Install Xcode from the App Store = Deleted System

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Install Xcode from the App Store = Deleted System

Not entirely positive this is an App Store related issue, but... it's certainly an issue.

Last night, I bought the $4.99 Xcode app from the App Store. Once it was done downloading, I told it to go ahead and install, and... about halfway through it's install I noticed my applications were deleting one by one. Frantically, I shut my system down with a hard shut down. Upon reboot, sure enough, the HD wouldn't reboot.

I reinstalled my system from a Time Machine backup, still wouldn't boot, but I overcame the booting issue by reinstalling OSX over the restored drive.

Once I got everything back up and running, I thought to myself "surely, an App Store download of Xcode couldn't cause such irradic behavior" so with a morbid curiosity (and knowledge that i can restore if need be) I gave it another shot... and sure enough: just like before, about halfway through the Xcode install, my apps and system library files started disappearing. Less panic'd I stayed around as long as I could before doing the hard shut down. Leaving Safari open saw it slowly loose necessary files to run (fonts, images, etc) not that the app itself was around anything anymore anyway.

Truly odd behavior, and it'll keep me from installing Xcode unless there's a real solution to the problem out there. So I put it to you, Apple faithful and forum moderators... thoughts?

Mac Pro (early 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 15, 2011 11:01 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 15, 2011 12:26 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

Hi,

No idea how that happened but you can email Apple here.

http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact.html?form=account

Leaving Safari open saw it slowly loose necessary files to run

In the future, when installing software, close all open apps first.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Mar 15, 2011 12:47 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Carolyn Samit wrote:

Leaving Safari open saw it slowly loose necessary files to run

In the future, when installing software, close all open apps first.

But, but -- it sound like it's a lot more entertaining to do it D.J.'s way!

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Answer 3

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 15, 2011 5:47 PM in response to cathy fasano

It really was. haha

Moreover, I'm always keen on shutting down programs when prompted to do so. At the very least, if that was an issue here, some prompts should be made available I'd think. But the point is well made. Touché. 🙂

I'll shoot right over to that link and submit the situation to Apple. Thanks for supplying that.

Message was edited by: D.J. Glisten

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Answer 4

Mar 15, 2011 6:20 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

I'll shoot right over to that link and submit the situation to Apple. Thanks for supplying that.

You're welcome 🙂

Might want to run Disk Utility and verify the startup disk just in case.

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Answer 5

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 15, 2011 7:58 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Did that too. I'm actually pretty Mac savvy, so when things went awry, disk errors and permissions was the first thing I ran too. Heck, for extra measure to be sure it wasn't a problem with a failing or faulty drive, I had an extra 2TB HD lying around I hadn't gotten to installing and using yet and restored the backup the second time through on that. When the issue happened a second time with the Xcode install it was on an entirely new Hard Drive. Double the 'weird'. Double the fun.

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Answer 6

etresoft

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Mar 15, 2011 8:15 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

It is even stranger still. Xcode seems to have deleted 10.6.6 and reinstalled 10.4. It swapped out your Intel chip for a G4 to add insult to injury.

Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.10)

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Answer 7

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 16, 2011 8:27 PM in response to etresoft

Forum errors are another discussion thread entirely. 😉

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Answer 8

ncsmith4

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Mar 21, 2011 7:17 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

No joke this EXACT SAME THING happened to me too!

Were you able to get it to install finally? What did you do to solve the problem???

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Answer 9

ncsmith4

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Mar 21, 2011 7:43 PM in response to ncsmith4

And I just tried it again, and it happened. What the **** is this?

?

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Answer 10

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 21, 2011 7:49 PM in response to ncsmith4

Yea, I tried twice too with the same response. Glad I'm not the only one, and really hoping someone at Apple's listening. My solution so far is to just not install Xcode with the hope someone at Apple identifies the problem and either fixes it with an OS X update, or shares what makes our systems wonky when it comes to Xcode. We'll see...

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Answer 11

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 22, 2011 8:28 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

Yea, I noticed that (and updated), but the closest mention of the issue being solved in the release notes was "Addresses various minor Mac App Store bugs ". Not enough to give me confidence it's fixed, and I'm in no mood to reinstall my system again unless things feel a little more specific.

...not that that's helping this discussion though. I'd love to hear some official comment on this from Apple itself to assure me the problem is at the very least known. Bonus points for specifics about if this last update addresses it or if an upcoming update will.

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Answer 12

ncsmith4

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Mar 22, 2011 8:33 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

Absolutely agreed. After this second reinstall, I'm having even WORSE troubles getting back to where I was before. Visit to the Genius Bar tomorrow... :/

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Answer 13

Mar 24, 2011 10:03 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

I'm having the same problem, strangely I had just installed it on my old iMac not too long ago without issue, but on my new MacBook Pro it wiped the system. Maybe it has something to do with 10.6.7 (my iMac is still 10.6.6).

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Answer 14

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 25, 2011 9:21 AM in response to Frustrated Dylan

When I originally encountered the problem (and it looks to be the same for
ncsmith4 as well) it was on 10.6.6 - so... if nothing else, it's "good" to know not to try it with 10.6.7 as it's not yet been fixed. Seems it's something more nuanced than just the OS version though. :-/

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Answer 15

D.J. Glisten Author

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Mar 25, 2011 3:35 PM in response to D.J. Glisten

To save the other two of you the trouble, I went ahead and indulged our collective curiosity when I saw an update to Xcode on the App Store earlier today. This makes for a an OS X update to 10.6.7 and an Xcode update to 4.0.1 since I first tried to install Xcode a week or so back.

And no... it again, crashed my system with the identical symptoms as before. I saw that there'd been an update to the installer as a release note of the new Xcode, but it's definitely not an update that resolves the issue we're all facing. I'm now going through a third reinstall from backup since I first attempted to install Xcode on my Mac Pro, but I knew I had to give it a shot despite the vague release notes, simply so we'd all know if it would work or not. Hopefully, I'll save the rest of you the trouble as well.

OH, and to appease an earlier poster: I did indeed shut down ALL other apps while installing it this time. That's definitively not the issue. 😉

Apple... are you out there? Do you know about this? Are you working on this? Should we give up? Drop us a line. Kthanxbai!

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