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This is similar to How to Restore File System Access in macOS Catalina but the problem is different. I did not upgrade my operating system, only the app, and none of the solutions there are valid fixes for this question.

I am having a problem with my Emacs.app on Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina. The distribution i am using is from the emacs-app-devel port from MacPorts.

I initially installed Emacs.app on Catalina. Everything worked as expected. When i tried to access privileged locations like ~/Documents, i received an OS popup asking for permission, granted, and was able to use the app normally.

I then upgraded my Emacs.app through macports. After the new install and relaunching, i could no longer access the files using the emacs find-file functionality (default C-x C-f). I can still access everything using File->Open. Opening a file in one of the protected directories like ~/Documents using File -> Open or ns-open-file-using-panel does NOT restore access and allow find-file to proceed. Permissions like "Files and Folders" "Network Volumes" are already granted and i can see them. Full Disk Access is not necessary to allow emacs to access these files in Catalina.

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  • Drew: I meant both find-file and using the keybinding. I have updated the question for clarity, thank you.
    – nate
    Apr 23, 2021 at 19:35

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Investigating this problem, i was able to see a Console.app error from process tccd, (i think this is the "Transparency Consent and Control System" daemon). The error was Failed to copy signing info for 95201, responsible for file:///Applications/MacPorts/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs: #-67062: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67062 "(null)". I do not know if the old install of the app produced by macports was codesigned, but the new one definitely was not (i checked this using codesign -vvv Emacs.app). I do not yet know if there will be any unintended side effects, but ah-hoc codesigning the existing app (identity below is '-') did fix my problem.

I used to following command in the app's parent directory:

sudo codesign --force --deep --sign - ./Emacs.app

The codesign ran sucessfully, and upon relaunch i was prompted by the OS when i tried to access ~/Documents using find-file. I granted access and was able to open files inside.

The prompt for ~/Documents looked like this: Documents Prompt

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