2020. 1. 25. 12:19ㆍ카테고리 없음
A few days ago I wrote about how on my computer. Well, even worse than that, when I choose to continue with the update it gives me this message: So every other day for the past two weeks I have been prompted to update the Google Talk plugin, and every single time I choose OK this same error message pops up. I had planned to leave the software update installed, but since it's not working and it's really starting to bug me, I'm removing it.
According to, the Google Software Update can only be removed by uninstalling any plugins associated with it (Google Earth, Google Talk, etc). Well that's not fair. I never installed any plugins to begin with! Time to do it the hacky way.
Picasa is an image viewer and organizer utility, which allows people editing and sharing digital photos. It has been developed in 2002 by a company known as Lifescape and redeemed by Google in 2004. I'm just switching from Windows to Mac. I got a Mac Mini and I thought that at least for photos it will be much better then PC. Now I have the problem. I have 10000 photos that I was managing using Picasa since about 3 years. I'm trying to move this to iPhoto but its probably not possible at all. There were errors years helping family, friends, and GilsMethod.com visitors with their computer questions and problems. When I try to reopen Picasa I get the Select 'Don't Use Picasa Photo Viewer, you can enable it later if in the same location.
Hidden away on a page labeled ', Google provides the single command you need to run to uninstall Google Software Update from your entire system. Sudo / Library / Google / GoogleSoftwareUpdate / GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle / Contents / Resources / GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app / Contents / Resources / install.py - uninstall NOTE: Make sure the -uninstall portion of the command actually has two dash characters. It's possible your browser replaced the two dashes with a single dash character. If you have something like the installed in your browser, you should either or use it with caution. The Google Software Update is meant to help keep your Gears plugin (and other plugins) updated with any new security patches.
Of course, if the Software Update isn't working, then it's really nothing more than an annoying nag screen. UPDATE 2016-01-27: has several links that may contain more up-to-date information. UPDATE 2016-02-25: It appears this is the most recent command that seems to work. / Library / Google / GoogleSoftwareUpdate / GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle / Contents / Resources / GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app / Contents / Resources / ksinstall - uninstall Preventing Google Earth from Reinstalling the Update Engine A provided this solution for preventing Google Earth from reinstalling the update engine: Google Earth reinstalls the software updater when it’s launched. To prevent this I created an empty file at /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate, then transferred ownership to root and made it read-only for normal users.
Hi, I’ve just installed Google Earth 5 which forced the Google Software Updater to be installed. Like many, I searched for ways to remove this.
The Updater is installed in my home directory so I’ve used the command with the preceding ‘’. However, I get this message and am wondering what it means and what I should do next.
Must specify package name or nuke Use: –install PKG Install keystone using PKG as the source. –root ROOT Use ROOT as the dest for an install. –nuke Nuke Keystone and tickets. –uninstall Like nuke but do NOT delete the ticket store. Only supported for a user install. –no-launchd Do NOT touch Keystone launchd plists or jobs, for both install and uninstall.
–no-launchdjobs Do NOT touch jobs, but do do launchd plist files, for both install and uninstall. –force Force an install no matter what. –forcetiger Pretend we are on Tiger (MacOSX 10.4). –lockdown Prevent Keystone from ever uninstalling itself.
–interval N Change agent plist to wake up every N sec –help This message. Hey Steve and Raam – when I copied / pasted Raam’s command from up above, I had to delete and retype just the “–” part before the word uninstall at the end of the command – for some reason firefox or osx copied that dash character wrong It was weird but once I retyped that part I didn’t get the “Must specify package name or nuke” message anymore. Just thought I’d throw my experience in if anyone else finds their way here.
Thanks for having this thread, the updater was driving my crazy, too. I don’t even use picasa, I was just trying it out and kept it to help guide some friends that wanted to use it. Cheers, Matt. The ONLY Google software I have on my Mac is the GMail Notifier.
Does this cause the installer to be re-installed? I tried to use the uninstall.py script, but this was after several attemps to remove the installer manually. So, there was no uninstaller in /Library/ but I did have it in my /Library/ and used that one. Now, a couple weeks later, the bleeping POS is back!
