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Installed Apps Not Showing Up in "Applications" Folder After Monterey Upgrade

Hi. I just installed Monterey 12.5.1 and noticed that all of my apps are showing up in the Launchpad and the System Information Report but the only apps that are showing up in my Applications folder are the standard Apple ones that likely came with Monterey. Any thoughts on how I can get my user-installed apps to show up in the Application folder again? BTW, all of the compatible apps seems to be functioning OK -- I just want to have them showing up in the Applications folder like they should.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 21, 2022 12:02 PM

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leroydouglas

Level 10

199,494 points

Posted on Aug 21, 2022 4:57 PM

BaldEgo wrote:

OK. I've figured it out. Monterey installed all of my apps from High Sierra in the following folder: /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/Applications but the link in the navigating pane points to this folder which contains the standard apps: /System/Applications. So, now my only challenge is I have two Application folders: (1) the new one which contains apps like the AppStore, Time Machine etc and the (2) the one where my installed apps like MS Word, Keynote, Powerpoint, etc. reside which isn't ideal. What would happen if I moved all of the apps from (2) to (1)?

Try removing the the Applications folder from the Finder side bar holding the Option key and dragging it off.

Add it it back in from the Finder>Preferences>Sidebar> by checking Applications box

see if that resolves it.

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BaldEgo Author

Level 1

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Aug 21, 2022 1:37 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks. I just did a SafeBoot and the apps still are not showing in the Applications folder although they do appear in LaunchPad. Interestingly enough, after I did the SafeBoot, the apps that I had not had a chance to "verify" yet appeared as question marks in the dock. Once I opened them, their icons returned to the Dock but still not appearance in the Applications folder.

I'm wondering if I need to "reset" or "redirect" the applications folder somehow so that it shows all of the apps and not just the ones that came with Monterey?

leroydouglas

Level 10

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Aug 21, 2022 1:40 PM in response to BaldEgo

BaldEgo wrote:

Thanks. I just did a SafeBoot and the apps still are not showing in the Applications folder although they do appear in LaunchPad. Interestingly enough, after I did the SafeBoot, the apps that I had not had a chance to "verify" yet appeared as question marks in the dock. Once I opened them, their icons returned to the Dock but still not appearance in the Applications folder.

I'm wondering if I need to "reset" or "redirect" the applications folder somehow so that it shows all of the apps and not just the ones that came with Monterey?

What exact Mac is this...and what was the macOS before 12..5.1 for some reference?

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2022 2:49 PM in response to leroydouglas

It is an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 with 48 GB RAM. It was running High Sierra v10.13.6 before.

FYI, I had to re-install Monterey three times before the dreaded "Volume Hash Mismatch" warning went away upon install including re-setting the NVRAM.

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2022 4:25 PM in response to dialabrain

So if that's the case, then why did the apps appear in the Applications folder in High Sierra and every OS before that, and not Monterey? There's something fishy going on here. BTW, I always install my apps in the Application folder.

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

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Aug 21, 2022 9:23 PM in response to DiZoE

ThanksDiZoe,

Yes, that is the case. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who have experienced this issue. Monterey installed all of my third-party apps from my High Sierra OS in the /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/Applications folder but placed the System apps in the /System/Applications folder (see my previous response to Leroy above for the details). I have a lot of third-party apps so I'm not relishing the prospect of deleting and re-installing them. If I delete the System apps in Mac OS Recovery mode, how do I re-install them in the "High Sierra" folder?

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2022 12:09 PM in response to DiZoE

OK. Thanks. Time Machine has now backed up the new OS settings so would I just go back to an earlier version of the TM back-up prior to the upgrade to Monterey and re-install it and then re-install Monterey? Or would I use the most recent Monterey back-up?

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

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Aug 22, 2022 6:15 PM in response to DiZoE

Before I go to all of the work in deleting my HD and restoring the back-up, I'm wondering if I should try to re-install Monterey and try to ensure that it installs on the root drive first? I can't remember if I was given the option on where it installs on the HD or not.

DiZoE

Level 4

3,033 points

Aug 22, 2022 7:18 PM in response to BaldEgo

Hey again! Good question, however if you just do a reinstall, you may then Have all duplicate system apps, as well as yet another new volume/partition for storing the data, and that may just cause more issues to be honest.

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2022 7:39 PM in response to DiZoE

Thanks again.

I've just been thinking through the process of:

Erasing my HD;
Migrating my High Sierra OS and my data from my TM back-up; and
(Re)Upgrading to Monterey.

What assurances do I have that I won't have the same problem occur (i.e., third-party apps on another volume than system apps) as the original one, given that I'll be working from the back-up state that was in effect when I did the original upgrade?

DiZoE

Level 4

3,033 points

Aug 22, 2022 7:49 PM in response to BaldEgo

Trust me you won’t if you follow those instructions I posted before. And you won’t have to “re-upgrade” to Monterey, it will already be on Monterey all you have to do is migrate the data during the setup process (From the backup before Monterey, this will not put High Sierra on your Mac). Cheers.

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,354 points

Aug 24, 2022 5:18 AM in response to BaldEgo

For what it’s worth, that Macintosh HD - Data you see in /Volumes/ is just a folder. Had it been an actual mount point for a volume, it would have shown up on Go > Computer. I have seen where some people lose an external drive and a “ghost” folder is created there with the same name. Then, when they re-mount the drive, it gets a -1 after the name. I imagine the connection to your old Data Volume was lost during the update and left that folder.

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

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Aug 21, 2022 3:14 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks. I’ve done a system report and they all seem to be in the right folders.

dialabrain

Level 10

136,151 points

Aug 21, 2022 3:21 PM in response to BaldEgo

You're welcome. If you installed them in the Applications folder that's where they should be. If you installed them in a different location then they won't be.

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2022 5:46 PM in response to leroydouglas

No, it just points to the standard apps folder.

BaldEgo Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2022 7:50 PM in response to BaldEgo

Still not resolved . ..

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Installed Apps Not Showing Up in "Applications" Folder After Monterey Upgrade