Please consider trying the beta (2.3.0) - I tested it again just now on macOS Tahoe (26.1) on a M1 Max.

It's unfortunately not related to the points you have mentioned (also a reason why I it is not in the App Store).
Non-App Store apps do not require sandboxing, however do require raw disk access (helper tool).

Since I have not been able to reproduce this issue for a few years now, I did a wild guess at the time with 2.3.0 (the beta) by adding a silly delay in it.
I hate those kind of fixes as they are just random and not addressing the real reason.
However, it does work ...

@Hans Thanks so much for the link! Apologies I wasn't aware of the beta build. It seems to be running, but will let you know if I encounter any problems.

Thanks for the amazing software as always!

Good to hear things are working again for you 😊 - and thank you for the compliment 😊  

Hi @hans,

I recently upgraded from macOS Tahoe 26.3.0 to 26.3.1, but ApplePi-Baker 2.2.3 stopped working. I switched to the beta version 2.3.0, but I still encounter the same error: "ApplePi-Baker is trying to install a new helper tool. Please enter your password to allow this." I enter my password, and the pop-up reappears, prompting me to allow it again. However, I then received the error message: "Closing ApplePi-Baker. Fatal Error: Unable to Install, Update, or Activate HelperTool." ApplePi-Baker closes itself, and whenever I attempt to launch the app, this issue persists.

I have an M1 Pro MacBook Pro running macOS Tahoe 26.3.1. I have tried both installing ApplePi-Baker via the .dmg file and using brew. I have also restarted the computer numerous times between installs and uninstalls, but the problem always resets to this situation.

Would you have any idea as to what is causing this behaviour?

Thanks

Hi!

Note: the install through "brew" is not a legit install ... nobody asked for permission to offer APB in this fashion. Ever.
I'm pretty sure distribution through Brew is relatively safe, just know it's done without me knowing about it. 
(the DMG is officially signed and notarized)

As for Tahoe 26.3.1 - I'll have to update my Mac frist (running Tahoe 26.3) to see what may be going on.

Usually the best approach would be fully removing APB from your Mac. You can follow the uninstall details here, or just take these steps, or use a tool like AppCleaner (free and legit):

• Drag ApplePi-Baker from “Applications” to the Trash, and empty the Trash after that.
• Delete the Preferences directory /Users/<yourusername>/Library/Preferences/ApplePi-Baker
• And finally unload and delete the Helper Tool in Terminal (sudo access is needed):

  sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist
  sudo rm /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper

macOS tends to make plists, which you can remove as well: /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBaker.plist

Reboot may not be bad idea, although I like to think this won't be needed.

Next download the latest beta version (2.3.0) and install it.

Up to today I still have no clue why the helper tool causes issues at times with a very few users.
I'll update my Mac and see if I run into this issue as well.

Well, that took me a minute ...
The update claimed something about display support, but after the reboot it was pretty clear this was way more than just that.

So, the good news first: APB (2.3.0) still works on my M1 Max.

Can you give the uninstall steps I suggested and report back? 😊 
At least we know that APB should work under Tahoe 26.3.1.

I followed your steps and ran the commands, reinstalled 2.3.0, but I still have the same issue. I'll try a reboot; sometimes it helps macOS get rid of some residual files.

It was working before updating, and yours is working! Could it be Rosetta 2, as the app is x86? Even though Rosetta 2 is already present and installed on my mac.

I rebooted, reinstalled 2.3.0, and still getting the same prompts

Bummer - sorry to hear this didn't do the trick. 😞 

Rosetta 2 (not an issue, just providing some details)

Rosetta 2 shouldn't be a problem, as I'm running it the same way you do, and macOS installs Rosetta 2 automatically when needed. It will be a one time thing, and macOS will update if needed. I'm pretty sure both our Rosetta versions are the same. You can check it like so in Terminal:

pkgutil --pkg-info com.apple.pkg.RosettaUpdateAuto

Mine produced this info:

package-id: com.apple.pkg.RosettaUpdateAuto
version: 1.0.0.0.1771991958
volume: /
location: /
install-time: 1772729382

The Install time (1772729382) can be converted with this Epoch Converter and result in this date and time for me (yesterday when I did the Tahoe update by the looks of it):

Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 5:49:42 PM GMT+01:00

Helper Tool - File Locations

The message "Closing ApplePi-Baker. Fatal Error: Unable to Install, Update, or Activate HelperTool." is a message from APB itself where it sends a version info request from the helpertool. If no response is returned (the helpertool is not running in the background) a reinstall of the helpertool is triggered and version info is requested again. Which seems to fail in your setup.

