I managed to get a fresh install of Google Chrome working under Catalina. But it wasn’t easy to unravel. Apparently, if you have spctl enabled on first launch, Chrome will create a jacked-up profile folder that it can no longer access. I discovered this by running the binary from inside Terminal, where the story was told.
To fix, here’s what I did:
- In terminal, do this:
sudo spctl --master-disable
- This will get your ability to set “Allow from anywhere” in System Preferences/Security and Privacy/General. Without this disabled, you’re stuck with allowing apps from the app store or notarized apps only.
- Go to ~/Library/Application Support and delete the “Google” folder.
- Relaunch Chrome.
This resolved the issue for me.
Now if I can just find a way to enable third-party cookies on Safari. Sigh. Honestly, Catalina is just a little too secure.