Updates and macOS setup
Premation checks for new versions on its own. How that plays out differs by platform while the builds are unsigned, and the macOS difference is big enough to state plainly rather than bury.
| Automatic updates | First launch | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | ✅ Downloads in the background, installs when you quit | SmartScreen warns once |
| macOS | ❌ Not while the builds are unsigned — download each release yourself | Gatekeeper blocks it once |
Both differences have the same cause: the builds are unsigned. They go away together, without you reinstalling anything, once the builds are signed and notarized.
On macOS, use 1.0.1 or later. The 1.0.0 macOS engine did not build, so 1.0.1 is the first 1.0 release with a macOS build.
macOS: opening it the first time
macOS refuses to open an app from an unidentified developer. You will see “Premation can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” or “Premation is damaged and can’t be opened” — the second wording is alarming and does not mean the download failed; it is what Gatekeeper says about a quarantined unsigned app.
Drag the app to Applications
Open the .dmg and drag Premation into your Applications folder as usual.
Take Premation-macOS-arm64.dmg on Apple silicon (M1 and later) and
Premation-macOS-x64.dmg on Intel. The arm64 build will not run on an Intel
Mac at all.
Open it with the right-click menu, not a double-click
In Applications, right-click (or Control-click) Premation and choose Open. In the dialog that appears, choose Open again.
This is the whole workaround. Double-clicking gives you a dialog with no way through; the right-click route adds an Open button that a double-click does not.
That is it — once
macOS remembers your decision for that copy of the app. Normal double-clicking works from then on.
If macOS says “damaged”, the quarantine flag is the cause. Clearing it explicitly also works:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Premation.appOnly run that on a download you trust and obtained from the official releases page — it is exactly the check you are switching off.
How updates reach you
Premation reads a small metadata file published alongside each release, compares it with the running version, and fetches the installer if there is something newer. The update check contacts the release page and nothing else — not our backend, and no account is involved — so it keeps working if you self-host or never sign in.
Updates only apply to an installed build. A build you are running from source has no release to compare against and does not check.
Windows
Automatic. About ten seconds after launch, and every six hours after that while the app stays open, Premation checks for a newer release.
- It downloads in the background, without a dialog. An editor is left open for days; a prompt at launch was a prompt people dismissed.
- It installs when you quit. Nothing is applied while you are working. Once the download has landed, a Restart to update button stays in the title bar until you use it or quit — restart then, or carry on and it applies on the way out.
- A failed check stays quiet. Behind a corporate proxy you get no updates, not a dialog on every launch.
If a silent ~150 MB download is not welcome — on a tethered connection, say — turn off Download updates automatically in Customize ▸ Appearance. The same row then shows when a version is available and offers Download, and a downloaded update still installs when you quit.
You can also ask at any time: Help ▸ Check for Updates…, which reports “you’re up to date” rather than staying silent, and tells you if the check failed.
Turning updates off
Set MOTION_DISABLE_UPDATES=1 in the environment Premation launches from. It
will never check. Useful on a managed fleet, or an offline machine where the
check is only a delay.
Which version am I on?
Premation ▸ About on macOS, Help ▸ About on Windows. The releases page lists what each version changed.
Why the builds are unsigned
Signing a desktop app means buying a certificate from each platform vendor — Apple’s Developer Program for macOS, a code-signing certificate for Windows — and both are annual costs carried before a single user pays anything. For now that money is going into the editor instead.
The pipeline is already built for it: the release workflow signs, notarizes and staples automatically the moment the certificates are configured, and publishes clearly-labelled unsigned builds until then. It is a deliberate, dated accommodation rather than something forgotten — and no reinstall will be needed when it changes, beyond the one update that carries the signed build.
Next
- Installing Premation — both editions, building from source, ffmpeg
- First launch — the dashboard and your first project
- System requirements — the GPU is the part that decides whether this works