Apps Not in Application Folder

[Gary Brackins]

I have a 2015 iMac running MacOSX Sierra 10.12.3.

I recently had a issue and Apple Care had me to wipe the SSD drive and reinstall the OS and files. I went to install some apps purchased from the Mac App Store and it indicated they were installed and had the "Open" button for them.

Here's the fun part, they do not show up in the Application folder and I cannot find them installed on the computer. If I click the open from the Mac App Store UI some will open, some do not.

The iMac shown in my signature is my other iMac, this is a new one.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[harryb2448]

You did erase the hard drive so they are gone.

You do have a backup? Use that to recover your apps from.. If you don't, when you go into the App Store hold down Option and Purchases. Your purchases should be available there to re-install.

 

[Gary Brackins]

Harry,

thank you! I couldn't get it to install from the App Store using the option key, but I was able to copy them from my backup.

 

[harryb2448]

That is great Gary.

I read statistics yesterday that one third of computer users do not have any backup plan in place which is scary! As David Pogue says 'There are two types of computer users. Those that have lost all their information with a hard drive failure, and those that are about to!'

 

[Gary Brackins]

Harry,

I have Documents backed up with iCloud Drive, use Carbon Copy Cloner on one EHD (ran twice a day) and Time Machine on another EHD. I live by the phrase, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone's not out to get your data!" Once I get a computer set up with all applications and data installed I clone it to an EHD and store it in a closet. I had a couple of apps that I recently installed from the store so I thought it'd be simple reinstallation but something wasn't quite right. Couldn't figure out why the store said it was installed when it wasn't.

Thanks for your help!

 

[MacInWin]

Couldn't figure out why the store said it was installed when it wasn't.

The store uses the database from Spotlight to determine what you have on the system. If you trigger Spotlight to do a full reindex, the App store will be able to see what's there and what's not.

To trigger that reindex, go to System Preferences/Spotlight and add, or delete, something from Spotlight, leave Sys prefs, re-enter Sys Prefs, undo the change you made. That action will force Spotlight to reindex everything (it may take a while depending on your system).

 

[Gary Brackins]

Jake,

thanks for the info, I'll see how it turns out tomorrow

 

[ferrarr]

Also, the Mac App Store looks at all connected drives to find if apps are installed. I had a multi boot system, with apps installed and it would not let me download apps to different Mac OS X/Mac OS/macOS version drives, I had to eject the drives prior to opening Mac App Store.