Installing Copsy, click by click
Written for someone who has never installed an app outside the App Store. Every screen you will see is pictured below, with the exact button to press. You do this once.
Partway through, macOS will say it could not verify that Copsy is free of malware. This does not mean Apple found a problem. macOS says it about every app that has not been checked through Apple's paid developer program, and Copsy is free, so it has not been. The steps for opening it anyway follow Apple's own documented method. You stay in control, and you can undo it at any time by deleting the app.
Before you start
- A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. To check both, click the menu at the very top-left of your screen, then About This Mac: the Chip line should start with Apple M, and the macOS version is shown just below.
- Your Mac's login password — the one you use to unlock it. macOS asks for it in step 10, and again in step 12.
- About 4 minutes. Nothing here is permanent, and you can stop at any point and come back later.
- Optional but recommended: the external drive you want your footage copied to, plugged in. You will point Copsy at it in step 13.
Get Copsy onto your Mac
Downloading a Mac app gives you a disk image — a file ending in .dmg. Think of it as a sealed box: you open it, take the app out, and throw the box away.
Download Copsy
Open copsy.app and click the blue Download for Mac button. The file is about 35 MB and lands in your Downloads folder.
Opened this guide from inside the Copsy download? Then you have already downloaded and opened it. Skip to step 4, and use the window that has the Copsy icon in it.
Open your Downloads folder
- Click the Finder icon — the blue smiling face at the far left of the Dock, the strip of icons along the bottom of your screen.
- In the list down the left-hand side of the window that opens, click Downloads.
- Find the file called Copsy.dmg. The newest downloads are usually at the top.
Shortcut: hold ⌥ ⌘ and press L to jump straight to Downloads.
Double-click Copsy.dmg to open the box
Double-click Copsy.dmg. A window opens showing three things: the Copsy app, a folder called Applications, and this Install Guide.
A new disk called Copsy 0.1.6 also appears in the left-hand list of Finder. That is normal — it is the opened box, and you will eject it in step 5.
Drag Copsy onto the Applications folder
- Press and hold the mouse button on the Copsy icon.
- Without letting go, move it on top of the Applications folder next to it.
- Let go. A progress bar appears for a second or two while the app is copied.
It is tempting to just double-click Copsy where it sits. Don't. An app opened from inside the box runs from a temporary, read-only copy that disappears when the box is ejected, and it cannot update itself from there. It has to live in Applications.
Eject the box
In the left-hand list of Finder, find Copsy 0.1.6 and click the small ⏏ eject symbol next to it. The window closes and the disk disappears. The app you copied stays in Applications.
You can now drag Copsy.dmg from Downloads onto the Trash at the right-hand end of the Dock. You will not need it again — Copsy updates itself from inside the app.
Open it for the first time
In this part, macOS refuses to open Copsy once, and then you give it permission in System Settings. After that, Copsy opens normally.
Open the Applications folder and double-click Copsy
- Click Finder in the Dock again.
- In the left-hand list, click Applications. If you don't see it there, hold ⇧ ⌘ and press A.
- Find Copsy in the list — apps are in alphabetical order — and double-click it.
macOS blocks it. Click Done.
A small window appears in the middle of the screen with a yellow warning sign, headed “Copsy” Not Opened. This is the warning described at the top of this page. It is expected.
“Copsy” Not Opened
Apple could not verify “Copsy” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.
The other button says Move to Trash and it deletes Copsy. If you click it by accident, nothing is broken — go back to step 1 and download again. (On British and Australian Macs the same button reads Move to Bin.)
On macOS 13 or 14 the message is worded differently and has no Done button. Click Cancel (or OK) instead — never Move to Trash — then carry on with step 8. Everything after that works the same.
Blocking Copsy is also what makes the next step possible: macOS only offers the override after it has refused once.
Open System Settings
- Move your pointer to the very top-left corner of your screen, to the thin menu bar that runs across the whole top edge.
- Click the Apple symbol. A short menu drops down.
- Click System Settings….
Go to Privacy & Security and scroll to the bottom
- In the list down the left of the System Settings window, find Privacy & Security and click it. The quickest way is to type privacy into the search box at the top of that list.
- Now scroll the right-hand side of the window all the way down. This is the part people miss — the notice sits at the very bottom, under a heading called Security.
- You will see: “Copsy” was blocked to protect your Mac. Click Open Anyway next to it.
Security
↓ right at the bottom of this pane ↓
Then macOS has not registered a blocked attempt yet, or more than about an hour has passed since it did. Go back to step 6, double-click Copsy again, click Done, and come straight back here. It should now appear.
Enter your password, then click Open
macOS asks for Touch ID or your login password — the same password you use to unlock the Mac. Type it and click OK, or touch the Touch ID key. This is standard for any security change; Copsy never sees it.
System Settings
Touch ID or enter your password to allow this.
Then the warning comes back one last time, and this time it has an Open button. Click it.
Open “Copsy”?
Opening “Copsy” will always allow it to run on this Mac.
On the very first run you may see “Setting up Copsy…” for 10–30 seconds while Copsy gets ready. Let it finish.
A window called “Welcome to Copsy” also appears. Click Got it and keep following this guide — ignore what it says about a subscription or a code, because Copsy is free.
A notice may also slide in at the top-right corner asking about notifications. If you want a message when a card is done, click Options, then Allow.
Let Copsy see your memory cards
macOS keeps apps away from other disks unless you say otherwise. Copsy's whole job is reading memory cards and external drives, so it needs one permission called Full Disk Access. Without it, Copsy may not be able to see or read your cards.
