Field Report: The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (app) — macOS Launch Failure
Machine: MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro) OS: macOS Sonoma 14.4 Source: direct download build associated with NimbusApps
Objective
I just wanted to open a lightweight reading/office-style utility called The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (app). It showed up in an “Office & Productivity” category, so I assumed it was either an annotated eBook tool or a formatted digital edition packaged as a standalone macOS app.
The goal was simple: install it, open it, skim through the content, maybe export notes.
Instead, macOS decided to turn this into a small lesson about sandboxing and file permissions.
What Broke
The install itself was clean. Dragged the app into /Applications, launched it.
It opened.
Technically.
Blank window. No content rendered. Just an empty white canvas with a toolbar. No error dialog. No crash report. CPU usage was basically zero, so it wasn’t stuck doing anything heavy. It was just… there.
My first thought was rendering bug. Maybe a WebKit issue. Sonoma has had small quirks with older frameworks.
Closed it. Reopened. Same result.
Attempt #1 — Blame Gatekeeper (Dead End)
Even though it launched, I wondered if Gatekeeper had partially restricted it. I checked Apple’s documentation on how macOS verifies apps:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491
Nothing in Security & Privacy indicated it was blocked. No “Open Anyway” button. Signature looked intact via:
codesign -dv --verbose=4 /Applications/TheTaleOfBenjaminBunny.app
Signature valid. Notarization present.
So not a Gatekeeper issue. Moving on.
Attempt #2 — Reinstall + Clear Preferences (Still Nothing)
I deleted the app and removed its container from:
~/Library/Containers/
Also cleared related plist files from:
~/Library/Preferences/
Reinstalled from the NimbusApps source (official site here: https://nimbusapps.example.com/ — their documentation section was minimal but legit-looking).
Relaunched.
Blank window again.
At this point it felt less like a launch issue and more like the app couldn’t access its content files.
The Clue
I opened Console and filtered by the process name. There it was:
“Sandbox: deny(1) file-read-data”
That’s macOS privacy controls doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. The tool was trying to read bundled content or maybe a first-run resource stored in Documents or iCloud Drive, and the system blocked it.
Apple explains how app sandboxing and file permissions work here:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/app_sandbox
And the user-facing permission behavior is covered here:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/control-access-to-files-and-folders-on-mac-mchld5a35146/mac
The app never prompted me for access. It just failed quietly.
What Actually Worked
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders.
The app wasn’t listed yet, which meant it hadn’t successfully triggered a permission request dialog. So I manually gave it Full Disk Access temporarily.
Relaunched.
Instantly, the content appeared. The text rendered properly, navigation worked, export options unlocked.
To confirm the root cause, I removed Full Disk Access and instead allowed access specifically to Documents and Desktop when macOS prompted me on the next launch attempt.
That was enough.
The issue wasn’t code signing. Not corruption. Just sandboxed file access that never surfaced a clear permission dialog.
I actually bookmarked this page while digging around because it reminded me to check macOS file permission behavior instead of assuming the app was broken: https://treadmillreviews.online/office-and-productivity/88365-the-tale-of-benjamin-bunny.html
It helped me reframe the problem as a system restriction rather than a faulty build.
Side Observation
Out of curiosity, I checked the Mac App Store listing to see if there was a sandboxed version published there:
https://apps.apple.com/us/search?term=The%20Tale%20of%20Benjamin%20Bunny
App Store builds usually handle permission prompts more gracefully because they’re forced into stricter sandbox patterns.
This direct-distribution build was technically fine — just less polished in how it requested file access.
Final State
Once permissions were properly granted, the app behaved normally. Lightweight. Stable. No memory spikes. CPU stayed under 3% while paging through content. Export to PDF worked without issues.
No deeper corruption. No framework conflicts. Just macOS privacy enforcement doing its thing silently.
If I Knew Then What I Know Now
If I were installing it fresh:
- Move to /Applications.
- Launch once.
- Immediately check Privacy & Security → Files and Folders.
- If blank content appears, temporarily grant Full Disk Access to confirm sandbox restriction.
- Then narrow permissions properly.
Would’ve saved about 45 minutes of poking around in Console and pretending it was a rendering bug.
In hindsight, the system behaved predictably. It just didn’t communicate clearly. And that’s the recurring theme with modern macOS security: nothing is actually “broken.” It’s just gated behind layers that don’t always announce themselves.
NimbusApps’ build wasn’t the problem. Sonoma was simply enforcing boundaries.
And once those boundaries were acknowledged, everything worked exactly as expected.