`update` all instances of an app ID, not just one (or choose which instances to update)

[carlosfrodriguez]

Your Environment

• mas version: 1.8.6
• macOS version (system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType -detailLevel mini): 12.3.1 (21E258)

mas Install Method

brew install mas (homebrew-core)

Describe the Bug

Apple Configurator 2 was installed via mas. outdated shows as it is not in the latest version, list shows two Apple Configurator and Apple Configurator 2 both with different versions but same ID, upgrade is not effective .

To Reproduce

$ mas version
1.8.6
$ mas list
1037126344  Apple Configurator 2  (2.15)
1037126344  Apple Configurator    (2.15.1)
$ mas outdated
1037126344 Apple Configurator 2 (2.15 -> 2.15.1)
$ mas upgrade 1037126344
Upgrading 1 outdated application:
Apple Configurator 2 (2.15)
==> Downloading Apple Configurator
==> Installed Apple Configurator
$ mas outdated
1037126344 Apple Configurator 2 (2.15 -> 2.15.1)

Expected Behavior

Only either Apple Configurator 2 or Apple Configurator is listed and can be upgraded correctly

Actual Behavior

Apple Configurator 2 and Apple Configurator are listed as installed, where only Apple Configurator 2 was supposed to... upgrade does not work at all, the package is downloaded installed but mas does not recognize it correctly and apparently it is confused.

[rgoldberg]

@carlosfrodriguez Is this still occurring? If so, can you look in /Applications to see if there are multiple different copies of Apple Configurator? Maybe one is Apple Configurator.app & the other Apple Configurator 2.app…

[carlosfrodriguez]

Hi @rgoldberg You answer came after 2 years, I don't even use Apple Configurator anymore and if I would do, it will not be outdated I guess.

[rgoldberg]

@carlosfrodriguez I figured it was a long shot that you'd still be experiencing this. If you ever experience anything like this it again, please let us know.

[rgoldberg]

@carlosfrodriguez this occurred because you have 2 instances of the app installed under your /Applications folder, which is highly unusual.

I recently fixed some code issues with supporting multiple instances of an app, but at least one problem remains for this issue:

The update code only specifies the app ID to the Apple app updating library, so Apple is obviously just updating only one of the apps with the ID (I don't know exactly how the Apple library chooses which one to update).

I searched for some way of instructing the Apple app updating library which app instance to update, either via the path to the app, or via some other value that distinguishes between the two instances, but the few things I tried haven't worked. I probably won't get back to this for a while as there are other much more pressing issues I already know how to solve.