MacOS – How to disable Gatekeeper alerts on opening text files synced with Dropbox

dropboxgatekeepermacostext;

I use WriteRoom to create and edit text files on the Mac (10.8.2). I keep these files in my DropBox (v1.6.14) folder so that they're synced to the cloud and can be edited on my iOS devices and other computers.

I had Gatekeeper set to allow applications downloaded from the App Store and identified developers:

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And when I tried to open text files in my DropBox folder with WriteRoom, I got this Gatekeeper alert (which doesn't seem appropriate for the type of file it is):enter image description here

I found this annoying, so I set Gatekeeper to allow apps from 'anywhere'. But then I get this message on trying to open these files:enter image description here

I don't really mind how Gatekeeper is set but I would really like to disable these annoying warning messages. Does anyone know why they keep appearing and how they can be stopped?

Thanks for reading.

Best Answer

man spctl

That is good to know, although you can just do:

xattr -d YourFile.txt

This removes the quarantine attribute on files.

With spctl you can add WriteRoom to list of apps that can run. From

man spctl

EXAMPLES
 To check whether Mail.app is allowed to run on the local system:
       spctl -a /Applications/Mail.app

 To allow Frobozz.app to run on the local system:
       spctl --add --label "My Stuff" /Applications/Mail.app

 To forbid all code obtained from the Mac App Store from running:
       spctl --disable --label "Mac App Store"
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