HP Printer Software Update/App Store Update Issue

[RalphTomaccio]

I recently had to reinstall Yosemite due to a stupid move on my part, but that is another story. Everything seemed to go well with the exception of an update in the App Store. In Update it says there is an update for the HP Printer Software 3.0 as well as Safari 8.0.2. Below that in "Updates installed in the last 30 days" those same two updates show as already being installed numerous times as I tried to correct the situation. When I hit "Update All", it shows a very quick display of the progress bar as though it is being downloaded but then those two updates remain as still needing to be updated. The icon for the App Store in the Dock continues to show a "1" indicating there is an update still available.

If these updates are already installed, how do I get rid if the same updates that show they still need to be installed?

 

[MacInWin]

I've seen that a couple of times. It may be caused if you have an external drive with a backup of your system. If that external drive is indexed by Spotlight, then the App store will see the old version in the backup and want to update. But App store updates the version on the internal drive, so the backup never gets touched (wouldn't want it to, anyway, as it is a backup), so App Store keeps suggesting updates. Three choices: 1) ignore it, 2) go into the backup and delete the old version 3) use Spotlight/Preferences/Privacy and block the backup drives from being indexed. I picked #3, but you can do whatever you want.

 

[RalphTomaccio]

I tried resetting the App Store and cleaning cookies, as well as doing the Spotlight Re-index and nothing helped. Someone on another forum suggested resetting the PRAM but that didn't help either. Another suggested clearing Safari's history and web site data and that, too, didn't help.

Another said it may be caused if you have an external drive with a backup of your system on it. If that external drive is indexed by Spotlight, then the App store will see the old version in the backup and want to update it. But App store updates the version on the internal drive, so the backup never gets touched (wouldn't want it to, anyway, as it is a backup), so App Store keeps suggesting updates.

I then tried restarting in Safe Mode to see if the updates appeared, and they did. When I restarted in normal mode, the updates no longer appeared. Hopefully for good, but time will tell. If it reappears, I may try reinstalling Yosemite again. So, I'm really not sure what corrected the problem, but it's gone - for now.