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I'm running macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and today I have a problem with starting up programs.

If I try to open any application from the Dock, it'll bounce forever, and in some cases freeze the screen entirely. On the other hand, if I turn my Wi-Fi off, everything opens instantly. So the only way I was able to type this message was to turn my Wi-Fi off, open Google Chrome, and turn the Wi-Fi back on. This is completely reproducible, I have basically a clean install of the OS, and doing the typical things like clearing PRAM didn't change anything.

The issue is very closely tied to having Internet. For example, if I have Wifi on but the internet is not working, then everything opens fine too.

I strongly suspect that macOS is doing something dumb, like waiting for a response from a slow server before allowing an application to open, possibly as part of its mandatory notarization. Mathematica is infamous for doing something very similar, but there's an option you can select to keep it from trying. Is there something similar for macOS?

This is indeed a widespread issue, currently climbing up on HN.

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    I'm running macOS Catalina and just today (a few hours ago), my machine started to glitch (freeze up every few moments). After rebooting, none of the applications on the Dock will open (or open very slowly). It just sits there and bounces. I'm running disk check now but will turn off internet to see if it's the same as your problem.
    – Swisher Sweet
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 21:43
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    @SwisherSweet I strongly suspect it's an internet issue, as Apple's System Status says the notary service is down. There's got to be a way to turn that off!
    – knzhou
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 21:45
  • @knzhou I blocked it in /etc/hosts by adding the line 127.0.0.1 ocsp.apple.com. That will stop the revocation checks each time you try to launch an app.
    – Stack Overflown
    Commented Nov 13, 2020 at 9:31

1 Answer 1

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This issue has now been resolved by Apple. The original post is preserved below.

As of 8 pm UTC, Apple's notary service is having 'performance' issues according to Apple's status page, which may be slow enough performance to cause timeouts or simply lock macOS trying to communicate with the service.

Developer ID Notary Service - Performance

Today, 8:00 PM - ongoing
Some users are affected

Users may be experiencing issues with the service. We are working to resolve the problem.

Currently lots of people are installing the just-released macOS Big Sur and putting a lot of stress on Apple's servers, which may have been the cause of this issue.

Catalina's Gatekeeper verifies notarisation on every app when launching the app. This process requires confirmation from Apple before launching the app.

People on slow network connections have suffered from slow app launch since this was introduced. With Apple's servers slow due to the stress caused by everyone updating, the slowness has been moved to Apple's side, but it's still present, and exaggerated for most people.

With the notary service having issues, macOS is unable to contact this service. Since macOS detects a network connection, it keeps trying to communicate with the notary service, rather than giving up as it does when not connected to a network at all. When not connected to the network, macOS defers the check to next time the network is available and may still show a warning when launching apps.

A workaround is to disable AMFI (Apple Mobile File Integrity). This should be considered a last resort, as this disables a key security check on macOS. First, disable System Integrity Protection (csrutil disable from Recovery) to be able to set NVRAM values, then run

sudo nvram boot-args="amfi_get_out_of_my_way=0x1"

Don't forget to set this back at some point. Reset NVRAM by holding cmd+alt+P+R on boot until the second chime (or just that key with boot-args="") and re-enable SIP.

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    That's wild, there must be a workaround... if the OS is willing to allow apps to open when the internet is off, then it should be willing to do the same when the server is slow!
    – knzhou
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 21:49
  • @knzhou Added a workaround that should work, but probably not a good idea, and hopefully Apple fix the issue quickly
    – grg ♦
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 21:53
  • @knzhou It’s back!
    – grg ♦
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 22:58
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    While the issue's resolved right now, it was related to trustd timing out connecting to ocsp.apple.com - editing /etc/hosts and resolving that to 127.0.0.1 so that it would fail entirely or similar fixed it as well, little less invasive than toying with AMFI :)
    – Spotlight
    Commented Nov 13, 2020 at 6:36

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