It was busted by LittleSnitch 🙂 I ran the uninstaller again, but I suspect that it will come back. I can’t believe that Google would do something like this. I f’ing hate them now and will be very very very hesitant to ever install any software from them. It’s one thing for their software to install that devil software updater, but to not be able to remove it easily when NOT WANTED???
They have got to be friggin’ kidding!!! Google is evil! They should change their motto. There is another solution. Since the Google page indicates that many of their apps are simply going to re-install update, and since I do want to keep Google Earth, I chose instead to use Little Snitch to block the software updater from phoning home.
Why do I care if it phones home? Because if you are trying to maintain some level of privacy, especially using TOR or similar solutions, phoning home to Google spoils all of your hard work at being stealthy. Any firewall capable of blocking applications (anti-spyware) should do the job, but being a mac user I prefer Little Snitch. Thank you for the blog. Today, while running my Activity Monitor, i noticed the GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent. Was a bit shocked for this since i can’t remember anything about it, so i searched and found your blog. Very informative.
(ps i realized it was few days ago, when upgrading google earth, it did say something to the effect that it’ll install some updater or refuse to download the new version. I blindly ok’d it.) for now, i just quit the updater, since i don’t restart my machine often. It might do some security update for google earth.
Using Terminal.app, try the simple instructions given at the following web-site: I find it works like a charm, and GoogleSoftwareUpdate & friends are no longer restored when you install new Google things. If you really want to get Updates, you can run GoogleSoftwareUpdate yourself. In Terminal.app, issue this command: sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon -onDemand YES /dev/null 2&1 & That is one long line composed of seven blank-separated parts: sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon -onDemand YES /dev/null 2&1 & The /LibraryDaemon portion is the longest part. The ” &” at the end says to run in the background, which frees up your Terminal.app session. You can “Quit” from GoogleSoftwareUpdate using the Activity Monitor (Administrative Processes). Just select the GoogleSoftwareUpdate line and click the “Quit” button on the upper left of the Activity Monitor window. Like some others here have mentioned, I Googled my way here after unexpectedly discovering “Google Software Update” in my Activity Monitor processess.
I don’t routinely look at AM unless I have an issue that it might shed light on; in this occasion, I’d had an inexplicable “hang” — spinning beach ball — not dissimilar to the ones I experience when OS X’s Software Update is loading in the background. However, this hang lasted so long, I finally had to quit the applications I was in (Safari 4 Beta). This leads to a question or two. Aside from the obvious issue of one’s lack of informed consent for the Google SU, does the covert install of GSU create any real problems in computer usage?
(For example, might it be responsible for the spinning beachball?) What risks, if any, does it pose? Please, do not consider my questions a challenge to your workaround or to any of the helpful clarifications here. I am most thankful to discover I’m not the sole person to wonder “what goes on here?”. But I must admit, I’m always a bit nervous about tinkering in Terminal and until I clearly understand the risks-to-benefits, I hesitate to open that Pandora’s Box. Yes, it could definitely be causing the “spinning beachball” that you’re referring to, but then so could any of your other software (in this situation, it’s best to figure out when the “spinning beachball” started and determine what software was installed around that time). I’m always extremely suspicious of anything that covertly installs itself (any legitimate software should at least be informative during the installation!) but I can understand your fear of messing around on the command line.
I’m not aware of any particular “risks” the Google Software Update poses. Doubleclick is one of the largest data collecting corporations on the web. They have TONS of information about almost everyone, all from cookies. “DoubleClick is sometimes linked with the controversy over spyware because browser cookies are set to track users as they travel from website to website and record what commercial advertisements they view and select while browsing.
However, the company maintains that it is important to understand the difference between DoubleClick’s ad serving tags and the spyware/adware companies.” (from ) Now Google has bought doubleclick. So, if doubleclick is evil or close to it, then how is Google’s “don’t be evil” policy going to hold up?
I’ll leave you with one more quote from the above-referenced article: “I don’t know if there’s a single ad blocker or cookie filtering program that doesn’t include doubleclick.net in its black list”. Now see what you did by starting this conversation, Raam?
