ManagerServer keeping running is/was not
restricted to the case you mention. It also happens when you change data folder, which is very confusing because together with your new data folder, your old data folder remains accessible too. (The function would better be named “Add data folder”.) This problem has not been solved by the latest update.
I reported this at After data folder change, previous data folder remains accessible (macOS), but no solution or even recognition of the fact has been forthcoming.
Oh @jeroen1 I think that’s it. I hadn’t spotted the connection, but I was switching data folders a lot around the time I noticed these ManagerServer processes being left behind. Just confirmed it still happens as you describe.
