I can't update software that someone else installed through Mac App Store

You have to purchase the software under your Apple ID. You no longer can use the software that was installed under a different Apple ID. That's the way it works with software bought through the App Store.

HI..

You have updates available for other accounts

Try here > NGPixel » Mac App Store – “You have updates available for other accounts” bug

No, it is not. The solution was provided: You have to purchase the software under your Apple ID.

Apparently you don't like the solution. Open App Store in Applications folder and sign in with your Apple ID and password. Locate the software you want, purchase and download.

You must remove the already installed software by putting it in the Trash. If you have copies on other drive partitions those copies must also be put in the Trash. If App Store finds any copy of the software on the active drive or any other attached drive, then you will get that same error.

I had the same problem, i seemed to have growl registered as installed in my updates registered to my friends account despite the fact i had uninstalled the preference pane when i installed mountain lion and deleted all preferences & support files in ~/Library/. Much like you i could not get rid of the update for the same reasons, despite the fact it was no longer installed.

It turned out the aforementioned friend had put his growl.app into our dropbox share and the moment i deleted it, the update vanished! hope this helps some people 🙂

Okay so my situation is quite similar. I had an ex-employee using a company macbook pro (which I now use) and he downloaded two programs that I also use (imovie & iphoto) regularly. I deleted his user profile and when updates came in for imovie and iphoto I wasn't able to download them. Here's my friend's advice which has worked for me:

Friend:

Heya

This is a big problem in corporate networks with Macs and iOS devices. When you let an employee install stuff onto a corporate machine, and they leave, those programs actually belong to the employee. They're keyed to the account of the employee. They can really go somewhere else and download those apps to their new device. So you're kind of stuck. You'll have to delete them and re-download.

Until Apple fixes this, you should probably get a company AppleID and use that to install things on business-owned machines.

.j

Me:

Is there an easy way to uninstall imovie and iphoto?

Friend: Drag to the Trash. That's it.

I've done this and used my copy of iLife to put the programs back on my computer. I ran Software Update and it's now downloading the original updates I couldn't use. I hope this helps.

Jason

I'm facing exactly the same problem and I can't get rid of update alerts from App Store related to Xcode.

The only option I get is "update", but I didn't install it in the first place. So clicking update is a no-go.

If an app can be updated only by the original purchaser, tha app shouldn't show up at both my "Purchases" list and my "Updates" list, don't you think?

Hey Frank,

I had the exact same problem and just like you there was no solution from all the forums I read.

I didn't really care about the app, but it was annoying to see the update alert everyday.

What did work for me was unistalling the app via Clean My Mac, and selected clean all data related to this app.

I am sure there are other apps that make complete unistalls like Clean My Mac that are probably free...

Just letting you know what worked for me.

I don't see a way to purchase the application; the app store's only has an "Update" buttun, no Install button. This is really a pain. What I want is to get rid of an application, completely. Tried many suggestions from the web, but none worked.

This post is nearly two years old. Suggest you write start a new thread setting out your problem and what you have done to resolve it. At the same time could you fill out your profile so we can see what machine you have. At the moment we know nothing about the app, the machine or your actions.