‘An inexcusable mistake’: Logitech just broke its own macOS apps, but a fix is available

• Two of Logitech’s Mac apps stopped working due to expired certificates
• This broke custom settings for users’ mice and keyboards
• Patches have been released that should fix the issue

If you’ve suddenly found that your Logitech apps on macOS simply don’t work, you’re not alone. Frustrated users have taken to social media to complain about mice losing their custom settings and apps stuck in endless boot loops, and now Logitech has responded by calling the move an “inexcusable mistake.”

The problem is remarkably simple: it appears that Logitech accidentally allowed the certificates for its Logi Options+ and G Hub apps to expire. Without a valid certificate, they couldn’t run on macOS, preventing anyone from using them and breaking custom settings for people’s devices.

That had wide-ranging effects for users of Logitech’s popular mice, keyboards and other computing accessories. Without access to Options+ and G Hub, you’re unable to customize the settings of your peripheral devices. That means no keyboard macros, no mouse sensitivity adjustments, no anything. That's a frustrating experience, and an entirely avoidable one on Logitech’s part.

Logitech has publicly acknowledged its role in the problem, with company representative ATXsantucci writing on Reddit: “We dropped the ball here. This is an inexcusable mistake. We’re extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

A cautionary tale

How do you rectify the issue? Well, chances are you’ve had an email from Logitech if you’ve registered your email address with the company. This message reads as follows:

“There is a known issue with G HUB and Logi Options+ software that causes both apps to stop working on macOS. To fix this, please visit the link below to download the updated installer and find more information. Your settings will be preserved, and both apps will function properly after the update. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

The link points to a support article on Logitech’s website. There, the company advises users to download patches that can restore the apps’ certificates. Importantly, Logitech points out that the expired certificate also affects its in-app updater, so trying to update an affected app will not work.

Additionally, Logitech warns that uninstalling and reinstalling the affected apps could result in you losing your app settings. Instead of attempting to do that, Logitech says you should just download and run the patches.

Thankfully, your app customizations will not be lost if you run the patch, so you won’t need to recreate all those carefully configured macros and settings after following this route. The patch works for the last four versions of macOS: macOS Tahoe, macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura. Logitech says a fix for older editions “will be made available at a later time.”

This whole fiasco just goes to show what can go wrong with just a touch of carelessness. Logitech should have been well aware that its app certificates were about to expire, yet this apparent lapse led to a heap of irritation and bad press being directed its way. If nothing else, it’s a cautionary tale for software developers everywhere.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.