Ill do my best to help. 2019 Update: a couple of things to try if youre stuck If youve tried all of the above but VirtualBox still refuses to install, the kind commenters Leo Shaw and Elias Politakis have got your back.

Lets fix that. Daniel Meechan Follow Jun 29, 2018 4 min read Introduction A colleague had some trouble installing VirtualBox on macOS High Sierra v10.13.5.

Heres the error he kept encountering: The installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail a very helpful error message We scoured the web for solutions before finally figuring it out.

Check this first Open up System Preferences Click on the Security Privacy icon Make sure Allow apps downloaded from: App store and identified developers is checked.

Error Mac Password Click

It should look like this: Make sure App store and identified developers is checked If your screen doesnt look like that: Click the lock icon in the bottom left of the window Enter your Mac password Click App store and identified developers Try to install VirtualBox again If you get the same error, try solution 1.

Solution 1 Quick and easy If youre lucky, this solution will work first time.

Error Software From Developer

Open up System Preferences Click on the Security Privacy icon Hopefully youll see a message saying System software from developer Oracle America, Inc.

If you do see the message, click the lock icon in the bottom left of the window Enter your Mac password Then click the Allow button Done Now open up the VirtualBox installer again and it should work fine.

If only it were always this simple If the Allow button didnt come up for you, try out the next one.

Solution 2 Back to basics Sometimes macOS needs a good restart before deciding to show the Allow button.

So heres what well do: Restart your Mac Open up the VirtualBox installer Go through the installer until you get to the screen with the Change Install Location and Install buttons.

Do not click install (yet) Open up System Preferences Click on the Security Privacy icon Hopefully youll see a message saying System software from developer Oracle America, Inc.

If you do see the message, click the lock icon in the bottom left of the window Enter your Mac password Then click the Allow button Done If the message and the Allow button still didnt appear, well have to resort to drastic measures with solution 3: Solution 3 Force macOS to let us install VirtualBox To force macOS to let us install VirtualBox, well need to use Terminal to open up our security preferences temporarily: Do CMD SPACE to open up Spotlight Type in Terminal and press ENTER to open up Terminal Now lets temporarily disable Mac Gatekeeper.

Type the following into Terminal: sudo spctl --master-disable Press ENTER Now type in the password for your Mac account.

Dont worry if it looks like your password isnt being typed: Mac hides the input for security Press ENTER Done Next we need to restart System Preferences: Make sure System Preferences is open Hold down the Option key and right-click System Preferences in the Dock Click Force Quit Now open up System Preferences again Click on the Security Privacy icon Below Allow apps downloaded from: you should now see a third option which is already selected: Anywhere A third option has appeared: Anywhere Great Now one of either two things should happen: The Allow button has already appeared: just click Allow and install VirtualBox.

Everything should work smoothly The Allow button has not appeared yet: dont worry.

Warning: we have not re-enabled app installation security yet.

Make sure to complete the app installation security section below so your Mac isnt left unprotected If you dont see the third option Anywhere appear You may need to run the sudo spctl master-disable command again and then restart System Preferences.

One person online said it took 5 attempts to get the command to work for them.

Keep trying. Worst case scenario: restart your Mac and try again.

Important: Re-enabling app installation security on your Mac If youve attempted Solution 3, you must follow this section to ensure your Mac is secure: Open up Terminal again Enter the command below: sudo spctl --master-enable Press ENTER Now type in the password for your Mac account.

Dont worry if it looks like your password isnt being typed: Mac hides the input for security Press ENTER Done Now you should be able to install VirtualBox fine and your Mac is secure If you want to check that it worked, youll have to restart System Preferences again.

Afterwards, you should no longer see the Anywhere option in Security Privacy.

I hope this has helped If you have any trouble with this, please post in the comments below.

Ill do my best to help.

Update: a couple of things to try if youre stuck If youve tried all of the above but VirtualBox still refuses to install, the kind commenters Leo Shaw and Elias Politakis have got your back.

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