How to open an app macOS won't verify.

First, drag it to Applications

Open the downloaded .dmg and drag FunNotch into your Applications folder. Do this before anything else — an app run from inside a mounted disk image behaves oddly, and the permission grants you make later will not stick to it.

Then eject the disk image and open FunNotch from Applications. You will get the warning. That is expected, and it is where the two paths below diverge.

On macOS 15 Sequoia and later

This is almost certainly you. Apple removed the old right-click → Open shortcut in macOS 15, so if you have read elsewhere that Control-clicking is the trick, that advice stopped working in 2024.

1. Double-click FunNotch. macOS says it “was not opened because Apple could not verify it”. Click Done. It matters that you try first — this step is what tells macOS there is something to unblock.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Scroll to the Security section near the bottom. You will see a line reading “FunNotch was blocked to protect your Mac.” Click Open Anyway.
4. Authenticate with Touch ID or your password, then confirm Open Anyway in the dialog that follows.

That is once, forever. macOS remembers the decision for that copy of the app, and updates you install later over the top will open normally.

On macOS 14 Sonoma

The older shortcut still works here:

1. Control-click (or right-click) FunNotch in Applications.
2. Choose Open from the menu — the menu item, not a double-click.
3. In the dialog, click Open again. The dialog looks almost identical to the one that only offers Cancel; the difference is that this one has an Open button, and that difference is the whole mechanism.

What the warning actually means

Worth understanding rather than clicking through, because the same dialog appears for software that genuinely is dangerous.

The warning means Apple has not checked this app — that the developer has not paid for a Developer ID certificate and run the app through Apple's notarisation service, which scans it for known malware. It does not mean Apple looked at the app and found a problem. An honest app from a developer who has not paid $99 a year and an actively malicious app produce exactly the same dialog.

So the dialog cannot tell you whether to trust something — only that nobody else has vouched for it. That judgement stays with you, and it should rest on where the app came from. In FunNotch's case: what it sends over the network is written down, the app has a Diagnostics screen listing every permission it holds, and the reason it is unsigned is the boring one.

Apply the same reasoning to the next unsigned app you meet, and be readier to walk away from one that has none of the above.

What FunNotch will ask for afterwards

None of these are granted by installing, and the app runs without any of them — each one just switches off the feature that needs it.

• Accessibility — required for the HUD, because replacing the system volume and brightness overlay means catching the key press before macOS acts on it. Without this the media keys behave exactly as they always did.
• Calendar and Reminders — for the agenda beside the player. Decline it and that panel stays empty.
• Camera — only for the camera mirror, and only while it is open.
• Location — only if you turn the weather widget on, and only to work out which forecast to ask for.

If it still won't open

The usual cause is running it from the disk image rather than Applications — go back to the first step. If you moved it correctly and macOS still refuses, check System Settings → Privacy & Security for a security policy set to App Store only, which suppresses the Open Anyway button entirely. On a Mac managed by a school or employer, that setting may be locked, and no amount of clicking will get around it.