TT Home & Business 2016 installed on iMac running OS 10.12.2. Runs as admin user, won't launch (bounces briefly on dock) for non-admin user. How to use as non-admin?

11 replies
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CD ejected

Opened using Finder (control-click > Open)

Security set to open any app

iMac rebooted

Gave non-admin user read & write privileges (didn't help)

No other apps running

Plenty of disk space

TurboTax Home & Biz Mac

macuser_22Answer

Alumni - Champ

Answered in comments.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

macuser_22

Alumni - Champ

In 10.12 (Sierra) the security settings won't do it anymore.
See: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2899293-turbotax-for-mac-won-t-open-when-installed">https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2899293-turbotax-for-mac-won-t-open-when-installed</a>

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

macuser_22

Alumni - Champ

You might need to uninstall the application and *all* associated files and then reinstall.

Corruption could have occurred in the Application or in an associated preference or support file. To uninstall the application and all associated files need to be deleted and then the application reinstalled. If there was a state then the state must also be reinstalled.

Here is a FAQ for how to uninstall Mac
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901210-remove-uninstall-turbotax-for-mac">https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901210-remove-uninstall-turbotax-for-mac</a>

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

sprAuthor

Level 2

Thanks for your ideas. Rather than reinstalling, I changed the non-admin user to admin, and now TT works there. I'll change it back after tax season. Problem solved, although I still don't know why it happened... apparently others can run TT as a non-admin user.

macuser_22

Alumni - Champ

@spr - Thanks for the update. You are correct - I just tried it with OS 10.10.4 and got the same result as you (I could boot into Sierra and try it, but I am sure that I will get the same result). TT 2014 & TT2015 open normally but TT 2016 terminates with an exception (Terminate called after uncaught c++ exception:).

I will report this as a bug. Thanks for pointing it out..

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

macuser_22

Alumni - Champ

@spr - Update: TT says working as designed. Admin rights are required. They have updated the FAQ to reflect this.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2899293-turbotax-for-mac-won-t-open-when-installed">https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2899293-turbotax-for-mac-won-t-open-when-installed</a>

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

macuser_22

Alumni - Champ

They just updated the FAQ about 3 hours ago after I submitted it as a bug - the FAQ did not previously mention the admin requirement, which in my opinion is a cop out, since it's easier to add a line to a FAQ than fix the obvious software problem. An "uncaught exception" is a software error and has nothing to do with the unidentified developer certificate. The FAQ is also misleading since it says from 2014 on, but 2014 & 2015 both open correctly in a non-admin account (at least in Yosemite - I did not try 2014 & 2015 in Sierra).

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

sprAuthor

Level 2

Well, ok. Not to nitpick, but an app like TT should work for non-admins. Sometimes the person doing taxes at home isn't the resident computer whiz. Also, this is different from the "Unidentified Developer” issue, so putting it in the same FAQ is a bit misleading. I had already confirmed TT 2016 opened as admin, so this page didn't seem to apply to me. In any case, thanks for your continued interest.

jbunag

Level 2

So, the app requires admin rights in order to run? Wow, talk about insecure coding practices by Intuit. Boo.

dlbickford

Level 2

I only have the problem with TT 2016 and a non-admin user. TT 2014, 2015 years work fine. This shouldn't be as non-admin people using app shouldn't get all privileges on the mac.

lwalker00

Level 2

I agree this is bologna, I used TT-Mac last several years and always ran as non-Admin (after installed as Admin of course). That said, making the admin change fixed it.