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False Update from Mac App Store

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canadianpj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 27, 2008
496
406
First, I have read that this is commonly associated with having installed a pirated Mac App Store application. I have scoured my system and do not believe that I have downloaded anything third party which was supposed to be a paid application.

When I go to the App Store, there's an update for "Nyan Cat: Lost in space" which I do not have on any of my machines.

Recently installed:

Via App Store:

Radiant Defence (free game)
Disk Art (free program)
DoodleGeddon (free game)

Via 3rd party:

The Walking Dead (via telltalegames.com)
Diablo 3 Public Beta (via Battle.net)

OS X 10.7.3
 
C

canadianpj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 27, 2008
496
406
Thank you for the replies, but the second poster is correct I do not have any pirated software. I did a search for receipts and they all matched applications that I have on my system.

I've gone through all my Time Machine background even to be sure this is not old. I have even begun to just uninstall programs one after the other, but I think it has to be something with the receipt file and they all match legit applications.

So very frustrated, if I could just find whatever application is causing this I would get rid of it.
 
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Ccrew

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2011
2,035
3
I can say that while you may not have any pirated apps installed, if Spotlight picks one up, as in stored on an external drive or similar even if not installed it will often trip the app store update even though the application isn't truly "installed" in the real sense of the word. Turning spotlight indexing off on the external and re-indexing will solve the issue then
 
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canadianpj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 27, 2008
496
406
Ccrew said:
I can say that while you may not have any pirated apps installed, if Spotlight picks one up, as in stored on an external drive or similar even if not installed it will often trip the app store update even though the application isn't truly "installed" in the real sense of the word. Turning spotlight indexing off on the external and re-indexing will solve the issue then
Click to expand...

Sadly I reindexed all external drives, cleared the mac app store cache, rebooted, etc and it's still showing up as an update.

As this must be tied to a receipt file, somewhere, is there a way to search the actual contents of those files? I can find the files themselves, but one has to have "Nyan Cat" inside of it and the email address of the person. If I can find that then I can rid myself of this stupidity.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
canadianpj said:
As this must be tied to a receipt file, somewhere, is there a way to search the actual contents of those files? I can find the files themselves, but one has to have "Nyan Cat" inside of it and the email address of the person. If I can find that then I can rid myself of this stupidity.
Click to expand...
Use the following method to search for it, but select "Contents" instead of "File Name" in step 4.
 
C

canadianpj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 27, 2008
496
406
Searching for both Nyan Cat and the email address associated with the program and neither show up using that method you described. I'm just about ready to format the drive at this point. It seriously cannot be hiding this well.
 
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Ccrew

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2011
2,035
3
canadianpj said:
Sadly I reindexed all external drives, cleared the mac app store cache, rebooted, etc and it's still showing up as an update.

As this must be tied to a receipt file, somewhere, is there a way to search the actual contents of those files? I can find the files themselves, but one has to have "Nyan Cat" inside of it and the email address of the person. If I can find that then I can rid myself of this stupidity.
Click to expand...

right click each of your suspect apps and "show contents" of the .app file and look for the MAS receipt file. It's encrypted, but you can open it in textedit and the name of the application it's for is in plain text. If it's not the same app it's probably the guilty party.
 
5

5883662

Cancelled
Jan 20, 2010
232
178
I have exactly the same problem with that stupid cat app and my workstation. I have no pirated apps either! It is so frustrating and annoying.
 
C

canadianpj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 27, 2008
496
406
c:v said:
I have exactly the same problem with that stupid cat app and my workstation. I have no pirated apps either! It is so frustrating and annoying.
Click to expand...

I have solved my issue. The bad application was in a secondary account I had for a parent who used my computer while house sitting for me a few times. This would be why my repeated searching on my own account came up with nothing.
 
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