kichat: How do I reinstall iChatAV 3.x?

by: 
Last modified: Mar 7, 2021 5:53 PM
0 389 Last modified Mar 7, 2021 5:53 PM
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in the topic below. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information below at your own discretion.


How do I reinstall iChatAV 3.x?

This is for the Tiger upgrade discs only. To reinstall iChatAV 2.x on Panther, see this FAQ.

The Easy Way:
Insert your Tiger DVD into your drive. Once the DVD loads, open the "Optional Installs" package. Click through until you get the option of choosing what you'd like to install. Under the "Applications" drop down menu in the panel of software to install, simply choose iChatAV and let the installer do the work. Next, scroll down to "Possible Problems" below.

The Hard Way:
Download Pacifist. Insert the Tiger install DVD into the drive and open Pacifist. Click the “Open Mac OS X Install Packages” button on Pacifist. This will load the DVD.

Once the DVD has loaded, there is a list of the contents from the DVD. Navigate to: Contents of OS Install/Contents of iChat/Applications/ . This is where iChat.app is located and what will need to be extracted/installed to your computer. Alternatively, you may perform a search on the directory listing with ‘iChat.’

Once the iChatAV application is found, highlight/select it and extract it to the computer by clicking “Extract to” or “Install.” Be sure to install iChatAV to the /Applications/ folder on your hard drive (not your user folder). Repair permissions after the reinstallation just to prevent any quirky behavior by using Disk Utility located in /Applications/Utilities/. Then you should be all set to use iChatAV 3.0. Be sure to update to the latest version, as noted below.

Possible Problems:
If problems still persist, you might find it worthwhile to reinstall the InstantMessage.framework folder (/System/Library/Framworks) and VideoConference.framework folder (/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks). You can reinstall either/both of these folders by modeling the steps in "The Hard Way" noted above except just reinstall the folders and not the iChat.app application. You will need Pacifist for this procedure.

Upgrade
After completing the reinstallation of iChatAV, download the latest version of iChat that is included with the latest version of the OS, 10.4.x. Good luck!

Do you want to provide feedback on this User Contributed Tip or contribute your own? If you have achieved Level 2 status, visit the User Tips Library Contributions forum for more information.
Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.