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User profile for user: johnnyjackhammer
johnnyjackhammer Author
User level: Level 1
78 points

Xcode App Store Updates confusion on Catalina

Having a little issue here.


Four users on one iMac. One is admin.


I installed Xcode command line tools using my admin account on the command line. Now the other three users see that an Xcode update is available in their App Store Updates. The admin account doesn't show an update is needed. We are all signed into the App Store on our iCloud user accounts (although the screenshots show after I had signed in, out, in, out to try resolving the issue)


The update is for Xcode 12.1 from Oct 20, 2020, but when they click on it they are told that the update is for a newer version of macOS do you really want to install an older version. WHAT?


Xcode 12.4 is installed on this machine.


Without removing and reinstalling a 12GB app. how do I resolve the App Store confusion?


This has been an ongoing issue with Xcode and the App Store. There must be a super secret way to install Xcode that doesn't confuse the App Store.app




This is what's currently installed:

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 3, 2021 4:54 PM

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User profile for user: johnnyjackhammer
johnnyjackhammer Author
User level: Level 1
78 points

Posted on Nov 3, 2021 10:32 PM

What solved my issue was the advice here.


  • Go to Finder and press ⌘ + Shift + G;
  • Locate ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore and delete com.apple.appstore which are cache files;
  • Then press again those commands and go /private/var/folders, open each folder and each subfolder until you find com.apple.appstore and delete this folder;
  • Restart your Mac.


I used the following instead of searching willy nilly.


cd /private/var/folders
find . -iname "com.apple.appstore" 2> /dev/null



Turns out that Xcode wasn't the only app in App Store that was confused. Other apps were showing up as needing to be Updated that weren't even installed.


That stack exchange... always seems to come through. :)

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User profile for user: johnnyjackhammer
johnnyjackhammer Author
User level: Level 1
78 points

Nov 3, 2021 10:32 PM in response to MrHoffman

What solved my issue was the advice here.


  • Go to Finder and press ⌘ + Shift + G;
  • Locate ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore and delete com.apple.appstore which are cache files;
  • Then press again those commands and go /private/var/folders, open each folder and each subfolder until you find com.apple.appstore and delete this folder;
  • Restart your Mac.


I used the following instead of searching willy nilly.


cd /private/var/folders
find . -iname "com.apple.appstore" 2> /dev/null



Turns out that Xcode wasn't the only app in App Store that was confused. Other apps were showing up as needing to be Updated that weren't even installed.


That stack exchange... always seems to come through. :)

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User profile for user: MrHoffman
MrHoffman
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
126,073 points

Nov 3, 2021 7:19 PM in response to johnnyjackhammer

You can either install the command line tools from Xcode itself, or download the separate command-line tools kit when you don’t want Xcode installed.


If you want full control over which Xcode version you have installed, download Xcode or download the command-line tools kit, from the Apple developer site and not from the Mac App Store.


The most current Xcode usually supports either the current and immediately previous macOS version, or sometimes just the current macOS version.


Here are the release notes for the various Xcode kits: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes

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User profile for user: etresoft
etresoft
User level: Level 9
51,010 points

Nov 3, 2021 5:09 PM in response to johnnyjackhammer

I don't see any option other than removing Xcode and reinstalling. The Mac App Store install is designed for normal apps. When you install the Command Line Tools, it gets confused because then Xcode isn't behaving like a normal app anymore.


Plus, allowing any user to install or update Xcode would be highly problematic in this use case. It would be better to install a specific version directly from the developer site instead of using the Mac App Store. I don't know if that could be overridden or not. I've never tried it.


Also, if you have Xcode installed, you shouldn't install the command line tools. For one, you don't need them. For another, it is very easy to get them out of sync. Why bother?

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User profile for user: etresoft
etresoft
User level: Level 9
51,010 points

Nov 3, 2021 6:42 PM in response to johnnyjackhammer

johnnyjackhammer wrote:

Homebrew requires the command line tools.

To quote the Homebrew installation requirements:

Most formulae require a compiler. A handful require a full Xcode installation. You can install Xcode, the CLT, or both; Homebrew supports all three configurations.


Also, nearly impossible to know which version of Xcode is compatible with which version of mac OS.
It's confusing enough that a website was created to solve the confusion.... not run by Apple.

This information is always in the Xcode release notes. It used to be listed on the developer download site.


Apple is just responding to its user base. No matter how buggy the latest OS version is, people drop everything to install the latest and "greatest". So why should Apple bother anymore? You need the latest Xcode version for the latest OS version. That means Xcode 13.1 on macOS 12.0.1. Developers are even worse, they are always on the betas. Current versions are Xcode 13.2 and macOS 12.1.

No where in Xcode does it speak of these limitations. These are unwritten limitations?

What limitations? You mean installing both Command Line Tools and Xcode? Where is the limitation? You did both didn't you? It just scrambled the Mac App Store logic. There are different levels of support. That does not necessarily imply any limitation. If you install one version of Xcode and a mismatched version of Command Line Tools on an old version of macOS, you run a big risk of experiencing "undefined" results.


In general, you shouldn't install both. First of all, there is no need. Xcode doesn't need the Command Line Tools. Secondly, the Command Line Tools were designed strictly for people building open source software on their Mac to run locally. Xcode is designed for people building their software to run on iPhones. You really don't want your iPhone code to pick up some x86 header file from /usr/include. It is better to keep all of that separate.

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Xcode App Store Updates confusion on Catalina

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