The respectful and helpful discussion here led to several hours researching the Google S/U topic as it might relate to the Safari 4.0 Beta and my spinning beach ball. Among the best articles addressing the repercussions and contraindications of the S/U was Scott Gilbertson’s “Epicenter” blog at Wired.com, especially this passage about daemon dangers: “Here are a few reasons why an always-active daemon (software speak for a tiny app that runs in the background) for handling software updates is a bad idea: It opens up an always-on tunnel to Google. While Google may be confident its update servers will never be compromised, how confident are you? If a third party gains control of that server, it can inject nearly any code it wants into your machine. It’s always on, always looking for update. On an expensive, pay-by-the-megabyte EVDO network?
Google Updater doesn’t care and will suck down any available updates without asking, costing you money. Google updates Google Earth or Picasa or Gtalk, but the update ends up having a bug that wipes data from your drive. Sorry, too late — the auto-updater already grabbed the latest version without asking. Kiss your data goodbye. Administering a large network that needs to be locked down and tightly controlled? Cross Google software off your list.
All the above problems apply, but they’re cascaded across your network for added headaches.” (Find the complete essay at ) Judging by the number of threads in the Google Forums, plenty of Google aficionados are deeply dismayed by G’s covert action and the haters, well, they have more ammo than ever. Generally, I count myself a G-fan, but on this occasion, I’d chime in with Gilbertson’s closing statement, “We hate to break it to you Google, but you aren’t special, and your software updates are no more critical than anyone else’s.” Thanks for your help, everyone! I would just like the update to succeed when I select update. I don’t want to remove it. However, the problem is that it pops up in my wife’s account, which annoys her, then when you say update, it fails. I’d just like to figure out why the updater only launches the checker daemon or whatever from her account. I thought it was that it had gotten installed under her account and that it was a permissions thing that was keeping it from working.
I found several Google apps did not have admin read/write permissions, so I set those, but it did not allow the updater to work. Then again, the updater did not ask for an admin authentication either. I’m going to try uninstalling everything Google, then reinstalling under my admin account.
Speaking of gears grinding, I finally worked my way to the item on my To-Do list, “uninstall Gears”. From Terminal.app, I entered the Google-provided code and presto-change-o, all the Gears files vanished. With Spotlight, I found a folder “Google Gears for Safari” at /Users/Me/Library/Application Support/Google, 4 items: geolocation.db, localserver.db, permissions.db, & another folder, wave.google.com. (I do use Google Wave for certain collaborations with my colleages, but I didn’t sense that it ran any smoother after I’d installed Gears last November, than it did before I added Gears as a plug-in.) So, is the above-described folder just harmless ghost goo left behind after uninstalling Gears, a necessary don’t-touch-it thingamy, or something else to toss in Trash? BTW, Raam, this blog entry has had amazing longevity, hasn’t it? Hi Neon, I suppose that Gears folder could have been left there because the application was running when the software was uninstalled — I’m really not sure. An easy way to see if deleting it would have any affect is to temporarily move it somewhere else (e.g., from the terminal: mv Google Gears for Safari/ /Users/Me/).
Reboot the machine and see if anything acts funky. At least that’s the trick I usually use. 😉 Yes, this blog entry certainly has helped a lot of people. I never would have guessed it when I originally wrote it!
Hiya, Raam Dev! It’s been awhile (April ’10 & before that, June ’09), but I’m back. Two questions for you & the gang here: Question 1– Doing some routine maintenance tonight & came across some GSU stuff — again! — and also some other Google goo I’m not sure about.
Take a look at these: Question 1 — how much, if any, of these Google files, etc. Can I remove? Other than doing a LOT of Google searches in connection with my work, Gmail, and occasional use of Google Maps, I don’t have Gears or any other Google downloadables I’m aware of using. Be specific, I’m under-caffeinated right now 😉 Also, I’m assuming anything I can toss will be a simple drag-to-trash or highlight & “Move to trash” unless told otherwise. Since the GSU found it’s way back somehow — apparently — I ran these again: sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py –uninstall /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py –uninstall I thought the sudo judo had done its magic but, looked again, and the GSU is still there. Tried the /Library, etc. And got the Terminal equivalent of “return to sender, address unknown”.
Question 2 – Uh, now what? Raam, I have not discovered how to uninstall this shit. BUT I have discovered an easy way to STOP THE POPUPS and basically solve MY problem which is the irritation. I like Picassa and Google Earth and don’t want to lose them. The Solution: Get “Little Snitch” and set all of the Google Updater entries to “Deny Any Connection” Ok it costs about 30 dollars but I had bought it anyway a long time ago because it is a TERRIFIC firewall program that not only acts like a firewall should, but it also has a really cool internet connection monitoring interface.
