Apple said on October 2, 2026, that it plans additional controls for granting apps Full Disk Access on macOS. In its developer announcement, the company linked the decision to the growing risks of capable, autonomous AI agents. It gave no release date or design for the new approval process.
Why this permission matters
Full Disk Access is unusually broad. Apple’s Mac privacy guide says it can give an app access to all files on a computer, including data from Mail, Messages and Safari, Time Machine backups, and certain administrative settings. Apple says that breadth helps backup apps function, but can also expose data that a user did not intend to share.
The same settings page lists Files & Folders separately for access to files in particular locations. These are different permission scopes; an app’s legitimate need for one does not establish a need for the other.
What Apple has announced
Apple says future controls will require a particularly explicit user action to grant Full Disk Access. Its announcement does not specify the interface, the macOS version, whether existing grants will change, or how backup and managed-device workflows will be affected. None of those details should be treated as settled.
For developers and administrators, the immediate question is which apps genuinely require whole-disk access and which need only particular files or folders. Users can review current grants under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, as described in Apple’s guide. Apple has not yet published migration instructions for the planned controls.
