macOS - terminal process gets stuck

macOS - terminal process gets stuck in interplains/Zero-Breach-Toolkit.

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I’m running the tool on my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, the process stopped midway whilst in terminal and despite waiting for over an hour, it did not proceed any further.

The steps say that the process should only take about 15 minutes, so I take that the above is not normal.

Please advise if this is a known issue and if there is a workaround, or if I maybe missing a step (although I have diligently read the instructions to confirm I haven’t skipped a step).

Thank you

Activity

interplains2d ago

Thanks for reporting this, and sorry for the wait.

The most likely cause is files that are kept only in iCloud. If "Desktop & Documents Folders" is on in iCloud Drive and "Optimise Mac Storage" is enabled, many files on the Mac are placeholders, and reading one makes macOS download it first. The file-fingerprint step reads files in Desktop and Documents, so it could sit waiting for iCloud for a very long time.

This is fixed in the latest download: files and folders kept only in iCloud (or OneDrive on Windows) are no longer downloaded during the scan; the report lists them as not checked instead. To get it, download the ZIP again (green Code button → Download ZIP) and run it the same way.

If it still stops, please let us know:

the version: python3 -X utf8 scan/zero-breach-toolkit.py --version
the last few lines the scan printed before it stopped
whether your Desktop and Documents are stored in iCloud Drive

Two things that help in the meantime: pressing Ctrl+C once stops a check and keeps everything checked so far in the report, and running with --quick skips the file-fingerprint step.