How do I disable quarantine on Lion?

Question

I've been tearing my hair out trying to get rid of the quarantine "Do you want to open this?" warning because I don't like it.

The well documented way (defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO) does NOT work.

Also, I've used the Secrets Preference pane and that doesn't work either. As soon as I uncheck the box and close the pane and reopen, it's still checked.

(I've tried rebooting right after these methods, no dice.)

Answer 1

Never tried to disable the behavior entirely, but you can always remove the quarantine from a file with xattr. For example:

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ./*

I think of it less as a moron check than it is a safeguard from browser vulnerabilities that might otherwise download and something without your knowledge.

Answer 2

Here's a simple Automator folder action that will remove the quarantine flag from files as they are downloaded to the Downloads folder:

1. Make a new Folder Action workflow in Automator
2. In the "Choose folder" menu, choose your Downloads folder
3. Add a "Run Shell Script" command
4. Change the "Pass input" menu to "as arguments"
5. Change the script to:

for f in "$@"
do
    xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$f"
done

Finally, save the workflow with whatever name you want and it should start working immediately.