Flick isn't allowed to control a browser

What the macOS prompt asks

Automation is the macOS permission that lets one app control another app. Flick needs it only for browser tabs, and macOS asks once for each browser:

• When you turn a browser on in Settings › Browser Tabs, or click Allow… next to it there. Not during setup, and never because Flick read or switched tabs.
• Once the browser is running. macOS can only ask about an app that's open, so for a closed browser it asks the next time you open it while Flick is running.
• For Safari, once Include private windows is on, because that's when Flick starts reading Safari.

The dialog gives Flick's reason in its own words: “Flick reads the titles and addresses of your open tabs so you can search them and switch straight to one. Nothing leaves your Mac.” Click Allow to let Flick read that browser, or Don't Allow to refuse. Allowing Chrome doesn't allow Safari: each browser has its own answer.

You clicked Don't Allow

Settings › Browser Tabs then shows a note under the browser: “Flick isn't allowed to control Google Chrome. Turn it on in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation.” macOS won't ask again, so you change the answer yourself:

1. Click Open Privacy Settings

   It's next to the note, and opens System Settings at the Automation page. Or choose Apple menu › System Settings, click Privacy & Security, then Automation (you may need to scroll down). It's in the same place on macOS 14 and later.

2. Find Flick

   Flick is listed with a switch for each browser macOS asked you about.

3. Turn on the browser's switch

   Flick notices the next time it reads the browser, for example when you open the switcher, and the note in Settings › Browser Tabs goes away.

Ask again from scratch

To start over, for example when Flick is missing from the Automation list or you'd rather answer the prompts again, clear Flick's Automation answers with tccutil, the command-line tool macOS includes for its privacy settings. Given an app's identifier, it resets that app's answers only.

1. Open Terminal

   It's in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder.

2. Run the reset

   Paste this command and press Return. com.flicknav.flick is Flick's identifier.

   tccutil reset AppleEvents com.flicknav.flick

3. Allow each browser again

   Open the browser, then open Flick's Settings › Browser Tabs again (if it's already open, click another page in the sidebar and come back) so Flick checks again. The note now says Flick needs your permission: click Allow… next to it and Allow in the dialog. The reset clears Flick's answers for every browser, so do this for each one you use.

Stop Flick reading a browser

• In Flick: turn off the browser's switch in Settings › Browser Tabs. Flick drops its tabs at once and sends that browser nothing more. Your answer in System Settings stays as it was.
• In macOS: turn off the browser under Flick in Privacy & Security › Automation. macOS then blocks Flick, and Flick's Settings shows the “isn't allowed” note while the browser's switch is on.

Removing Flick entirely? The uninstall steps include clearing these answers.

What Automation lets Flick do

The permission lets Flick send commands to that browser. Flick uses it for two things only:

• Read its windows and tabs: each window's title, position, current tab and whether it's private, and each tab's title and address. Of an address, Flick keeps only the site and path.
• Switch to the tab you pick, and bring its window forward.

It doesn't read what's on a page, your history or your bookmarks, and it doesn't close, reload or move tabs. What it reads stays in memory and is never saved or sent. Apple suggests checking the privacy policy of any app you allow to control another: Flick's says exactly this, under browser tabs. For how the permission works in general, see the Automation permission on a Mac.

Questions