Gal Toolkit transitions not working on Mac? Enable Accessibility in Privacy & Security

So if you’re like me and you purchased the Gal Toolkit and you’re having some errors, specifically transitions that flat-out refuse to apply to your timeline, I just spent way too long figuring this out so you don’t have to. 👋 The fix is stupidly simple, but getting there is the problem because Apple changed where everything lives in their settings.

The official Premiere Gal support docs? Outdated. The screenshots in their email? Wrong layout. I literally had to screenshot their own instructions and feed them to ChatGPT just to figure out where Mac moved the setting. That’s the world we’re living in. 😅

Wait, Why Do Some Things Work and Others Don’t?

This is the part that’ll make you feel like you’re losing your mind. I could drag elements into the timeline just fine, like a subscribe button graphic, no problem. “All of these will fit just fine in the timeline,” I’m thinking, cool, the toolkit works—but then you try a transition.

You drag it in, it says “applying,” and… nothing happens. No audio, no visual change, just absolutely nothing. You’re expecting to see audio and sound just being brought in, but look, nothing happens. It says applying, but nothing happens.

And that’s the maddening part. Because it partially works, you assume the extension is glitchy or something got corrupted during install. But it’s not a bug. The toolkit is fine—it’s a permission issue.

What’s actually happening is that transitions need to send a paste command (Command + V) to Premiere Pro to automatically place the preset on your timeline. Simple template elements like graphics don’t need that same system-level permission, they get placed differently.

But transitions and effects? They need macOS to let Premiere Pro receive automated keyboard commands, and macOS blocks that by default under its Accessibility security settings (source).

So you’re not crazy. The toolkit isn’t broken. Apple is just being overprotective.

The Official Fix Is Technically Right (But Practically Useless)

I did what any reasonable person would do. I contacted the Gal Tools support team, and credit where it’s due, they sent me this email very fast. The email linked to their official troubleshooting page that walks you through enabling Accessibility access on your Mac—but the navigation is outdated.

The problem? Their guide tells you to go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Accessibility. That path doesn’t exist anymore.

Apple renamed “System Preferences” to System Settings and reshuffled the entire interface. So you’re sitting there staring at a settings window that looks nothing like the screenshots in the support doc, scrolling around trying to find something called “Security & Privacy” that’s now just called “Privacy & Security,” and the subcategories are in a completely different spot—it’s needlessly confusing.

I spent an embarrassing amount of time on this. Just clicking around, going back and forth between the email and my settings, getting nowhere—pure time sink.

How I Actually Found the Fix (Thank You, ChatGPT)

This is the part I’m not even a little embarrassed about anymore. I took screenshots of the email and sent them to ChatGPT because the layout has now changed. Mac has been updated and you can’t find how to get there very easily anymore—so I outsourced the hunting.

I literally screenshotted the support email, threw it into ChatGPT, and said basically: this is what they’re telling me to do, but my Mac doesn’t look like this anymore, where do I actually go? And it told me exactly what to do—in plain English.

The old way: System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Accessibility (navigating through the old tabbed Security & Privacy pane to find the Accessibility list).

The new way: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (it’s a streamlined sidebar path now, nested differently).

What we were doing before was going to accessibility and then going into privacy and settings. But now it changes, so it’s privacy and security, accessibility, and then you will have it there—tiny wording, huge impact.

The Exact Steps to Fix Gal Toolkit Transitions on Mac

Alright, here’s what you actually need to do. This takes about 45 seconds once you know where to go—it’s one toggle.

Fix Gal Toolkit Transitions on Mac

1. Open System Settings — Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen, then click “System Settings” (not “System Preferences,” that’s the old name).
2. Go to Privacy & Security — In the left sidebar, scroll down until you see “Privacy & Security.” Click it.
3. Find Accessibility — Scroll through the list on the right side. It’s not at the top—keep scrolling until you see Accessibility.
4. Enable Adobe Premiere Pro — Find “Adobe Premiere Pro” (whatever version you’re running) and toggle the switch on next to it. Your Mac will likely ask for your password or Touch ID.
5. Restart Premiere Pro — Quit Premiere Pro completely and reopen it. Reload the Gal Toolkit extension, then try your transition again.

This Isn’t Just a Gal Toolkit Problem

Here’s something worth knowing: this exact same issue hits basically every Premiere Pro extension that automates timeline actions on a Mac. The AinTransitions extension documents the identical problem with the identical solution—Accessibility permission is the gate.

So if you’ve been dealing with AtomX unable to apply transitions (or any other Premiere Pro plugin not working after a Mac update), the fix is the same. Go enable Accessibility access for Premiere Pro in your Privacy & Security settings—same root cause.

The frustrating thing is that the Premiere Gal toolkit help page still references the old path. And they’re not alone—most plugin developers haven’t updated their docs either, so you end up Googling in circles.

Why Apple Even Blocks This in the First Place

You might be wondering why macOS blocks this at all. And honestly it’s a reasonable security feature, just badly communicated—it’s powerful access.

When an app requests Accessibility access, it’s asking for permission to control other applications, send keystrokes, click buttons, and read screen content. The Gal Toolkit extension needs it because it literally sends a Command+V keystroke to Premiere Pro to paste a transition onto your timeline.

Without that permission, Premiere shows “applying,” but the paste never actually executes—so it silently fails.

Nothing happens. And you lose your mind trying to figure out why—because there’s no error.

It’s not malicious. It’s not a bug. It’s just macOS doing its security thing, and the extension politely failing instead of telling you why it failed—which is honestly more annoying than if it just threw an error message in your face—at least you’d know where to look.

Final Thoughts

The whole experience of troubleshooting this was more annoying than it needed to be, and basically 100% of that annoyance came from outdated documentation. The fix itself is a single toggle, but finding that toggle when every guide on the internet is showing you screenshots from an operating system layout that Apple already replaced is where the real frustration lives—the fix is simple, the path isn’t.

So if your Gal Toolkit transitions aren’t working on Mac, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, toggle on Adobe Premiere Pro, restart the app, and get back to editing. And maybe bookmark this page, because you’ll probably need to do it again after the next Premiere Pro update.

If this helped you out, drop a comment—you’re not alone.