FileZilla from Hexnode repository installs on macOS but won’t open due to missing executable permissionSolved

This behavior can occur when the executable permission is not preserved for the binary inside a macOS .app bundle. In this case, the affected file is: /Applications/FileZilla.app/Contents/MacOS/filezilla

Since applying chmod +x restores the permission and allows the app to launch, the immediate workaround is to run the permission fix after installation.

If you need to deploy this across multiple Macs, you can automate the command using a Hexnode macOS script or a post-installation script attached to the app deployment. Hexnode executes scripts with root privileges, so the command does not need sudo when deployed through Hexnode:

chmod +x /Applications/FileZilla.app/Contents/MacOS/filezilla

This avoids having to manually run the command on each Mac.

Just to clarify, this was not a custom FileZilla package that we uploaded. It was the FileZilla app available directly from the Hexnode repository. The script workaround works, but it seems like the repository package itself should preserve the permission.

That clarification is important. For repository-based deployments, the package format can affect how macOS file permissions are retained during delivery.

In this case, the issue was caused by the application being delivered in a format where the executable permission inside the .app bundle could be stripped. The repository package has since been updated to use a .zip archive format, which preserves the internal executable permissions when the app is extracted on the Mac.

To get the corrected package:

1. Log out of the Hexnode portal.
2. Log back in to refresh the app repository session.
3. Redeploy FileZilla from the Hexnode repository.

After redeployment, FileZilla should open without requiring the manual chmod +x command.

We refreshed the repository session, deployed FileZilla again from the Hexnode repository, and it worked successfully this time. No manual Terminal fix was needed after the redeployment.