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Update Pokémon Studio and fix the "damaged" error on macOS

On macOS, Pokémon Studio does not auto-update, and a freshly downloaded release often refuses to open with a misleading "damaged" error. This guide explains why it happens and how to update Pokémon Studio manually and unblock it.

Why the "damaged" message appears​

When you download an application outside of the App Store, macOS tags it with a quarantine flag — an extended attribute named com.apple.quarantine. On the first launch, Gatekeeper (the macOS security layer) inspects this flag and verifies that the app is signed and notarized by a registered Apple Developer ID.

Pokémon Studio is an open-source, community-built application that is not notarized by Apple. Gatekeeper therefore refuses to run it and displays a message such as:

"Pokémon Studio" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

The app is not actually damaged. The message is simply how macOS reports a blocked, un-notarized application. Removing the quarantine flag tells Gatekeeper to let it run.

Dev builds vs manual updates​

How you update depends on which kind of build you run:

  • Dev build: if you cloned Pokémon Studio from GitHub and run it from source, it updates automatically every time you pull the latest changes with Git. Nothing else is required.
  • Release build: if you use a packaged release, there is no auto-update on macOS. This is the main difference from Windows, where Studio updates itself. On macOS you download each new version manually and clear the quarantine flag again.

If you come from Windows and are used to Studio updating on its own, this manual step is expected — not a bug.

Downloading the latest release​

  1. Open the Pokémon Studio releases page.
  2. Download the darwin asset of the latest release (darwin is the internal name macOS uses for its core).
  3. Extract the archive. Some browsers (for example Arc) extract it automatically into your Downloads folder; otherwise, double-click the downloaded file to unpack the Pokemon Studio.app application.

Removing the quarantine attribute​

Open the Terminal application and move into the folder that contains the app — usually Downloads:

cd ~/Downloads

Then clear the extended attributes on the application:

xattr -cr "Pokemon Studio.app"
  • xattr manages extended attributes on files. The -c flag clears them, and -r applies the change recursively to everything inside the .app bundle.
  • The bundle on disk is named Pokemon Studio.app without an accent (even though the app displays as Pokémon Studio), so type it exactly as shown. If you renamed it, adjust the command accordingly.

If the command returns a permission error, prepend sudo and enter your Mac password when prompted:

sudo xattr -cr "Pokemon Studio.app"

Once the command completes, double-click Pokemon Studio.app. Gatekeeper no longer sees the quarantine flag, and the application opens normally. You can now move it to your Applications folder if you want to keep it there.

Conclusion​

  • The "damaged" message is misleading: it means macOS Gatekeeper blocked an un-notarized app, not that the file is corrupt.
  • Dev builds pulled from GitHub update automatically; packaged releases on macOS must be updated manually, with no auto-update.
  • Download the darwin asset from the releases page and extract the Pokemon Studio.app.
  • Run xattr -cr "Pokemon Studio.app" (add sudo if needed) to clear the quarantine flag, then launch the app normally.