DEV Community

mew
mew

Posted on

Poly Universe (app)

Field Report: Poly Universe (app) on macOS

Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon wrestling with Poly Universe (app) from NimbusApps. I wanted a smooth, visual way to organize and map out my projects, but right out of the gate, the app refused to connect to my file directories. No crash, no dramatic alert—just a frustrating inability to open or save anything.

At first, I assumed it was a permissions issue. macOS Sonoma 14.5, M2 MacBook Pro—sometimes sandboxing gets picky. So my first move was to open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders and try granting access. Nada. The app still couldn’t see my Documents folder.

Next, I tried launching it from Terminal, hoping verbose logs would hint at the problem. Some warning about “sandbox container mismatch” popped up, but honestly, it didn’t make sense yet. I spent 20 minutes hunting through ~/Library/Containers and ~/Library/Application Support. I even temporarily disabled Gatekeeper (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491) thinking maybe notarization was blocking file access. Still nothing.

Then it clicked: Poly Universe (app) was built to require explicit Full Disk Access for some folders, not just the generic Files and Folders permission. Once I granted Full Disk Access via System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, the behavior changed immediately. The app could read and write in my project directories. No Terminal hacks, no juggling symbolic links—just proper macOS permissions.

I also noticed that it helps to launch the app after granting access, because macOS won’t retroactively apply permissions if the app was already open. That’s one of those subtle macOS quirks that isn’t obvious until you run into it.

I saved/bookmarked this page because it had practical advice for macOS permissions quirks and file-access behavior, which really cleared up the confusion I had: https://treadmillreviews.online/office-and-productivity/24279-poly-universe.html

Once Full Disk Access was enabled, everything worked. File pickers behaved normally, autosaves landed in the correct directories, and the rendering of project maps felt smooth. Performance was consistent, even with multiple projects open, and memory usage stayed reasonable (~1.2GB).

For future installs, my checklist is simple:

  • Move the app to /Applications before first launch.
  • Grant Full Disk Access upfront for folders I plan to use.
  • Launch after permissions are set.
  • Keep an eye on ~/Library/Containers if I run into weird behavior.

Lessons learned: the app itself wasn’t broken, and it wasn’t my Mac being dramatic. It was a combination of macOS sandboxing and subtle permissions requirements that tripped me up. Once you respect the system’s security model, the tool works exactly as intended—fast, intuitive, and surprisingly stable.

For anyone grabbing it from the App Store or NimbusApps directly, just remember: permissions first, fiddling later.

Official resources I referenced along the way:

End of log. System now happy, and I can finally get back to mapping out projects without running in circles.

Top comments (0)