Let's see if we can find the helpertool (in Terminal). 
"/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/" is the repository for helper tools installed on your system. I'd expect to see the helpertool there.

ls -l /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/

This should return something like this:

total 18240
...
-r-xr--r--  1 root  wheel  1236400 Aug 18  2024 com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper
...

Another place where we should look is "/Library/LaunchDaemons/" which holds the matching helper tool .plist file.

ls -l /Library/LaunchDaemons/

Showing something like this:

total 176
...
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  791 Aug 18  2024 com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist
...

Completely remove all Helpertool files, and try APB again

If both exist: remove them like shown below (as we did before, I just added and extra file to be removed),
Do NOT uninstall the ApplePi-Baker app, execute only these 3 commands:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist
sudo rm /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist

Next step: start ApplePi-Baker again. A dialog should ask for your password so the helper tool can be installed.

Since I'm eager to find out why this happens on rare occasions, I did execute these exact steps, and APD yet again runs.

A next step would be looking in "Console" (Applications -> Utilities -> Console), hopefully we can find a message there.
Console is however quite a mess (IMO) so I'd like to save that one for a next step.

Please let me know if this worked 😊 

I got this error from the command you provided:

> sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist
> sudo rm /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper
> sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist
Password:
Unload failed: 5: Input/output error
Try running `launchctl bootout` as root for richer errors.

> sudo launchctl bootout /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist
Unrecognized target specifier.
Usage: launchctl bootout [--wait] <domain-target> [service-path1, service-path2, ...] | <service-target>
        --wait  Waits for bootout to complete before returning. Only applicable
                to a single service target. (WARNING: this may block
                indefinitely).
<service-target> takes a form of <domain-target>/<service-id>.
Please refer to `man launchctl` for explanation of the <domain-target> specifiers.

I checked the Console, nothing there! When starting APB, I see a password prompt; it repeats, then I get an error, and APB closes.

The "Unload failed: 5: Input/output error" could be because the helper tool isn't there, maybe? (the plist file)

* after removing the two helper tool related files (/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper and /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBakerHelper.plist) a reboot would most certainly make sure the helper won't start as its not there. A reboot would unload running helper tools as well of course.

Another thing to check:
Does APB have FDA (Full Disk Access) permissions?
Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access and ensure the toggle next to ApplePiBaker.app is set to on.

Not sure if you already did this or not.

I'd like to spare us having to go dig into the "Console", but it seems that would be the next step.

I rebooted, but it still isn't working. Full Disk Access was already granted. The helper seems to be missing somehow and doesn't want to be installed.
Is your helper using some legacy launchd APIs, intel-only binaries or deprecated SMJobBless? They were recently removed in macOS Tahoe. If I can put my hands on a second Silicon Mac that never had APB installed, I will try and see what happens there!

Well, I just removed everything ApplePiBaker, just to test your scenario. So I would guess the helper is OK for Tahoe 26.3.1.

SMJobBless was recently deprecated, but is still available AFAIK. An alternative seems available (been keeping an eye on this for several years now).
The very old elevated rights API calls indeed do not work anymore indeed, ... that's how I ended up with a helper tool at that time (2024 IIRC).

The main difference (AFAIK): the SMJobBless works through launchd which then copies the helper to the PrivilegedHelperTools directory to start by launchd whenever the applications needs it.
The newer method allows the helper tool to remain in the .app bundle.
Both are still supported (again: AFAIK, and I guess my test confirms this) and both actually use the same SMAppService framework.

