The Mac is one of the most popular types of computer in the world. All Macs will have the MacOS system pre-installed. It has a wide range of features and is very easy to use. Its interface is very intuitive and understandable. In addition to the installed applications, you can install any program that will support macOS. Most of them are available in Apple’s own app store – Mac App Store.
But sometimes you need to download a program from an independent developer, or any application that for some reason is simply not available in the App Store. You can do this and in this case, most often the application will be supplied as a compressed disk image. This is the most convenient and useful format for developers to make the application available to Mac users. In most cases, this works perfectly. But sometimes you may see an error “the following disk images could not be opened…”. This is usually because the image has been corrupted. In this case, there is a solution to this problem.
What is a disk image
A disk image for Mac is a special image file format that mimics a physical disk. It has the same properties as a physical disk, which means that you can mount it in Finder, copy files and folders to it, and make clones of it or burn it to a physical medium, such as a memory stick or a CD. They are extracted in the same way as regular disks. You can view them and even create your own disk image in the Disk Utility.
In the beginning, they were used to distribute software remotely on the Mac. But with the advent of the Mac OS X, there was no need for them anymore. But they are still actively used to distribute third-party software on the Mac. This is because it gives the developers control over how the software is presented when the disk image is opened. For instance, if you have ever downloaded an application that displays an image inviting you to copy the application’s binary file into the Applications folder, as well as an alias of the Applications folder, this is only possible when using a disk image.
How to fix the “The following disk images could not be opened” error
The first thing you should do is try to reload the disk image file. Perhaps it was corrupted due to problems during the boot, in which case reloading it may fix the situation.
If reloading has not solved your problem, you should check your image with Disk Utility. It is quite easy to do, all you need to do is:
Go to menu Applications
From there go to Utilities and select Disk Utility
Then go to your disk image in your “boot” folder or wherever you saved it
Click Verify
If the verify was successful, try opening it again, the problem should be solved
If the verify wasn’t successful and reloading doesn’t help, then you have only to contact the developers of the program. Maybe they provided you with a corrupted disk image.
