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"Sophos Anti-virus.app" Won't Open!

wstrohm

I have Sophos Anti-virus version 8.0.22, and my Get Info shows that I have just opened it (double-clicked the app) at this time. Only problem is, it doesn't open on either my primary or my backup (internal) hard disk. And if I open "Sophos Remove.app," I get the message "Sophos Anti-virus is not installed." But it is, according to Get Info, on both my hard disks. I have never had this problem before. Sophos has always worked perfectly. The Sophos AV menu icon is also gone on both hard disks, and it has been there for at least 2 years.

I don't remember how I purchased this app. I must have downloaded it and paid in some manner for which I have no record. No DVD or CD is in my files. Attached is a screenshot of my Utilities folder with the app and the Get Info data. Double-clicking or trying "File Open" does absolutely nothing. And this product has worked for a couple years, with regular updates coming from Sophos. I have no idea what is going on. I ran Apple Disk Utility (both "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions" and got "No repair necessary." I ran Alsoft "Disk Warrior," which reported no problems, and TechTool Pro, which also showed "Pass" on all tests.

Hardware: Apple Macintosh PowerPC 2.7 GHz dual-CPU G5, two Western Digital 1 TB internal hard drives, 5.5 GB RAM, ATI Radeon X800 XT graphics card

Software: Mac OS X Tiger version 10.4.11, Sophos Anti-virus version 8.0.22, Sophos Remove version 8.0.1. 

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    When was the last time you opened it?  For example was it OK last week?  Or could it have been this way for a while?  That may help you narrow down the point in time when 'something broke'.

    You could try downloading version 8 again and attempting a reinstall...

    http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition/download.aspx

    If trying to 'repair' the installation by running the installation over the top of the existing one does help/work, have a look at the thread linked below and see if getting hold of the v8 uninstaller allows you to cleanly remove the installation so it can be installed again.

    http://openforum.sophos.com/t5/Mac-tools-help/An-incompatible-product-is-installed-you-have-removed-the/td-p/14623

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    Thanks for your response, ruckus.

    Unfortunately that download from your link will only open for Mac OS X 10.5, and as I wrote in my original post, I am running Mac OS X Tiger, version 10.4.11. Nevertheless, both your Sophos Antivirus versions 8.0.9 and your updated version 8.0.22 worked fine up until about a week ago on my computer. And my computer is claiming that it is installed, as you saw from my attached screenshot, although your Uninstall app is claiming that it is not.

    Any more ideas? Did you make some over-the-Internet update or other to your version 8 (unbeknownst to me) that dropped support for Tiger? Not only my "Get Info" box but also my Apple "System Profiler" shows your program as installed. It just will not open, and the menu item icon has disappeared..

    Edit:  I tried deleting all the Sophos-related "plists" in the Preferences folder in both my "Library" and Users' "Library" folders; there were entries in both Libraries. I did this only on one of my two HDs, so in case that didn't work I could copy them back from my other HD. And that didn't work. Still won't open on either disk.

    Edit again: Herein is attached the "Sophos Anti-virus Crash Log" as recorded and stored on my computer.

    :1016205
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    wstrohm wrote:

    Any more ideas? Did you make some over-the-Internet update or other to your version 8 (unbeknownst to me) that dropped support for Tiger? Not only my "Get Info" box but also my Apple "System Profiler" shows your program as installed. It just will not open, and the menu item icon has disappeared..

    Nope. Same product support as we've had all along. But you certainly are in the minority of our users, sticking with OS X 10.4. Hope you realize that we are dropping support for that soon (April 2014).

    wstrohm wrote: 

    Edit again: Herein is attached the "Sophos Anti-virus Crash Log" as recorded and stored on my computer.

    That makes sense, as the product is only partially installed. Given that your system is in a very unknown state, its hard to give specific advice how to fix it, but if you want to remove the product completely it can be done manually. Basically, remove everything in the following list:

    /Library/Sophos Anti-Virus

    /Library/LaunchDaemos/com.sophos.*

    /Library/LaunchAgents/com.sophos.*

    /Library/Preferences/com.sophos.*

    /Library/Logs/Sophos Anti-Virus.log

    /Applications/Sophos Anti-Virus.app

    /Applications/Sophos Remove.app

    /var/db/receipts/com.sophos.*

    You'll need administrative rights to remove most of those files. Then reboot, to ensure everything is cleared from memory too. Then run through the list again, to ensure you got everything.

    Be cautious when deleting things in some of those directories. Not everything in there is related to our software. All of our files do contain the name "Sophos" though.

    :1016213
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    bobcook,

    Thanks for your response. I can't think of anything I have done that would have deleted that file; I didn't even know where it was located until after reading the Crashlog file. You are recommending that I remove all files related to Sophos Anti-virus, and I can do that, but how do I then get back a version of your application that will once again work with my 10.4.11? I repeat that your versions 8.0.9 and 8.0.22 DID WORK for a couple of years on this setup! Can you link me to a download whose installer will not tell me I can't use it?

    Thanks!

    :1016215
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    wstrohm wrote:

    bobcook,

    Thanks for your response. I can't think of anything I have done that would have deleted that file; I didn't even know where it was located until after reading the Crashlog file. You are recommending that I remove all files related to Sophos Anti-virus, and I can do that, but how do I then get back a version of your application that will once again work with my 10.4.11? I repeat that your versions 8.0.9 and 8.0.22 DID WORK for a couple of years on this setup! Can you link me to a download whose installer will not tell me I can't use it?

    Hello wstrohm,

    I'm not at all surprised that the software has been working for you for many years. We test every release, to ensure good quality. There was no product change in the latest release of 8.0.23 that would have done the type of damage you describe (it was the same type of update as the last few releases - just an update to the anti-virus detection data). If you had successfully updated to 8.0.22, you would have successfully upgraded to 8.0.23.

    Re: a new installer, sorry to say that you are out of luck. We stopped publishing the 10.4-compatible installer from our website long ago. We are officially retiring support for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, even for our business customers, as of April 2014 (three weeks from now). The cost to us was too high to keep supporting these versions for a very small percentage of our business customers and Home Edition users.

    :1016217
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    bobcook,

    OK, I deleted the items in your list except for "/var/db/receipts/com.sophos" which did not exist. Actually the "var/db" folders are invisible, and after making them visible I noted that there is no "receipts" folder therein.

    I guess I am stuck with no virus protection for my PPC G5 any more.

    Thanks for your replies.

    :1016219