Just to make sure: I completely removed APB, the helper tool, and related files. Rebooted my Mac, downloaded the beta and re-installed it.
As expected: I was asked for my password, and the helper tool did get installed just fine.
Did the same on my newer M4 Air (my coffee-tabel laptop haha), and it works just fine there as well.

As you can imagine: I would really love to know why this happens only to a handful of users that have reported this over the past few years.

Note: scrolling through System Settings, I did see ApplePiBaker listed under General -> Login Items & Extensions under "App Background Activity" as "Johannes Luijten" (my name) and enabled. This would probably be a requirement - Do you see this in your settings?

App Background Activity enabled. Tried on another Silicon Mac (M5 MacBook Pro) that never had APB, 2.3.0 worked like a charm on both macOS 26.3.0 and 26.3.1. I am really puzzled as to why mine is so reluctant to have APB...

Welcome to my world haha.
Well, actually not funny at all 😉 

I'm equally puzzled, and would love to find out why this happens 0 and therefor very much appreciate your help to try to figure this out.
From posts I see that a handful of users are affected by this, just wasn't able to reproduce this on several Macs (Intel i7 MBP 2016, Intel Macbook 12", Intel Mac Pro 2013, M1 Max MBP 2021, M4 MBA 2026).

I even increased the waiting time (in APB beta), which seems to have helped all others reporting this issue, except you (of course, just our luck).

Log Window

Going again through the code, can you copy and paste the content of the log window?

Mine shows (as na example);

10:07:32  Initialization Info
10:07:32  - ApplePi-Baker 2.3.0 (Build 2)
10:07:32  - macOS Version 26.3.1 (Build 25D2128) x86-64 (64 bit application)
10:07:32  - libarchive 3.6.0, by Tim Kientzle
10:07:32  - liblzma 5.2.5, by Mike Kezner et al.
10:07:32  - zlib 1.2.11, by Greg Roelofs && Mark Adler
10:07:32  - bz2lib 1.0.8, by Julian Seward
10:07:32  - e2fsprogs 1.46.5, by Theodore Ts'o
10:07:33  Found Correct HelperTool version (1.9.2)
10:07:33  Disk Appeared - /dev/disk4
10:07:33  Disk Appeared - /dev/disk0
10:07:33  Disk Appeared - /dev/disk1
10:07:33  Disk Appeared - /dev/disk2
10:07:33  Disk Appeared - /dev/disk3

Console

Personally I see Console as an absolute last resort as it is riddled with messages that sounds scary but have zero meaning.

You can start Console application (Applications -> Utilities -> Console).
Set the filter to "authd", and click start.
Next start Apple Pi Baker, lines like this should appear, confirming the helper tool was blessed:

Filtering by "com.tweaking4all.ApplePiBaker" should show something like this (amongst a gazillion of other irrelevant messages)

More "options"?

Doubt this will be useful, and (for now anyway) completely against wat I would normally do, but AI made these suggestions:

1) Antivirus or other endpoint protection software may prevent helper tools getting installed.

Do you have anything like that installed?

2) Permission issues or Corrupted System Directories (highly doubt this is the case)

When doing this in Terminal

ls -l /Library

Do these directories show like this (access rights)?

drwxr-xr-x  12 root       wheel             384 Mar  5 17:48 LaunchAgents
drwxr-xr-t  13 root       wheel             416 Mar  6 17:36 PrivilegedHelperTools

This doesn't exclude corrupted system directories, but does give us a view on access rights.
I highly doubt this would be the problem though, as other helper tools would experience the same problem then as well - which I don't hink they do.

3) Interference by tools like Lingon X (never heard of it)

Do you have Lingon X installed?

4) Are you the admin of your Mac? (probably, since that is the default when installing macOS)

You can check this in System Settings -> Users & Groups - look for your username, it should say "admin" below it.

Again: highly doubt this would be an issue, since macOS setup automatically sets the user to admin.
Well, unless it's a company laptop, or a parent has locked down the user account for kids.