Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy VPN Not Compatible with Mac OS Catalina

[ColoradoNovelist]

I am a writer and have a network of Apple computers and devices. I purchased Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy VPN for 5 devices, all of which use the latest MacOS of iOS operating systems. However, I have one older computer that still works great that Apple quite including on the operating systems upgrades, a 2014 iMac 27 loaded with RAM and storage and still very usable. Since 5 devices was the limit on the first Premium + Privacy package, I bought a second Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy VPN for the 2014 iMac. Both applications loaded on the computer without issue and registered the computer with the license and activated. However, Privacy VPN will not work on the 2014 iMac, which is using Catalina, MacOS 10.15.7.

The issue is allowing Privacy VPN permission to use Location. Privacy VPN does not trigger the "Allow" button to appear in the iMac Preferences (System Settings), Privacy and Security window. I have uninstalled, reinstalled, shut down, cold reboot, disk doctor, you name it I have done it. But Privacy VPN cannot obtain the needed permissions in the MacOS 10.15.7 in order to turn on the VPN.

I also sought help via the chat button on my account page on my.malwarebytes.com, and got Zero help from the virtual assistant named Zero. He kept asking my name and email and could not get past a bunch of questions that did not come even close to addressing my issue. I finally gave up.

I hope that someone here might have an answer to a work around before I seek a VPN for the 2014 Mac running Catalina that will work.

[treed]

You should not need to allow the system extension in order to use the VPN. Currently, the only purpose of that extension is to support connection rules. The system extension is used to block network connections to apps you have selected when not connected to the VPN.

If you're having trouble connecting, that's a separate issue, and I'd recommend posting about that in the Mac Privacy forum:

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/forum/259-mac/

That said, if you do want to get the connection rules feature working, you'd definitely need to get it allowed. There are some suggestions here:

https://support.malwarebytes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039018673-Unable-to-activate-Real-Time-Protection-in-Malwarebytes-for-Mac

Unfortunately, there are some glitches with Catalina's support for system extensions, even on the latest version of Catalina. It's possible the suggestions at the above link may not help. For that reason, at some point in the future, support for Catalina is very likely to be dropped, and only Big Sur and up will be supported.