Imho it’s well worth the buy and everyone should get it. AND it solved this Irrrrrrrrritating problem. This update had been triggering Little Snitch every hour or so and I kept hitting “deny once”, as I wanted to (later when not working) look at unchecking whatever application’s “update automatically” was presumably doing this, rather than flatout deny forever on the firewall or deleting the updater without removing its trigger. Of course that night I forgot to look into it and after watching a movie with front row in bed, I fell asleep until little snitch popped up behind front row due to this update hitting it and voiceover decided to read the damn thing out very loudly. Scared the hell out me!
What I still don’t get, is why they don’t just check for updates when you start the relevant app, like anyone else, rather than having this background rubbish, which without a firewall would have essentially been chatting away over my internet connection without me even knowing! I have just run around the same issue. The funny thing is that Google creates an hidden folder in the libary folder with the Google updater.
In my case it was the Android File Transfer application for connecting an android device to your Mac. I tried to delete the hidden folder, but every time you run the Google Android File Transfer application it reinstalls this updater. I find this way of intrusion into my system for something totally unimportant like this tool, which will not need any updates at all, because there is no options besides making MTP readable pretty unnecessary.
Also the update intervals that run every few hours are ridiculous, besides being unasked for and even running in the background when the tranfer app is closed. I found a program that automatically uninstalls the Google Updater and KEEPS it from reinstalling.
This also mentions your website. Funny thing also Google makes it quite hard to even find this in their own search engine.
I think Google just has gotten pretty arrogant in some aspects, like Yahoo! Back in the days, due to their de facto monopoly, which is never a good thing for progress, because of lacking competition, which results in a lack of respect to their users. Here you can find the uninstaller. I installed Chrome and hated it. So I deleted it. Some time later I enabled the “parental control” settings on my Mac, so that OSX would try to “limit access to adult websites automatically”.
The useful consequence of changing this setting was that whenever ANY software on my mac tried connecting to the internet OSX would prompt me to either allow or disallow that site. This is how I discovered Google Software Update! There was no popup box like in your case clearly showing Google Software Update was running! I caught them, because OSX didn’t allow it to connect to google analytics! If I hadn’t turned on this setting I wouldn’t have even known google software update was installed, and it would have kept connecting to Google Analytics without my knowledge. This is a complete invasion of my privacy!
And completely evil. Seems like that install.py is not there anymore (today is Nov 5, 2014), I used a ksinstall app inside the update app and it kinda worked as well: $ sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall –help -KeystoneInstallTool usage ksinstall: –install=PKG Install keystone using PKG as the source.
–uninstall Remove Keystone program files but do NOT delete the ticket store. –nuke Remove Keystone and all tickets. –interval=N Set installed agent to wake up every N seconds.
–lockdown Prevent Keystone from ever uninstalling itself. –force Perform operation even if it is a downgrade. $ sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall –uninstall.
Hi Prahlada, I’m really not sure why it’s not working for you. My guess is that the Google Software Update no longer includes those scripts and these commands are now outdated. This post was written back in 2008, so I’m not surprised that the commands no longer work.
I don’t use Google Talk and since doing a clean install of OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) I haven’t had any issue with Google Software Update (i.e., I’ve never seen it run). Like you, I also use Little Snitch to block any outgoing connections that I don’t want going out, so I’d say that’s probably your best bet. Otherwise, you may find other info on the web that is a bit more current. Hi, maybe this is not even what my problem is but I was halfway through signing up for Google Analytics but declined at the last minute after reading their terms and conditions.
I discovered something a day or two later, when I tried to create another GMail account and Google prevented me from creating an account until I provided my phone number. I have 3 other GMail accounts and have never had to provide my personal details before. Do you think it is because I went through the process of signing up for Google Analytics and even though I didn’t accept Google’s Ts & Cs in the end something was installed in my computer? I am sorry if this sounds like an ‘ignorant’ question but I am not an IT fundi, I am just an ordinary internet user. I want to know if there is a way to find out how to remove my information off Google Analytics? Hi Jessica, I doubt that anything was installed on your computer simply by declining to accept Google’s Terms and Conditions for Google Analytics. I also doubt declining the T&Cs has any connection to Google asking for your phone number.
