Okay, OS X gurus, I've run into a problem that I can't solve and that is driving me CRAZY.
Working on a friend's Mac Mini running Snow Leopard. Was in desperate need of updates, and Software Update showed a bunch of 'em, including 10.6.8 (I can't remember which 10.6.x release it was on when we started all of this). I let it process all of them, rebooted, ran SU again, found a couple more updates, installed those, rebooted one final time, and now SU shows "Your software is up to date." Great!
The only problem is that it's lying.
I realized this after I started up iTunes and noticed it was running an ancient release (10.2.2). iTunes told me there was an update and prompted me to download it. I clicked the Download button, and it launches Software Update again, which proceeds to tell me that "Your software is up to date."
Uh...okay.
I then noticed that Safari was sitting at 5.0.5, whereas the latest version of Safari for Snow Leopard is 5.1.7. Again, though, Software Update says there are no available updates left for me to install.
In researching this issue, I found 4 possible causes for where Software Update misreports a machine as being up-to-date when it isn't:
1. Certain updates have been inadvertently set to be "ignored." You need to reset ignored updates.
2. You have multiple copies of a given app (Safari, iTunes, whatever) -- perhaps even multiple versions of that same app -- in various places on your hard drive. You need to remove the duplicates and only leave one.
3. The Software Update plist preferences files have become corrupt. You need to delete them and run Software Update again, which will regenerate new versions with the default settings.
4. The content distribution network that Apple uses to distribute updates to users (Akamai?) has a bad node, and your computer is being directed to use that node. You can try forcing it to use a different node by editing /etc/hosts
I have tried every single one of these solutions, and none of them have worked. I have even gone above and beyond these solutions:
1. The "Reset Ignored Updates" menu item is grayed out for me, which I assume means that no items were set to be ignored. Besides, #3 should have also taken care of resetting this if that were the problem.
2. I searched the entire drive for other copies of Safari and iTunes, and came up empty. The copies I do have are in their proper place, in the Applications folder.
3. I trashed 3 plist files related to Software Update: the one under ~/Library/Preferences, the one under ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost, and the system-wide one under /Library/Preferences. Didn't change a thing.
4. I found several other IP addresses for valid Apple content distribution nodes on the 'net, and edited /etc/hosts to override DNS. I had the exact same results. I then took the machine over to another network which is connected to another completely different ISP, undid the changes to /etc/hosts, and ran SU again. STILL it reports that the machine is up-to-date.
5. I decided to try moving all of the files in /var/db/recepits and /Library/Receipts to a different location to see if that changed anything. It did: Software Update now saw 2 updates (a security update and one other thing I can't remember off the top of my head), but Safari and iTunes were not on the list. I put the receipts back where they belonged, and now SU is again reporting "Your software is up to date."
6. Because I was desperate and couldn't think of anything else to try, I did a Repair Permissions on the volume. No change.
@%#$%#^
At this point, I could do one of two things which likely will take care of the issue:
1. Just upgrade both iTunes and Safari manually. Yeah, I could do this, but if either one gets updated again in the future by Apple, then this computer is going to have to be manually updated EVERY TIME.
2. Wipe the drive and reinstall the OS. Would that fix it? Yeah, probably. But at this point, it's become personal.
I want to know *why* it is happening and how to fix it relatively non-invasively. Having to do a complete OS wipe and reinstall in order to fix a software update issue is ludicrous and overkill.
I did try one other thing: instead of upgrading iTunes and Safari to the latest versions, which won't tell me anything, I decided to upgrade them to something newer than what was currently installed, but something that still wasn't the absolute latest. I thought maybe perhaps doing so would overwrite some corrupt file or install receipt somewhere and fix the issue. So I updated Safari from 5.0.5 to 5.1(.0), and iTunes from 10.2.2 to 10.5.3. But Software Update STILL DOESN'T SEE THE LATEST UPDATES!! Aaargh!
I have searched high and low, and cannot find ANYONE who has come up with a working fix to this issue once it develops.
So, Apple: WTF? It "just works," does it?
What the heck does Software Update look for in order to determine whether or not a particular piece of software is up-to-date? What could possibly be broken? Where do I look next?
