Fetch Softworks

upgrade to 5.6could be smoother (4 posts)

• Started 13 years ago by tim
• Latest reply 13 years ago from Scott McGuire

• tim Member

  I have had fetch (5.3 i think) for a while and when I upgraded my mac from a PPC to Intel, the old one didn't work. So, I upgraded to 5.6 But you guys need to fix the install instructions. It tells you to drag and drop to the apps folder. Then asks if you want to replace some of the same named files. When I told it to, it tells me that I don't have the permission for some of the items. But I'm using the admin acct. I was going to email and wait around for someone. But I fixed it simply by dropping the file onto the HD and entering the serials.

  The software does what it's supposed to but next time I might look for something else. At least then I'm less likely to got through this again. Not a huge deal but makes me wonder about the professionalism of the programming.

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Tim,

  Thanks for upgrading your copy of Fetch, and I'm sorry you ran into that glitch when trying to install the Fetch upgrade. The error you received is not normal; it's an uncommon error that only a few users encounter while installing Fetch. That's why it's not mentioned in the installation instructions, because it only affects a few users.

  Unfortunately, the error is caused by the Mac OS X Finder, not Fetch's programming. You could potentially receive that error when replacing any application by drag-and-drop; it not an error specific to Fetch. We have investigated whether there is something we can do to keep the error from happening at all (as I said, it doesn't happen most of the time), but as far as we can tell, it is out of our control. If it was under our control, we would fix it. It is also unfortunate that the error Mac OS X gives is confusing and unhelpful.

  The solution if you encounter this problem is to put your old copy of Fetch into the Trash and then install the new copy.

  But perhaps we should put information about what to do about this problem in the read me or FAQs - if we had info about what to do about this error in those, would that have helped you? Did you look at them in hopes of finding a solution?

  Again, thanks for purchasing the upgrade and for the feedback. Please let us know if you have any other questions or thoughts.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• tim Member

  Ok, first off I checked the FAQs and the troubleshooting and the messageboard for issues like mine. But apparently, you've know about this problem already. Wouldn't that qualify for a post somewhere? I can't imagine that my problem is all that rare either. The variables in this equation are these: PPC G5 DP 2.0 Mac running 10.4.11 using Fetch 5.2.1 then I upgraded to an Intel 2.53 Core 2 Duo (late 2009) mini running 10.6.3 (or .4 as the update happened recently).

  That said, I think it's very bad form to pass the buck onto Apple's OS. This is the whole reason they have developer tools. I would have accepted 'we're working on it' instead of 'it is out of our control'. The translation is to me: "you bought the software, we hope it works and if we feel like it we'll work on it some more and issue an update."

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Tim,

  I will file a request to add information about this problem to the FAQ.

  Thanks for the information about your system and situation.

  We are not in the habit of blaming Mac OS X for things that are our fault and we could fix; if you look around the message board, you'll see that we're willing to admit when there is a bug or something could be improved in Fetch, and we do make fixes based specifically on problems customers are experiencing. But every once in a while, there is a situation where something truly is a Mac OS X problem, not a Fetch problem, and this is one of those cases.

  Let me try to explain why. When Fetch is not running, none of its code or programming is affecting the system; it is completely inactive. When you are installing a new copy of Fetch by dragging it from the disk image to your applications folder, it is not Fetch doing the copying. Copying an application from one place to another is completely an operation of the Mac OS X Finder; it is the program moving data from one place on your hard drive to another, the kind of data (other than its name) doesn't matter. So when the Finder refuses to copy the file because it (erroneously) thinks there is a permissions problem, no Fetch code is involved in making that happen, because Fetch is not running. The error message you receive is not coming from Fetch, it is coming from Mac OS X; so we quite literally are not in control when this happens, which is why I chose those words.

  So I am not trying to pass the buck; if we could fix this so that no customer experienced a problem when installing a Fetch update, we would. Unfortunately, we cannot; the best we can do is provide assistance when it happens.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #