what is the installer.app?

Question

what is the installer.app?

does anyone know what the "installer.app" is? It shows up as a major hog on my activity monitor....as I try to diagnose performance problems....do I need it?

MacBook Pro, iOS 10.0.2

Posted on Oct 5, 2016 3:18 PM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Oct 6, 2016 1:29 PM in response to rose_10

@sarah_s1 what are you talking about?

The original poster did not say what OS X version is being used ('iOS 10.0.2' is not an OS version on Macs) - how do you know if 'Installer.app' is outdated?
Look at /System/Library/CoreServices/Installer.app, it is a key part of OS X at least in most versions (I don't have Sierra to check the very latest release).

Celeste Jones, I suggest you avoid trying to delete Installer.app unless you have first discovered that it is not part of OS X. It is used to install packages for software that uses that distribution method. Yes, you probably need it.

I suspect you have a failed install process that is causing errors but I do not know why that would be the case.

When did you install OS X?

What was the last thing you installed?

Have you rebooted since installing the OS or other apps etc?

What version of OS X do you have installed? 'Apple Menu > About this Mac' will list the OS X version.

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Answer 2

rose_10

Community Specialist

Oct 6, 2016 1:03 PM in response to Celeste Jones

Hey there Celeste Jones,

After researching this app a little, it sounds like it may be an old app that is not supported. I would suggest that you search the app in your Applications folder and get rid of it, since it likely is no longer useful to you.

Thanks and let us know if you have any more questions.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Oct 7, 2016 10:51 AM in response to Celeste Jones

Thanks for everyone's help so far and sorry if my questions are confusing. I am using OS 10.10.5 on a early 2011 MBP laptop and having performance issues that another member has been addressing.

I got off on the significance of the Installer app when reviewing my Activity Monitor and seeing there were 2 copies using an extreme amount of cpu and memory and if I quit them my computer suddenly acted like its dear old self again.

I haven't deleted them yet as I saw some discussion of their need when googled but no specific reference about this app on the apple community site.

I am having some trouble negotiating this site for help....hard to return to my original questions or answers or help attempts....

Yes....have rebooted many times along with booting in safe mode.....

Last thing I installed was either an update of Calibre or and update of Private Internet Access (which no longer works so this may have shut down improperly).....

Originally installed Yosemite about a year ago.....no real issues until recently....was running slow so I did a Disk Utility Permissions Repair that took a long time and didn't seem to help then tried to restore an earlier version from time machine which also didn't help and then I started looking here for some ideas....

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Answer 4

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Oct 7, 2016 3:59 PM in response to Celeste Jones

OS X has the Installer.app as I already mentioned as part of it's 'core services' - ideally you need to confirm that it is the same one that is running (possibly by viewing open files for that process in Activity viewer). Malicious software may simply use installer app to get it's files installed.

Installer.app is part of the OS I don't recommend deleting it. It may be involved with malware so you should consider other steps to check for that (maybe try http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php) or post an Etrecheck report (it details what is installed & running on your Mac.

http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

P.S. I don't know what other thread you are referring to, hopefully it is more productive than this one.

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