BetterDiscord / BetterDiscord/Installer

Cannot grant BetterDiscord Installer v2 permission to modify Discord on macOS

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#424 11 comments 8 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
bug
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Description

**Describe the bug**
I'm unable to find any way of granting BetterDiscord permission to modify Discord on macOS unless I manually select Discord's `Resources` directory.

**To Reproduce**
Steps to reproduce the behaviour:
1. Download v2.0.0 from the releases page on GitHub
2. Unzip and remove the quarantine flag using `xattr -d com.apple.quarantine `
3. Open BetterDiscord and attempt to install
4. macOS reports that BetterDiscord was prevented from modifying apps on your Mac
5. Click the Allow button and enable the App Management permission for BetterDiscord
6. Relaunch BetterDiscord and try again
7. During the installation attempt, the App Management permission switch can be seen turning itself off, and we return to step 4 to loop indefinitely

I've also tried granting BetterDiscord full disk access, which didn't work either, although that permission remains enabled unlike App Management.

**Screen recording**

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7ed7abf1-f307-423e-a45f-907344e71bdf

**System Information:**
- OS: macOS 26.5.2 (25F84)
- Discord Version: Stable (0.0.409)

**Additional context**
For some reason, the problem seems to go away if I use the browse button to select `/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Resources`, even though that's the default path. The first time I tried this, nothing seemed to happen (Discord relaunched but seemingly without BetterDiscord enabled), but the second time, Discord relaunched and asked me to sign back into my account (which I've never seen before).

After signing in, BetterDiscord appeared to be enabled (I saw my custom theme and the BetterDiscord popup), but Discord now crashes consistently (the ["Something crashed your Discord Client"](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b766bf26-beca-44f8-a63b-3eaf33f47a4f) message) whenever I try to unmute my microphone, even though I've got no plugins enabled. Pressing the try again button produces a popup with the following error message:

```
Uncaught exception:
TypeError: Object has been destroyed
at WebContents. (/Users/joe/Library/Application Support/discord/app-0.0.409/modules/discord_desktop_core-1/discord_desktop_core/core.asar/bundle.js:1:118273)
at WebContents.emit (node:events:521:24)
at emitter.emit (/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Resources/betterdiscord.app.asar/bundle.js:505:106132)
```

Since BetterDiscord's uninstall feature also seems to be broken (it says it can't stop Discord even when Discord isn't running), I deleted Discord entirely, redownloaded it from the official page, and then reinstalled BetterDiscord using the v1.3.0 installer. Everything is now working fine.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the v2.0.0 installation flow on macOS, including the App Management permission prompt and selecting /Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Resources. Trace the installer path that modifies Discord and compare it with the manual browse flow; done means installation works without manually selecting Resources and the permission does not switch off.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
electron, macos
Domain
desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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