Now step through the sequence to add an app to the Full Disk Access list. With Apple’s apps, the change is effective immediately. Note another important difference between Apple’s apps and those built by third parties: when you add a third-party app to a privacy list, you have to quit the app and open it again for that change to take effect. Then close the pane, and click on Record again. Note that macOS has already added Automator to that list, but hasn’t ticked its checkbox to enable it. When you click on the Record button, you’ll be prompted to add Automator to the Accessibility list. The first step is to record a series of user actions, which will add an app to the Full Disk Access list in the Privacy tab. In Mojave, open the Automator app, and opt to create a new document. The best way to see it at work is, of course, to use it yourself. But it’s also a bit smarter than Full Disk Access, in that Apple’s apps can add an item, but not apparently enable it. The Accessibility list works like Full Disk Access: apps can’t declare their intent to be added to that list, as they can with Location, Calendar, or Camera, and it’s a list to which the user retains full access.

Well, it’s all about Accessibility features, so shouldn’t affect so many Mac users, should it? No: there’s actually much more to it than that, and some users of automation tools such as Automator may get to use it quite a lot.

In my otherwise fairly comprehensive coverage of the new Privacy tab in the Security & Privacy pane in Mojave, I have barely mentioned one class listed on the left: Accessibility.

Automator mac os mojave