Open the Full Disk Access list
If Copsy is showing a window titled “One more switch.” with a blue Open Privacy Settings button, click that button — it opens the right page for you — and go to step 12. Otherwise, open the page yourself:
- Open System Settings the same way as in step 8: the menu, then System Settings…
- Click Privacy & Security in the list on the left.
- On the right, near the top, is a list of permissions. Click Full Disk Access.
Privacy & Security
Turn on the switch next to Copsy
Find Copsy in the list and click the switch next to it so it turns on — it fills with color (blue on most Macs). macOS asks for Touch ID or your password again.
Full Disk Access
Allow the applications below to access data like Mail, Messages, Safari, Home, Time Machine backups, and certain administrative settings for all users on this Mac.
macOS then usually shows one more message. Click Quit & Reopen: Copsy closes and opens again with the permission in place.
“Copsy” will not have full disk access until it is quit.
You can choose to quit “Copsy” now, or do it on your own later.
Once the switch next to Copsy is on, Copsy can read your cards. If Copsy's “One more switch.” window was open, it closes by itself within a few seconds.
Click the + button under the list and enter your password. In the window that opens, click Applications in the left-hand list, select Copsy, and click Open. Copsy appears in the list — make sure its switch is on. (If Copsy's own window shows “Don't see Copsy in the list?”, its Add Copsy to Privacy button is another way to do the same thing.)
Tell Copsy where the footage goes
Copsy is installed and can see your cards. One step is left, and it is the most important one.
Change the destination to your external drive
By default, Copsy copies to a folder on your Mac's internal drive (~/Movies/Copsy). You almost certainly want to change that: a day of 4K footage fills a laptop quickly, and footage stored only on your laptop is not a backup. Point Copsy at your external drive now.
- Plug in the external drive you want the footage on. Wait until its name appears on your desktop or in the left-hand list of a Finder window.
- In Copsy, click Cards in the list on the left.
- Find the row that says Destination on HDD/SSD and click Change on its right.
- A window titled Pick a destination folder for offloaded footage opens. In its left-hand list, under Locations, click your drive's name (you can open a folder on it too), then click Open. The row in Copsy now shows your drive's name.
← swipe to see the whole window →
~/Movies/Copsy, footage is still going to your Mac · 3 the Change buttonCopsy organizes everything inside that folder for you: a folder for each day, and inside it a folder for each camera or recorder.
Plug in a card and press Copy all
Put a memory card in your reader. Copsy recognizes it by what is on it — camera, drone or audio recorder — and the card appears on the Cards screen. Look at the list before you copy. If only your card is there, click Copy all at the top right. If your external drive also shows up as a card, don't use Copy all — click Copy on your memory card's own row instead.
← swipe to see the whole window →
Every file is copied and then checked, so you can prove the copy is identical to the card before you format it. Copsy writes a checksum manifest and a PDF report next to the footage.
By design, Copsy waits for you to press Copy all. If you want copying to start as soon as a card is plugged in, click Auto in the list on the left and turn on the switch next to Auto-copy is OFF. Auto switches itself off every time Copsy restarts, so nothing is ever copied without you knowing.
That's it
Copsy is installed and set up. Nothing above needs doing again — next time you just open it and plug a card in.
When you want them, three optional extras are in the list on the left. Google Drive or Dropbox (one at a time) gets its own copy of each card automatically after it lands on your drive, and Telegram, once linked, sends a message to your phone when a card is copied and verified.
If something went wrong
The six questions people ask most, and what to do about each.
macOS says Copsy “is damaged and can't be opened”
Despite the wording, the app is almost never damaged. macOS shows this message when it cannot check a newly downloaded app — usually because the download did not finish, or because the app was opened from inside Copsy.dmg instead of from Applications.
Fix it in this order:
- Drag Copsy from Applications to the Trash.
- Download a fresh copy from copsy.app and let it finish completely.
- Redo steps 2–5 — making sure you drag Copsy into Applications rather than opening it where it sits — then carry on from step 6.
There is no Open Anyway button in Privacy & Security
That button is not permanent. macOS shows it for about an hour after it has blocked the app, and then it disappears.
Open Copsy from Applications again so macOS blocks it again, click Done, and go straight back to System Settings → Privacy & Security. Remember to scroll the right-hand side all the way to the bottom — the notice is the last thing on the page.
I clicked the wrong button and Copsy went to the Trash
No harm done. Open the Trash (the bin icon at the right-hand end of the Dock) and find Copsy. Click it with two fingers on the trackpad, or hold Control and click, then choose Put Back. Continue from step 6.
If you have already emptied the Trash, download it again from copsy.app and start from step 1. Nothing is lost — Copsy stores no data inside the app.
Copsy doesn't notice my memory card
The cause is usually the permission from Part 3. Check it: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, and make sure the switch next to Copsy is on.
If the switch is already on, quit Copsy completely (⌘ Q) and open it again — a permission granted while an app is open only takes effect after it restarts. Then check that your Mac sees the card at all: its name should appear in the left-hand list of a Finder window.
Copsy mentions a subscription or an activation code
Ignore it. That text is left over from an earlier plan and it will be removed. Copsy is free and nothing is locked. There is no Subscription page to visit, no code to enter, and no limit on how many cards you copy. Google Drive, Dropbox and Telegram all work as they are.
Will Copsy run on my Mac?
Click the menu at the top-left of your screen, then About This Mac. Two lines matter:
- Chip should read Apple M1, M2, M3 or newer. If the window says Processor and names an Intel chip instead, this version of Copsy will not run on that Mac — it is built for Apple silicon only.
- macOS must be version 13 (Ventura) or later. On anything older the app will not open at all.
Neither limit can be worked around with permissions or settings, so it is worth checking before anything else.