The phone number request is something everybody gets (me in included) every once in awhile. It’s Google’s way of making sure you don’t lose access to your account. If you forget your password, for example, I believe you can reset it by phone (an automated system will call you, or send you a text message, with a code to reset your password). I hope this was helpful! Hi Raam, thanks for your response. This is a new account I want to create.
I also get asked for my telephone number on my other GMail accounts but I always decline that suggestion. I’ve never had an issue before in creating an account on GMail; none of my other accounts were ‘blocked’ from being created unless I added a phone number. This time I am not being allowed to proceed with opening an account until I put in a phone number, which I feel is quite invasive of a person’s privacy.
DO you know if there any way I can work around this and create an account without needing to add in a phone number? Or would you be kind enough to try & open an account yourself, just to see if you are asked for a number before proceeding to the next stage? You don’t have to actually create a new account because you can cancel it before it is created, I am simply curious if this is being asked of everyone who now wants to create an account. Well here it is Jan 24, 2016 and like others, I stumbled here to solve the same problem!
Thanks for your response Raam! Being a fairly new Mac user, I haven’t tried doing anything with the terminal commands. I haven’t even explored the Apple script writer yet. I used DOS back before Windows, and used to be familiar with enough UNIX commands to do basic GIS analysis, but you know the drill don’t use you lose it 😉 I’m sure I could get my head around it but it would take more hours than I have to spend on it. Hence my search for quick fix. Since I’m still using Mountain Lion I’m wondering if maybe the “old” GUU might work.
On another note, the software updates banner on my Mac is driving me crazy – pops out about every 5 min for non-essential updates. I haven’t found a setting to change it so at some point will probably have to dive into terminal. Thanks again! I’m new to all this and don’t understand much of the tech stuff – but have just been hit by this Google Update problem. Am running OSX 10.6.8 and can find Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources but the contents there are: ksdiagnostics, Google Software Update.app, com.google.keystone.daemon4.plist, com.google.keystone.daemon.plist, com.google.keystone.agent.plist and CheckForUpdatesNow.command These were last modified in May 2012. Should I delete any of these or use one of the above scripts? Thanks johnc.
I have a Mac computer and am trying to delete my current Picasa which is frozen and will not work. I deleted it from Applications and uploaded the new version of Picasa. Then when I click on Picasa, this message appears: “Picasa is currently running from a disk image.
Would you like to copy it to your Applications folder? I have tried both “Don’t Copy” and “Copy and Relaunch.” The colorful ball comes up and just goes around for about a minute, then Picasa opens to a Folder called nzjM%P3MQx6yPhFrZVimUg under Folders. (Picasa says I have 33,304 folders–which I certainly do not unless it is putting every face I have ever had in a separate folder.) The above-mentioned folder has 8 Face pictures in it. Picasa is frozen on this and continues with the ball going around and around, so I cannot do anything on Picasa. I have to then Force Quit the program through Finder.
How can I delete the old version and get Picasa to recognize the new version? I might add that I tried deleting the new version and uploading it again, but the same problem happens. Move the Picasa application to the Trash. Open Finder. In the Applications folder, drag and drop the Picasa application into the Trash.
Decide if you’d like to remove the Picasa database For each photo, the Picasa database keeps record of information such as unsaved photo edits and your custom Picasa album organizations. If you’re permanently removing Picasa from your computer or if you’re to remedy image display issues, please follow the steps below to remove the database:. Open Finder. Go to username Library.
I Uninstall Picasa For Mac
Double-click Application Support Google Picasa 3. In the Picasa 3 folder, locate your Picasa database, ‘db3.’. Drag and drop ‘db3’ into the Trash.
I Uninstalling Picasa For Mac
Please keep in mind that unsaved photo edits are only viewable within Picasa. If you plan on permanently uninstalling Picasa, but you’d like to maintain your edits, you can first. This creates new JPG files that include all edits performed in Picasa. If you’d like to reinstall Picasa, download the latest version at. Mar 26, 2013 —————————————————————————— Then reinstall Picasa by going to – click the download button and follow the instructions from there. I’m afraid I don’t use Macintosh, so I’m not sure what’s going on – it sounds like you’re using some kind of backup file instead of a real Picasa application.