Considerations for macOS Catalina Users

Apple has just released Catalina, its latest OS version. The update comes with additional restrictions for app installations. Developers are now being asked to notarize their applications, which certifies that the app has been checked by Apple for malicious components.

Regarding these restrictions, the system notifies you of any attempts to access your data. If an app wants to use data from a particular folder, you should grant access to it within this app, and again confirm this action in the system alert. Currently, macOS Catalina requires that you provide access to your Documents, Desktop, Downloads, and Bin folders; iCloud Drive; the folders of third-party cloud storage providers; removable media; and external drives.

For the time being, Prey can not access documents located in files and folders such as Documents, Downloads, Desktop, Movies,Music, Pictures, etc. We ask our users to keep this in consideration when it comes to the use of our feature file retrieval. We are working on a solution for this issue, but in the meantime, Prey will only have access to files created by the user.

Safely Open Prey on Your Mac

Prey has been properly notarized by Apple, and you should not have any issues installing the latest version of Prey, however, if by some reason you do install an older version of Prey, you might encounter a couple of errors. See below for instructions on how to install Prey if you encounter any errors.

Also, keep in mind that since Catalina requires new permissions, you will have to grant Prey access to: screen recording, camera, and location. You must take care of these permissions even if you already have Prey installed and went through the OS update.

If you have Prey installed and only went through the Catalina update, you must go to system preferences and grant these accesses.

If You Encounter Errors

When you try to install Prey on your mac, you might see an error message that will not allow you to open the app.

Taken from Apple’s support page:

In macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave, when an app fails to install because it hasn’t been notarized or is from an unidentified developer, it will appear in System Preferences > Security & Privacy, under the General tab. Click Open Anyway to confirm your intent to open or install the app.

The warning prompt reappears, and you can click Open.*

The app is now saved as an exception to your security settings, and you can open it in the future by double-clicking it, just as you can any authorized app.

*If you're prompted to open Finder: control-click the app in Finder, choose Open from the menu, and then click Open in the dialog that appears. Enter your admin name and password to open the app.

Always Check Prey When Updating Your OS

We suggest you check Prey to make sure that everything is running smoothly, even if the installation went well. If you find that things are not working well, and you are running Prey 1.9.2 and up, run the following command to fix any issues encountered:

sudo /usr/local/lib/prey/current/bin/prey config hooks set_watcher

If the command above does not work, we suggest you reinstall Prey. Also, if you are running an older version of Prey, updating to 1.9.2 and re-installing is the way to go.

We are working on making sure that with every macOS update, Prey works seamlessly. But for now, let us know if you have any further issues.