“No Software”
After my recent painful experience of doing a fresh install of Leopard, I’m going through the paces of reinstalling and reactivating my software. I’d already gotten AppZapper, Quicktime Pro and Final Cut Studio 2 reinstalled with no hitch whatsoever. Now it was time for iWork. After popping in the install DVD and clicking through the first couple of screens, I was presented with this error message:
That’s right - “The installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install.”
Am I missing something? As I said before - I did a brand new install of Leopard and wiped everything. There’s no reference to iWork anywhere in my system, let alone the actual software. I had split the software with a buddy who had installed it (with some minor issues - he actually had to put in the key after a reboot to get it to work correctly) successfully just minutes before my attempt. And even after a couple of ejections and a reboot, the message remains. I’m not incredibly peeved about this, just baffled by the error message. I can’t really think of an instance where this wording would make sense. I would think if there was an issue with the install disk or if the software already existed, it would say as much. But this just looks like it fell out of Windows.
So as I scratch my head, I’m curious - are there any other iWork users out there with a similar issue?
#1 Brian Warren says:Did Leopard install a 30 day trial of iWork? Maybe the iWork DVD saw that and figured it didn’t need to install iWork over that?
#2 CyborgSam says:Could the install disc have a scratch? It may be reporting the wrong error…
#3 Slevin says:Try downloading and installing the trial from Apple’s website, its the same one on the DVD that worked for me.
#4 Technophile says:I had absolutely no problems witth my iWork ‘08 install. Microsoft Office 2004 however doesn’t want to install. Weird.
#5 Matt Radel says:Nabbing the trial off the site worked perfectly. Good call!
#6 mikeg says:I had the same issue when doing a software update of FCP and the leopard update. I went to the downloads page for FCP and got the update from there and that worked but I am still unable to update leopard to 10.5.1.
#7 David says:I just had the same thing happen in Tiger yesterday with the new iPhoto update.
#8 Seth says:I am not sure what the above means, but I bet it has something to do with the problem. Installing iWork on more than one computer violates the license and, unlike iLife or the Mac OS, iWork is a serialized product that checks such things when installed.
#9 Koen Van der Auwera says:I just installed iWork ‘08 from cd without any problems on Leopard (clean install) with update 10.5.1
#10 Dean says:I had this problem with iLife ‘08. Never got around to re-installing it.
#11 Alan Brunettin says:I just had that bizarre “no software” message too, but my solution might not apply to anyone else. Regardless, I am compelled to share:
My wife’s work-based MacBookPro crashed and burned and I was entrusted to reinstall the necessities. Her boss gave her a 5-pack of iWork to install but all 5 had been registered. She purchased a single license for herself from Apple so she could install on her machine.
Well I tried installing it and kept getting that absurd message. It’s a DVD. How could there be no software? Then it hit me. I had the Airport running as I did this install. I’ve heard that when other, less scrupulous people install unlicensed software, they disconnect from the internet because communication is made with the manufacturer during the install process. Not good if you’re not paying for the thing. So I thought perhaps Apple knew that the 5-pack license had been exhausted and was disallowing the process. So I turned off Airport and retried the install. It worked without a hitch.
So. Is there a lesson here? No comment. Good luck all.
#12 John B says:I had this problem with iLife ‘08 which I bought today. I have a clean install of Leopard but iLife ‘08 would not install. There were no references to it in the /Library/Receipts folder which some sites suggested - or anywhere else on the hard drive. Also, disconnecting wireless and network ports did not help.
In the end, just quitting all apps that were running at the same time worked for me. I had Entourage, Firefox, and TextEdit running originally but when I quit them iLife installed fine.
Hope it helps somebody
#13 John B says:Correction.
Sorry - I’m tired - in the previous post I meant iWork ‘08, not iLife. I don’t have iLife (or aLife since I’m typing this after midnight!)
#14 Ruth Stevens says:I just purchased a new iMac with iWork included in the package. I do a lot of simple graphic productions for an in house weekly newsletter, church flyers, etc. The draw feature of Appleworks 6 was invaluable as a “doodle pad” to set up something for the finished document.
The draw feature is GONE from iWork. I have to buy a separate draw program to get what I like to work with or install Appleworks 6 on my new machine. Anybody know if Leapord will work with Appleworks 6 or is this not even an option??
What doofus took out the DRAW component?
#15 Ruth Stevens says:And apparently, I can’t spell “Leopard”.
#16 Ben T says:I’m having exactly the same problem installing OS X 10.5 (Leopard) in order to replace my existing version of OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger). Running an Intel iMac (Early 2006). I have not yet resolved this issue!
But the exact same, “no software to install” error message together with yellow exclamation mark appears.
I have been looking for assistance on various forums and the Apple support site but no luck yet.
#17 Mark Yong says:I have the same problem. I have uninstalled using omni disksweeper twice and reinstalled twice and I still get the same result. The updater recognises the application(s) is/ are there because it provides the option to download and install, but when it comes time to install, it suddenly can’t see them anymore. The 3 applications are in the iWork ‘08 folder in the Applications folder. A solution please!!
#18 Ben T says:Success!
I moved 21Gb of stored files from the hard drive I was trying to install Leopard on. Went from 29Gb of free space to 50Gb.
For some reason the OS X 10.5 Leopard installation process liked this and Leopard installed.
I thought only 9Gb of free space was required to install Leopard?
Anyway, it worked.
#19 Barton says:On a clean install of Leopard, I attempted to install Xcode 3 and received this very same message. I was fairly confuzzeled by this and decided to do some lengthy trial-and-error customization via the check boxes in the install options. I unchecked the CHUD tools option and it installed miraculously. I expect cryptic and entirely nondescript error messages like this from MS, but from the folks in Cupertino - puhleez.
#20 Chris says:I have this “no software to install” error when attempting to load a freshly purchased copy of Mac Office 2008 onto a new MacBook running Leopard. Any ideas ?
#21 David B says:I have the same problem as Chris, there must be a solution somewhere, I have searched for 2 days, nothing, installing open office now.
#22 Ash says:Even i am getting the same error while installing Office 2008 for MAC on leopard (10.5.2). this error is so generic that i cant do any kind of troubleshooting. Is there any solution available?