#118 Not showing in the Applications Folder

[Anonymous]

I have purchase grandperspective from the apple store. It works when I click open in the app store and leaves a icon on my task bar. The problem is it will not show in the Finder Application Folder. I also downloaded the dmg file and it is the same. It indicates that I have draged and dropped it with a + symbol and when I right click the icon in my task bar to view it in finder it simply isn't there. What shall I do to get it into my Applications folder?

[Erwin Bonsma]

Thanks for purchasing the app. Annoying that the icon does not show up. This is the first time I hear about this problem, so I doubt if it is specific to GrandPerspective. The only thing I can think of is to check both the global Application Folder (typically shown as a Favourite in Finder) as well as your personal Application folder. Maybe you copied it to one, and are now looking at the other?

[Anonymous]

Hi! I also installed the app today and it doesn't show on the Application folder. I only have one (the global one) and now I can't find it anywhere. It also interferes with one of my apps so is it possible to uninstall for now? I downloaded it from SourceForge, by the way. Thanks for your hard work!

[Erwin Bonsma]

That's unfortunate. What exact version of macOS are you using? Maybe there's a recent update that somehow interferes with GrandPerspective. I cannot reproduce it on my Mac.

You should be able to remove the app from Terminal by issueing the following command:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/

This command recursively removes all files within the given folder (the GrandPerspective folder in this case). It, however, requires the use of the "sudo" command which (temporarily) elevates your permissions and lets you carry out commands as Super User. It may fail with an error message saying that you are not in the sudoers file. You should anyway be careful when using sudo and/or rm commands, as incorrect commands can be destructive.

Before deleting the app, can you check the contents of its folder and share them here? Maybe this gives a clue of what is wrong. You can do so as follows:

find /Applications/GrandPerspective.app -type f | grep -v lproj | xargs ls -al

This lists the properties of all files (except the localized resources) that comprise the app.

[Anonymous]

I tried the last command and it showed me that they can't find the app (No such file or directory). Then I tried to open and update the interfered app (it's The Sims 4) because I need to update the game, and again, I can't complete the installation and it said it's because of Grand Perspective (The Sims 4 can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. This software needs to be updated bla bla bla. And then GrandPerspective created this file on an unknown date). Then my EA app said Installation Failed. Any insight for this? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Oh I forgot. My OS is Sonoma 14.5.

[Erwin Bonsma]

Thanks for the additional details. It helps but I would like to further know the state that your system is in.

Can you execute the following:

find /Applications -name GrandPerspective.app

This looks for the app anywhere in your applications folder.
It appears as if it somehow became mixed up with The Sims 4, and this may shed some further light on that.

Can you also share a screenshot of the error message that you get ("GrandPerspective created this file on an unknown data"). This may also help to determine what exactly went wrong.

[Anonymous]

I did run the command and it showed nothing (attached). And the error message is also attached. Restarted my laptop and nothing changed.

[Anonymous]

Can't attach 2 files in one post. Here's the error message one.

[Erwin Bonsma]

Thanks for the additional detail. From the last screenshot it looks as if the metadata associated with Sims 4 somehow got mixed up with that of GrandPerspective. When you view the attributes of Sims 4 (either the app, or the disk image that you downloaded), what does it say? E.g. for inspecting the app you can use:
xattr -l /Applications/{AppName}.app
where you need to replace {AppName} by the name of the app.

I am unsure how to troubleshoot this further, as I cannot reproduce it locally. Maybe you could reach out to Apple Support? They may be able to explain how metadata of two apps got mixed up (The Sims 4 and GrandPerspective in your case), and if not, may be keen to investigate it further.

If there's anything I can do, let me know. Also once you find out a resolution and root cause, please share here as well.

[Anonymous]

Using Clean My Mac, I actually found some crumbs of Grand Perspective but still, the command showed nothing. Should I just delete the leftover files or tracked the path and files first? Thanks for your help.

[Erwin Bonsma]

The files you found include your preferences. These are stored outside the application itself (typically inside ~/Library/Preferences). You may want to retain them in case you changed the preferences (e.g. defined a custom filter, or changed the default ordering of file types) and later have another go at getting GrandPerspective to work on your system. If not, you can safely delete these files.