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Old 06-26-2012, 02:25 PM   #93
Michael Babin
Mac Development
 
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Join Date: Jul 2002

Location: Rowlett, Texas
Posts: 199
Lion bug

It appears you've uncovered a bug in the Finder when trying to copy and replace a packaged file in at least the latest version of Lion (10.7.4).

Setup: you have a packaged file (for example, Marine Aquarium 3.2.saver) in the /Library/Screen Savers/ directory. You have another copy of a packaged file with the same name elsewhere that you want to copy to that directory, replacing the existing file (for example, Marine Aquarium 3.2.saver on a mounted disk image).

1. Drag and drop the new version of the packaged file to the folder (or a link to it, as also found on the mounted disk image).
2. Alert appears: "Marine Aquarium 3.2.saver can't be moved because 'Screen Savers' can't be modified." Options to Authenticate or Cancel. Choose Authenticate.
3. Alert appears: "An older item named "Marine Aquarium 3.2.saver" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the newer one you're moving?" Options to Keep Both Files, Stop, Replace. Choose Replace.
4. You're prompted to enter a username/password to authenticate as an admin user. Enter them.
5. Alert appears: "The operation can't be completed...". Select OK.

The packaged file (Marine Aquarium 3.2.saver) is still present, but is now empty (zero bytes). Right/option-click on it, choose Show Package Contents, and you can see that it is now empty. The next time you open System Preferences/Desktop & Screen Saver, it will still be listed but disabled and the "You cannot use the Marine Aquarium 3.2 screen saver on this computer." message is displayed.

Workaround: double-click on the new version of MA 3.2 to replace the old version, rather than drag-and-drop to the directory/link.

This problem does not seem to be present on previous versions of OS X that I've tested (10.4 through 10.6), or on upcoming major releases of the OS.

Authentication as part of the copy may be a contributing factor to the bug, since I did not encounter a similar problem when replacing the application in the /Applications directory through drag-and-drop (wasn't asked to authenticate to do so).

Filed a bug report with Apple on this one (Radar).
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