[SUPPORT] Will QOwnNotes resolve Homebrew deprecation due to failing macOS gatekeeper security check?

[marc-medley]

Question

Does QOwnNotes plan to resolve Homebrew deprecation issue due to failing to pass the macOS gatekeeper security check? In other words, will QOwnNotes become macOS (Tahoe 26) security gatekeeper compliant before 2026-09-01?

Homebrew: Deprecated because it does not pass the macOS Gatekeeper check! It will be disabled on 2026-09-01.

Output from the debug section in the settings dialog

See "Relevant log output" section

Relevant log output in the Log panel

brew info qownnotes
# ==> qownnotes ✘: 26.3.25 (auto_updates)
# https://www.qownnotes.org/
# Deprecated because it does not pass the macOS Gatekeeper check! It will be disabled on 2026-09-01.
# From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/HEAD/Casks/q/qownnotes.rb
# ==> Name
# QOwnNotes
# ==> Description
# Plain-text file notepad and todo-list manager
# ==> Artifacts
# QOwnNotes.app (App)
# ==> Analytics
# install: 71 (30 days), 228 (90 days), 1,326 (365 days)

[pbek]

If the question is if I want to pay the Apple Developer Program membership ($99/year), the answer is no. 😉

Summary

The issue is that QOwnNotes macOS builds lack proper Apple code signing and notarization, which Gatekeeper requires. The project historically had signing (via Travis CI, see travis/create-dmg.sh) but it was lost in the migration to GitHub Actions. The fix requires:

1. An active Apple Developer Program membership ($99/year) — this is the blocker
2. An entitlements file for hardened runtime
3. Updated DMG scripts to sign with a Developer ID
4. Notarization via xcrun notarytool in CI
5. GitHub Actions secrets for the certificate and Apple credentials

The old Travis CI certificate files in travis/osx/ are likely expired and should not be reused. Fresh credentials from an active Apple Developer account are needed.

[marc-medley]

@pbek Thank you for the reply.

I'm guessing that the Apple Developer Program fee waiver is also somewhat beyond the current reasonable reach since it requires "a nonprofit organization, accredited educational institution, or government entity …".

[pbek]

Yeah, I guess.