Cannot launch Cursor on Macbook pro M3

Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

I have just installed Cursor - version 1.1. I’m on MacOS 14.7.5 (Sonoma) on an M3 chip. I am not able to get my Cursor app to launch as it becomes unresponsive as soon as it’s launched. I have looked into the forum but I do not see any similar issue that’s open. Can someone help?

Steps to Reproduce

Install and launch Cursor. (Mac Universal)

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 1.24.09 PM.png
Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 1.24.09 PM.png502×302 12 KB

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.1.0
MacOS Version: MacOS 14.7.5

Additional Information

Basic remediation from my end:

  1. Rebooting the mac or Reinstalling Cursor did not help.
  2. MacOS security setting is set to: “Allow applications downloaded from - Appstore and identified developers”
  3. Going to Applications → Right clicking on Cursor → Open does not help.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

2

Hey @abhijeet you may want to try performing a clean install (from step 3 here)

Then download the latest version from our downloads page.

3

Thanks for your response @IsaacHopkinson! I was just trying these steps after posting this bug and I’m confirming that they do not help to fix this issue for me.

I did manage to grab console logs, which say:

kernel ASP: Security policy would not allow process: 89875, /Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/MacOS/Cursor

This points to it being an SIP (System Integrity Protection) issue.

  1. I looked into it and I don’t see anything under my settings that could be preventing Cursor from launching.
  2. I also tried giving Cursor an option to run locally from under Privacy & Security → Developer Tools. But that had no effect and Cursor still doesn’t get launched.
  3. Additionally, I’ve also tried launching Cursor with Open using Rosetta option and that doesn’t help to launch it either.

If I’m missing anything or if there’s a known solution for this, please let me know.

4

Is your laptop managed by your company? I wonder if they installed some software which might be enforcing this? I’ve not seen this before, so I wonder if there’s something specific to your setup which is causing issues here.

Does removing the quarantine attribute for the app work?

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Cursor.app

Otherwise, does disabling gatekeeper work?

sudo spctl --master-disable

remember to re-enable

sudo spctl --master-enable

5

I’ve tried both options:

  1. Removing the quarantine
  2. Disabling gatekeeper

Confirming that neither of these options helped in launching Cursor for me removing the gatekeeper step did NOT launch Cursor.

CORRECTION: Removing the quarantine step failed with

xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/Info.plist'
xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/PkgInfo'
xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents'
xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app'

Is your laptop managed by your company?

Yes, and we do have a software installed for device security, but I am the only person for whom Cursor doesn’t get launched. We have raised a ticket with them for this issue as well. If that fixes it I’ll send a note, but just confirming that the above commands did not work either.

6

@IsaacHopkinson My bad, bit of a correction above as I overlooked the error during removing quarantine. I was NOT able to remove the quarantine even though I have the complete admin privileges.
Running the command sudo xattr ... throws the error:

xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/Info.plist'
xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/PkgInfo'
xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents'
xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Applications/Cursor.app'

I also tried taking my laptop off the security software but that still didn’t work in removing quarantine for me.

7

This is most likely an issue with, and being enforced by your team/IT/security that manage this software/your laptop, so I think they’ll be the best resource for next steps here.

8

I was able to get Cursor working just by upgrading to MacOS Sequoia (15.5), no other commands worked. I also had tried taking my laptop completely off of the security software so I doubt it had any impact earlier. I imagine there must be some specific issue with MacOS Sonoma.

But thanks for looking into it!