System Preferences – Fix ‘Allow’ Button Not Working

clickinstallsystem-prefs

I am trying to install some software, (at this particular moment I want to install VirtualBox, although this issue has happened with other software), and I have to click "Allow" in System Preferences, in the Security & Privacy -> General window. When I click on it, nothing happens, and the button and message stays there.

I looked online, and all of the solutions say that there is some kind of program running that captures/forwards mouse clicks and such, and thus I am not "directly" clicking on the Allow button.

The problem is that I don't know of any programs that I'm running that do this.

I am on a Macbook Pro 13 inch 2016 with touchbar, running macOS High Sierra

  • I am not connected remotely
  • I have tried restarting my computer
  • I have tried running the installer through terminal, with and without the sudo command
  • I have tried right-clicking and clicking on "open" on the .pkg file
  • I have tried unlocking the system preferences page before clicking "Allow"
  • I tried re-downloading the .pkg file

Screenshot of security and privacy window

Best Answer

This worked for me on High Sierra 10.13.4:

  • System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Select 'All Controls'

enter image description here

Then:

  • System Preferences > Privacy & Security > Press 'Tab' until 'Allow' is selected > Press 'Spacebar'

*Note: the Privacy & Security page may need to be unlocked before 'Tab' will work.

*Note: After open Security & Privacy and selecting General tab you should push tab key to select allow button after that push space bar key!

Hope this helps!

Credit to @dansanduleac's answer on GitHub

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