Level 1 (4 points)

Best before date on App store purchases

feeling cheated - years ago I purchased Call of Duty 4 Modern warfare from App store. Have been playing the multiplayer version online as there is still quite a number servers sill running due to a strong following. However a while back the game failed to launch on my Mac. As the game was purchased from the app store, every so often you would have to re-authenticate by logging into the App store, After a month of calls and trying to sort out with Apple I gave up .

From what I can determine Apple did not update the authentication certificate for the app and thus it will not launch.

So now when I try to launch, I get

“Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare” is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete “Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare” and download it again from the App Store."

Have tried numerous times and always the same result

Mac OS 10.14.6 IMac 27 (Late 2013) 3.2 Intel Core i5 12 GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 755M 1GB

Call of Duty 4 - Modern warefare 1.7.2

Has anybody been able to find a work around for this ?

Posted on Oct 21, 2026 9:20 AM

2 replies

Mac Jim ID

Level 10 (105,996 points)

Oct 21, 2026 9:48 AM in response to wylie999

I believe it was removed by Activision about 7 years ago on the Mac App Store while initially launching there 15 years ago. When a developer removes an app from the store, it remains on your device but is no longer being updated by the Developer. How the app behaves at that point depends on the app itself. We would all think that an app purchase means it will work forever, but that is not the case, it is up to the developer to provide updates and maintain support for that app.

Zurarczurx

Level 6 (8,142 points)

Oct 21, 2026 9:28 AM in response to wylie999

What happens if you delete it and reinstall it as per the error message?

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256380317