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Bothered by Google Updater, But Need PicasaWeb Plug-in

E

esaleris

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 18, 2005
317
28
I really like using the Google's PicasaWeb service, which nicely integrates with iPhoto via a very nice plugin that allows you to directly export full quality (100% pixels) photos to the web.

However, in order to do so, it seems that you need to install Google Updater - which then downloads the plugin application. I'm not particularly a fan of this. Is there any known issue with Google Updater? Moreover, is there a way to get just the plug-in without Google installing apps on your Mac?
 
I'm surprised nobody has commented on your question. I use Google Earth and it seems that no matter what I do, the stupid Google Updater pops up in my dock daily. It's not even telling/asking me to do anything, it just activated itself and it sits there. I then hit command-Q.

Officially, Google says the updater is mandatory if you use any of their software.

There's got to be a way to disable this stupid thing.
 
There is. Just trash the app ;) Worked for me.

When it's running CMD + click the icon in the dock. This will reveal the item in finder. Quit the Updater then trash the file. Should work for you.

I can't remember where it's installed, it might be /Library/Application Support/Google Updater (or just Google) or it might be ~/Library/Application Support/Google Updater (or just Google)
 
Well it's not "required" to use the iphoto to picasa plugin.

I use said plugin all the time, and I deleted the updater a long time ago.
I just download a newer version of the plugin when it comes out.
 
pjrobertson said:
There is. Just trash the app ;) Worked for me.

When it's running CMD + click the icon in the dock. This will reveal the item in finder. Quit the Updater then trash the file. Should work for you.

I can't remember where it's installed, it might be /Library/Application Support/Google Updater (or just Google) or it might be ~/Library/Application Support/Google Updater (or just Google)
Click to expand...

I did that twice already but then today I found another one.

I had to quit four Google processes from the Activity Monitor and then also delete a Google item from the Startup items.

I then found another copy of the application in the Library location similar to the one you describe.

Fingers crossed this thing isn't coming back this time.
 
This thread got me curious, as I had just installed the Picasa uploader a few weeks ago. Sure enough, Google Update Helper was running, and "helpfully" restarted itself every time I logged out and back in. Annoying.

I found this thread on Google Groups which talks about using launchctl to disable it, but that solution doesn't actually work. It just kills the running instance, but the app comes back next time you login.

Finally I looked at the differences between my two Time Machine backups, the morning before installing Picasa and the morning after. And it turns out that Google hid the startup of this thing in /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist. Conveniently for them, Apple does not provide a real interface to edit the items in this file. It's the same as the preference file specifying your personal Login Items (System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items) but this is system-wide. I'd almost consider filing a bug report with Apple, because users ought to have better control over system-wide startup items.

Anyway, here's how I got rid of it:

  1. In Finder, go to your computer, Library, Preferences, and double-click loginwindow.plist.
  2. In the Property List Editor, expand Root and AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary to reveal a numbered list of dictionaries.
  3. Expand each numbered dictionary until you find the one that has the Google helper. Highlight that number and hit Delete.
  4. Save the file somewhere else (it won't let you save it directly due to permissions, so use Save As...) and exit Property List Editor.
  5. Copy the saved version of the file to /Library/Preferences in Finder, replacing the existing file.
  6. In Terminal, type sudo chown root:admin /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist (this restores the file's proper ownership).

To have the change take effect, you need to kill the loginwindow process. That will log you out, so don't do it if you're in the middle of something, and save any work before doing it. ;) To do that, just go in Terminal and type sudo killall loginwindow. Log back in, and no more Google helper. :D
 
bankshot said:
This thread got me curious, as I had just installed the Picasa uploader a few weeks ago. Sure enough, Google Update Helper was running, and "helpfully" restarted itself every time I logged out and back in. Annoying.

I found this thread on Google Groups which talks about using launchctl to disable it, but that solution doesn't actually work. It just kills the running instance, but the app comes back next time you login.

Finally I looked at the differences between my two Time Machine backups, the morning before installing Picasa and the morning after. And it turns out that Google hid the startup of this thing in /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist. Conveniently for them, Apple does not provide a real interface to edit the items in this file. It's the same as the preference file specifying your personal Login Items (System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items) but this is system-wide. I'd almost consider filing a bug report with Apple, because users ought to have better control over system-wide startup items.

Anyway, here's how I got rid of it:

  1. In Finder, go to your computer, Library, Preferences, and double-click loginwindow.plist.
  2. In the Property List Editor, expand Root and AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary to reveal a numbered list of dictionaries.
  3. Expand each numbered dictionary until you find the one that has the Google helper. Highlight that number and hit Delete.
  4. Save the file somewhere else (it won't let you save it directly due to permissions, so use Save As...) and exit Property List Editor.
  5. Copy the saved version of the file to /Library/Preferences in Finder, replacing the existing file.
  6. In Terminal, type sudo chown root:admin /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist (this restores the file's proper ownership).

To have the change take effect, you need to kill the loginwindow process. That will log you out, so don't do it if you're in the middle of something, and save any work before doing it. ;) To do that, just go in Terminal and type sudo killall loginwindow. Log back in, and no more Google helper. :D
Click to expand...

In the plist is the path to the application that I deleted.

/Library/Google/Google Updater/Google Updater.app/Contents/Resources/Google Updater Helper.app

In my system, this is now an empty folder...

/Library/Google/Google Updater/

So if I ignore your procedure, nothing will launch anyway.

Am I missing something?
 
bankshot said:
This thread got me curious, as I had just installed the Picasa uploader a few weeks ago. Sure enough, Google Update Helper was running, and "helpfully" restarted itself every time I logged out and back in. Annoying.

I found this thread on Google Groups which talks about using launchctl to disable it, but that solution doesn't actually work. It just kills the running instance, but the app comes back next time you login.

Finally I looked at the differences between my two Time Machine backups, the morning before installing Picasa and the morning after. And it turns out that Google hid the startup of this thing in /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist. Conveniently for them, Apple does not provide a real interface to edit the items in this file. It's the same as the preference file specifying your personal Login Items (System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items) but this is system-wide. I'd almost consider filing a bug report with Apple, because users ought to have better control over system-wide startup items.

Anyway, here's how I got rid of it:

  1. In Finder, go to your computer, Library, Preferences, and double-click loginwindow.plist.
  2. In the Property List Editor, expand Root and AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary to reveal a numbered list of dictionaries.
  3. Expand each numbered dictionary until you find the one that has the Google helper. Highlight that number and hit Delete.
  4. Save the file somewhere else (it won't let you save it directly due to permissions, so use Save As...) and exit Property List Editor.
  5. Copy the saved version of the file to /Library/Preferences in Finder, replacing the existing file.
  6. In Terminal, type sudo chown root:admin /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist (this restores the file's proper ownership).

To have the change take effect, you need to kill the loginwindow process. That will log you out, so don't do it if you're in the middle of something, and save any work before doing it. ;) To do that, just go in Terminal and type sudo killall loginwindow. Log back in, and no more Google helper. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help! but I have a problem, I'm new to OS X and i have no idea of what the "Property List Editor" might be. When I open loginwindow.plist, it opens with TextEdit. Could ou help me with this?? thank you!!
 
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