Thanks for reading,
-- Nathan
Working on a friend's Mac Mini running Snow Leopard. Was in desperate need of updates, and Software Update showed a bunch of 'em, including 10.6.8 (I can't remember which 10.6.x release it was on when we started all of this). I let it process all of them, rebooted, ran SU again, found a couple more updates, installed those, rebooted one final time, and now SU shows "Your software is up to date." Great!
The only problem is that it's lying.
I realized this after I started up iTunes and noticed it was running an ancient release (10.2.2). iTunes told me there was an update and prompted me to download it. I clicked the Download button, and it launches Software Update again, which proceeds to tell me that "Your software is up to date."
Uh...okay.
I then noticed that Safari was sitting at 5.0.5, whereas the latest version of Safari for Snow Leopard is 5.1.7. Again, though, Software Update says there are no available updates left for me to install.
In researching this issue, I found 4 possible causes for where Software Update misreports a machine as being up-to-date when it isn't:
1. Certain updates have been inadvertently set to be "ignored." You need to reset ignored updates.
2. You have multiple copies of a given app (Safari, iTunes, whatever) -- perhaps even multiple versions of that same app -- in various places on your hard drive. You need to remove the duplicates and only leave one.
3. The Software Update plist preferences files have become corrupt. You need to delete them and run Software Update again, which will regenerate new versions with the default settings.
4. The content distribution network that Apple uses to distribute updates to users (Akamai?) has a bad node, and your computer is being directed to use that node. You can try forcing it to use a different node by editing /etc/hosts
I have tried every single one of these solutions, and none of them have worked. I have even gone above and beyond these solutions:
1. The "Reset Ignored Updates" menu item is grayed out for me, which I assume means that no items were set to be ignored. Besides, #3 should have also taken care of resetting this if that were the problem.
2. I searched the entire drive for other copies of Safari and iTunes, and came up empty. The copies I do have are in their proper place, in the Applications folder.
3. I trashed 3 plist files related to Software Update: the one under ~/Library/Preferences, the one under ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost, and the system-wide one under /Library/Preferences. Didn't change a thing.
4. I found several other IP addresses for valid Apple content distribution nodes on the 'net, and edited /etc/hosts to override DNS. I had the exact same results. I then took the machine over to another network which is connected to another completely different ISP, undid the changes to /etc/hosts, and ran SU again. STILL it reports that the machine is up-to-date.
5. I decided to try moving all of the files in /var/db/recepits and /Library/Receipts to a different location to see if that changed anything. It did: Software Update now saw 2 updates (a security update and one other thing I can't remember off the top of my head), but Safari and iTunes were not on the list. I put the receipts back where they belonged, and now SU is again reporting "Your software is up to date."
6. Because I was desperate and couldn't think of anything else to try, I did a Repair Permissions on the volume. No change.
@%#$%#^
At this point, I could do one of two things which likely will take care of the issue:
1. Just upgrade both iTunes and Safari manually. Yeah, I could do this, but if either one gets updated again in the future by Apple, then this computer is going to have to be manually updated EVERY TIME.
2. Wipe the drive and reinstall the OS. Would that fix it? Yeah, probably. But at this point, it's become personal.
I want to know *why* it is happening and how to fix it relatively non-invasively. Having to do a complete OS wipe and reinstall in order to fix a software update issue is ludicrous and overkill.I did try one other thing: instead of upgrading iTunes and Safari to the latest versions, which won't tell me anything, I decided to upgrade them to something newer than what was currently installed, but something that still wasn't the absolute latest. I thought maybe perhaps doing so would overwrite some corrupt file or install receipt somewhere and fix the issue. So I updated Safari from 5.0.5 to 5.1(.0), and iTunes from 10.2.2 to 10.5.3. But Software Update STILL DOESN'T SEE THE LATEST UPDATES!! Aaargh!
I have searched high and low, and cannot find ANYONE who has come up with a working fix to this issue once it develops.
So, Apple: WTF? It "just works," does it?
What the heck does Software Update look for in order to determine whether or not a particular piece of software is up-to-date? What could possibly be broken? Where do I look next?
Thanks for reading,
-- Nathan
