After Update: “Cursor” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Bin

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

After updating Cursor in the morging getting this error


“Cursor” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Bin.

System

Mac Intel

System Version: macOS 26.3.1 (a) (25D771280a)
Kernel Version: Darwin 25.3.0

Notes

I found that there may me an issue with CursorUiViewService stuck. I found it in Activity monitor and killed. But still Cursor cant be opened.

Upstream

I’m not sure if i’m using nightly or basic update stream

Steps to Reproduce

Install new update on Mac Intel (update from 16 Apr)

Expected Behavior

Cursor is opening and working

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

i cant run ide, but cli shows 2026.04.16-2d20146

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

4

Hey, this is a known macOS issue related to Gatekeeper and quarantine attributes. It can show up after updates.

Try these in order:

  1. Open Terminal and run:
xattr -cr /Applications/Cursor.app

Then try launching Cursor.

  1. If that didn’t help, do a clean reinstall via Homebrew:
rm -rf /Applications/Cursor.app
brew install --cask cursor

Killing CursorUiViewService won’t help here. The issue is that macOS thinks the app is damaged because of quarantine attributes.

Let me know which option worked.

6

image
image321×307 41.5 KB

@deanrie Thank you for your help. The gatekeeper didnt work, reinstalling it now.

But i finally found out the actual problem, that grayed out a bit.

The file has downloaded on an unknown date

Looks like its some download bug or osmething

7

brew cursor install wont work for some reason

15: Programming language designed for robustness, optimality, and clarity

You have 21 outdated formulae installed.

==> Fetching downloads for: cursor
✔︎ Cask cursor (3.1.15,3a67af7b780e0bfc8d32aefa96b8ff1cb8817f88)                                                                         Verified    280.0MB/280.0MB
==> Installing Cask cursor
==> Moving App 'Cursor.app' to '/Applications/Cursor.app'
==> Backing App 'Cursor.app' up to '/usr/local/Caskroom/cursor/3.1.15,3a67af7b780e0bfc8d32aefa96b8ff1cb8817f88/Cursor.app'
==> Removing App '/Applications/Cursor.app'
==> Purging files for version 3.1.15,3a67af7b780e0bfc8d32aefa96b8ff1cb8817f88 of Cask cursor
Error: It seems there is already a Binary at '/usr/local/bin/cursor'.
==> `brew cleanup` has not been run in the last 30 days, running now...
Disable this behaviour by setting `HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP=1`.
Hide these hints with `HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS=1` (see `man brew`).
Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Caches/Homebrew/abseil_bottle_manifest--20250814.1... (59.4KB)
Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Caches/Homebrew/abseil--20250814.1... (1.8MB)
Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Caches/Homebrew/[email protected]... (613.1MB)
Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Caches/Homebrew/ca-certificates_bottle_manifest--2025-11-04

and finally


w/openssl@3... (64B)

Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Logs/Homebrew/ca-certificates... (64B)

Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Logs/Homebrew/zstd... (64B)

Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Logs/Homebrew/jpeg-turbo... (64B)

Removing: /Users/thefrol/Library/Logs/Homebrew/yamllint... (64B)

Pruned 1 symbolic links from /usr/local

thefrol@Dimas-MacBook-Pro ~ % cursor

/Users/thefrol/.local/bin/cursor: line 26: $1: unbound variable

thefrol@Dimas-MacBook-Pro ~ %
8

And the next run actually succeded

thefrol@Dimas-MacBook-Pro ~ % rm -rf /Applications/Cursor.app
brew install --cask cursor
✔︎ JSON API formula.jws.json                                                                                                             Downloaded   32.0MB/ 32.0MB
✔︎ JSON API cask.jws.json                                                                                                                Downloaded   15.4MB/ 15.4MB

==> Fetching downloads for: cursor

✔︎ Cask cursor (3.1.15,3a67af7b780e0bfc8d32aefa96b8ff1cb8817f88)                                                                         Verified    280.0MB/280.0MB

==> Installing Cask cursor

==> Moving App 'Cursor.app' to '/Applications/Cursor.app'

==> Linking Binary 'code' to '/usr/local/bin/cursor'

🍺  cursor was successfully installed!

thefrol@Dimas-MacBook-Pro ~ %
10

Hey, glad the Homebrew install fixed it.

For any user who hits this error later, here are the options that are known to work:

Main option (most reliable):

rm -rf /Applications/Cursor.app
brew install --cask cursor

Alternatives if brew isn’t an option:

  • Copy the .app to Desktop first, then move it into Applications, not directly from the DMG
  • Or run in Terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/Cursor.app
  • Check Activity Monitor. If you see CursorUIViewService running, quit it and try again

This is a known macOS Gatekeeper issue with quarantine attributes after updates.

Marking this as resolved. Let me know if you need anything else.