Vscode: Upgrade on MacOS not working

[andrewssi]

• VSCode Version: 1.19.3
• OS Version: Mac OS 10.13.3
• Steps to Reproduce:

Run 'Check for updates' from 'Code' menu
See error message "Could not create temporary directory: Permission denied"
Same problem when run with code --disable-extensions

VMWare Airwatch is installed, which may be the issue (but not for certain)
Running as System Administrator. Installed as System Administrator

This was previously raised as issue #42231, but was requested to test new version

[vscodebot[bot]]

Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Upgrade on MacOS not working (#42231)
• A second instance of Code is already running as administrator (#42309)
• Allow to open different windows with different permissions (#6560)
• Can I set up or update it without administrator permission (UAC) (#41445)
• Can't open more than one instance when VSCode is run as administrator (#37962)
  

[vandijkstef]

Confirming issue on VSCode 1.19.2, also OSX 10.13.3. No Airwatch installed.
Is VSCode failing silently when it's "automatically" checking for updates? Any way to make that verbose?
Any log files somebody might be interested in?

[andrewssi]

@vandijkstef I actually did a good hunt for log files, since presumably there is an issue with the folder being used for the upgrade and seeing the permission sets on that folder may bring us closer to the solution. I wasn't able to find anything more verbose, but any suggestions to enable logs/open specific files would be gratefully received.

[vandijkstef]

Somehow VSCode just updated to v1.20.1.
I did try to update by running VSCode as root (yesterday), but that didn't work out. It might be possible the files where downloaded as root, and VSCode (non-rooted) only discovered them today.
No system restart or VSCode restart. I did switch workspaces. (Though the update pop-up came in after +30 minutes after switching)

[andrewssi]

@vandijkstef I was also able to initiate the first part of the update operation by running as root.

1) The update appeared to download as root, but restarting VSCode (as root and as non-root) did not result in the update being applied
2) I also got a warning saying that running as root was not recommended for VSCode

[andrewssi]

New behavior. I have version 1.22.1 installed and tried an update today (1.24 is released). This time nothing happens at all after 'Check for updates...' , and nothing appearing in the output windows either. (Mac OS 10.13.4)

[maelvls]

To solve this issue, I followed the advice in https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/7426#issuecomment-301018371: check that permissions for the VSCode cache folders are correct (depending on your vscode version):

 ls -la ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCode.*/
 ls -la ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCodeInsiders.*/

If they are not correctly owned (in my case, the ShipIt folder was empty and it was owned by root for some reason), I removed it (update: depending on your case, choose the right line):

sudo rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt
sudo rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCodeInsiders.ShipIt

[andrewssi]

@maelvalais Great! Although that exact command didn't work, I tried a similar one:

sudo rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt

And it is now updating fine.

Is there a way to address this issue in the release notes?

[gmclelland]

Thanks @maelvalais!

sudo rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt

Fixed the problem for my vscode not updating. Before it would simply say "Downloading," but would never finish.

[joaomoreno]

/duplicate #7426

[vscodebot[bot]]

Thanks for creating this issue! We figured it's covering the same as another one we already have. Thus, we closed this one as a duplicate. You can search for existing issues here. See also our issue reporting guidelines.

Happy Coding!