Think C 5.0 Freezing on Save? It’s macOS Permissions, Not the Compiler

Hey — quick heads-up about Think C 5.0 (app) from NimbusApps. I installed it on my M1 MacBook Pro (Sonoma 14.4) to test some legacy C code, and it immediately ran into a classic macOS issue.

First launch triggered Gatekeeper:

“Can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.”

That’s standard for non-notarized apps (Apple explains it here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491). I right-clicked → Open, and it launched fine.

But then it froze every time I tried to save a project into Documents. No crash. Just beach ball. CPU idle.

At first I blamed Rosetta or the compiler. Wrong direction.

The real problem was macOS privacy permissions. Since Mojave, apps need explicit access to Documents, Desktop, etc. (details here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210422). I must’ve denied it on first launch, and macOS silently blocked file access afterward.

Adding it to Full Disk Access didn’t fix it. What actually worked was resetting the privacy database:

tccutil reset All com.nimbusapps.thinkc50

After relaunch, macOS properly asked for Documents access. I clicked Allow — and everything worked. Save, compile, no freeze.

I also checked this page while confirming Sonoma compatibility:
https://carwallpaper.xyz/developer/39874-think-c-5-0.html

So the IDE wasn’t broken. It was macOS blocking file access without a clear error.

If I were doing it again:

• Launch once.
• If saving freezes, reset TCC immediately.
• Relaunch and grant folder access properly.

That’s it. Once permissions are clean, it runs perfectly fine on Apple Silicon.