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Installing Trusty Track on macOS

This guide walks you through installing Trusty Track on a Mac. No terminal or technical knowledge required.

Requirements

  • macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
  • About 200 MB of free disk space

Step 1 — Download the installer

Download for macOS

Prefer to pick a specific version, or check a file's checksum? The Trusty Track Releases page on GitHub lists every release, each with its own copy of the installer.

Step 2 — Install the app

  1. Open the downloaded .dmg file (double-click it in your Downloads folder).
  2. A window appears showing the Trusty Track icon and an Applications folder shortcut.
  3. Drag the TrustyTrack icon onto the Applications folder.
  4. Wait for the copy to finish, then eject the disk image (drag it to the Trash or press ⌘E).

Step 3 — Open Trusty Track

Open your Applications folder (click Go → Applications in the Finder menu bar), then double-click TrustyTrack.

If you see a Gatekeeper security warning

macOS may show a message like "TrustyTrack can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" or "Apple could not verify TrustyTrack is free of malware." This happens because the app hasn't been code-signed with an Apple certificate.

How to open it anyway depends on your macOS version — check the Apple menu → About This Mac if you're not sure which you have.

macOS 12 (Monterey) through 14 (Sonoma):

  1. Right-click (or Control-click) on TrustyTrack in Applications.
  2. Click Open from the menu.
  3. Click Open again in the dialog that appears.

macOS 15 (Sequoia) and later:

Sequoia removed the right-click bypass, so use System Settings instead:

  1. Try to open TrustyTrack and dismiss the warning.
  2. Open System Settings.
  3. Go to Privacy & Security, then scroll down to the Security section.
  4. Next to the message about TrustyTrack, click Open Anyway.
  5. Confirm in the dialog that appears, and enter your admin password if asked.

You only need to do this the first time you open the app.

If macOS says the app is "damaged"

If the message is "TrustyTrack is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash", the app is not damaged and there is nothing wrong with your download. Version 1.1.1 was built in a way macOS reads as tampered-with, and that particular refusal has no Open Anyway button, so the steps above will not help.

Later versions do not have this problem, so the easiest fix is to download the current version and install it over the top.

To keep the copy you have, open Terminal (in Applications → Utilities) and paste this line, then press Return:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/TrustyTrack.app

That clears the "downloaded from the internet" flag macOS attaches to the app, which is what triggers the check. You may be asked for your password. Open the app normally afterwards.

Step 4 — Use Trusty Track

After opening the app, your browser will automatically open to https://localhost:8000. If it doesn't open within 30 seconds, open your browser and go to that address manually.

Your browser will warn you the first time

Trusty Track serves https:// using a certificate it generates on your own machine. Browsers do not recognise it, so the first visit shows "Your connection is not private" or similar.

Click Advanced, then Proceed to localhost. Nothing is leaving your machine — the certificate exists so that the camera and the barcode scanner work, which browsers only allow on a secure connection.

If the warning is a bigger problem for your event than losing the camera on a second device, the menu-bar icon has a Use Plain HTTP option that turns it off — see HTTPS, certificates, and plain HTTP.

The first time you run it, you'll see a setup wizard to configure your organization and track.

Quitting Trusty Track

Trusty Track runs as a background process while open. To quit it:

  • Find the TrustyTrack icon in your Dock, right-click it, and choose Quit.
  • Or press ⌘Q while the app is focused.
  • Or open Activity Monitor, find "trustytrack", and click the ✕ button.

Your data is saved automatically. Quitting and reopening the app picks up where you left off.

Where your data is stored

Trusty Track stores its data and photos in:

~/Library/Application Support/TrustyTrack/

To open this folder in Finder, press ⌘⇧G and paste that path.

Updating

To update to a new version:

  1. Download the new .dmg from the Releases page.
  2. Quit Trusty Track if it's running.
  3. Open the new .dmg and drag TrustyTrack to Applications, replacing the old version.

Troubleshooting

Watching the application log

Click the TrustyTrack icon in the menu bar (top of the screen, near the clock) and choose View Logs. This opens Console.app showing the log file and following it live, so you can watch what the app is doing as you reproduce a problem. (If your Mac doesn't have Console.app, it opens a Terminal window running tail instead.)

App bounces in the Dock and doesn't open

The app may be failing to start. Try: 1. Open Terminal (search for it in Spotlight). 2. Run: /Applications/TrustyTrack.app/Contents/MacOS/TrustyTrack 3. Look for error messages.

Browser doesn't open automatically

Go to https://localhost:8000 in your browser manually — note the https.

App crashes on startup

Quit the app, then delete the data directory and try again:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/TrustyTrack

This will delete all your race data. Only do this if you're setting up for the first time and don't have data to keep.