Reader Judd Mosser’s Mac takes a too-fresh look at applications he’s opened in the past. He writes:
When opening applications, I often get an alert message that reads, “You are opening the application ‘whatever’ for the first time. Are you sure you want to open this application?” This happens repeatedly for the same application, day after day. What can I do to eliminate these alerts for apps that I have already opened “for the first time?”
Your Mac is behaving like its LaunchServices database—the function that keeps track of which applications have and have not been launched—has been mucked with. Given that the guts of LaunchServices are tucked away in places you wouldn’t normally go, it’s likely that a maintenance utility such as Cocktail or OnyX is responsible. Wonderful as these tools can be, they can also cause this kind of unexpected behavior.
If you’ve run such a utility, launch it and check its autopilot settings. My guess is that something is working in the background to keep your LaunchServices database fresh yet frustrating.