How to run VLC on El Capitan? El Capitan claims "VLC.app will damage your computer."

I've had the same issue with El Capitan. Strangely, i could open the VLC.app from within the mounted dmg (OS X just said its unsigned) but not after I copied it to /Applications.

So I tried to copy it with the terminal like

cp -R /Volumes/vlc-2.2.1/VLC.app /Applications/

and voila, after that I could also open it from within the Applications folder. Please note the "-R"-option.

I think this is safer than allowing malicious files to be executed by disabling Gatekeeper.

Option 1: Go to "System Preferences" -> "Security & Privacy" -> "General" For "Allow apps downloaded from:" choose "Mac App Store and identified developers" Then you should be able to right-click open the application and confirm security exception.

Option 2: When opening the application a security warning came up saying application wasn't signed.

I went to security settings and it had selected VLC ready for me to approve security exception for VLC, which I did.

VLC now works with El Captain.

P.s. I tried the "control-open" but unlike Mavericks, that didn't allow the application to start.

Also make sure you are downloading the legitimate version of vlc

There is some nasty malware going around, actually the first link on google when you search VLC is false, make sure you are downloading from the actual VideoLan website and not filling your computer with nasty viruses (yes even mac users).

chown -R root:admin /Applications/VLC.app

Gatekeeper will not get in the way.

In system preference, under security and confidentiality, check the box saying something like "allow downloaded apps from anywhere". If the box is greyed out, click on the lock at the bottom left corner and enter your password.