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Mac OS-X/MySQL : A newer version of this software already exists on this volume.

I ran into this over the weekend and since it took a bit of time to find I thought it might be useful for others. I was setting up an ATG development environment and had installed a version of MySQL that was known not to work with ATG..(oops..I’ll cover this in another posting). I uninstalled MySQL using the following steps :

  1. cd /usr/local
  2. sudo rm mysql
  3. sudo rm -rf mysql-<some version number here>

With this done I downloaded a different version of MySQL and tried to install it, however I received the following error.

“You cannot install MySQL blah-version-blah for Mac OS X on this volume. A newer version of this software already exists on this volume”

After digging around about this for a while I was finally able to come up with the problem. You need to go into the /Library/Receipts directory and delete the Mysql related items in there was well. An example :

  • cd /Library/Receipts/
  • rm -rf Mysql<blah blah blah>

With this done. I was able to continue installing the new version and get back to stuff. Hopefully this helps someone else.

Categories: MySQL, OSX Tags: , , , ,
  1. Kris
    March 31st, 2009 at 16:43 | #1

    Not sure about others…but definitely helped me. I had the same problem, and being a mac newbie, was stumped. Thanks much!!!

  2. Anonymous
    April 3rd, 2009 at 16:04 | #2

    It helped me, thanks!

  3. Ben
    April 14th, 2009 at 15:11 | #3

    THANK YOU! I was having a similar problem installing Subversion

  4. April 28th, 2009 at 23:26 | #4

    Hi Joel, your tip helped me a lot. Is was seeking for ours. Due to this post, the puzzle is solved.

    Cheers.

    Corné.

  5. Paula
    May 9th, 2009 at 08:53 | #5

    IT WORKS!!! Thank you so much. My frustration has been relieved.

  6. Olivier Gourment
    May 25th, 2009 at 19:30 | #6

    I hate to say it but… it didn’t do the trick for me. There was nothing from MySql in that directory. Thanks anyway.

  7. Olivier Gourment
    May 25th, 2009 at 19:32 | #7

    Well… Never mind. There *was* an old my-sql package. It started with “mysql” and not “Mysql”. THANKS!

  8. mac user
    May 26th, 2009 at 13:16 | #8

    Thanks for sharing, this did the trick!

  9. June 10th, 2009 at 21:40 | #9

    THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH. Messing with the same problem different package (trying to go to an older version of subversion after installing the latest) for HOURS! THANK YOU!

  10. July 8th, 2009 at 17:38 | #10

    Huge help! Thanks.

  11. Manuel
    July 29th, 2009 at 16:32 | #11

    Thanks man, this error was driving me nuts!

  12. Mike
    August 28th, 2009 at 08:59 | #12

    thankyou this worked for me I’m on a mac

  13. November 9th, 2009 at 03:03 | #13

    Thanks a lot buddy for saving me so much time

  14. Andrew
    November 21st, 2009 at 14:52 | #14

    Many thanks. I ran into this problem while trying to downgrade NoMachine’s nxclient remote control app. Thanks for taking the time to document the fix and put it up on the Web.

  15. Greg
    December 28th, 2009 at 11:55 | #15

    Definitely helped me!!! with Audiofinder

  16. January 6th, 2010 at 12:24 | #16

    Thanks for this useful tip ;)

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