I recently checked if there were any updates to the latest Scrivener, but I get this error message: Scrivener can’t be updated when it’s running from a read-only volume like a disk image or an optical drive. Move Scrivener to Applications folder using Finder, relaunch it from there, and try again.
My application IS in the correct folder. I don’t understand why it’s giving me this error. I can’t seem to find the issue with anyone else. Is there any other solution other than reinstalling I can do?
Same problem here but the manifestations of erroneous “read-only” volume status are not restricted to Scrivener. Volume permissions checked and rechecked.
Is your /Applications folder located on an external drive by any chance? That has been known to unintentionally trigger the safeguard that checks to make sure Scrivener isn’t running from the installation DMG.
At any rate, you can always download the latest version directly from our website and install it anew. That might not be a bad idea if the current installation is acting a bit funny, anyway.
Hi,
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) Mac OSX 10.12.6 Scrivener 3.0.1
This behaviour happens to me.
Each time I launch Scrivener; from dock or app folder, ClamXav (Antivirus) asks to scan a disk image being mounted.
Scrivener is in the applications folder copied there from the mounted disk image using the alias.
When launched from the dock(placed there by Drag and drop from app folder) a new instance of the app launches and appears at the end of the dock. “Show in Finder” from dock contextual menu does nothing.
Scrivener reports running from disk image when asked to update.
I have deleted the application and restarted, reinstalled from new download and deleted the .DMG file from the disk. Scrivener still launches a separate instance. A search for Scrivener only reveals the app in the applications folder.
Any suggestions?
Best
The bold sentence isn’t clear to me; could just be me. After mounting the DMG rather than copy the app icon to move it (if that’s what you’re doing), directly drag and drop it to the Applications directory, then eject the DMG. Test.
EDIT to add: If you use ClamXAV’s active ‘protection’ component, disable it during the install.
Oh, that sounds more like the software is stuck in Apple’s AppTranslocation quarantine. It’s a bit of a bug as far as I know, I’ve seen it happen with many different programs over the years. The primary symptom is that you keep getting a new Dock icon when launching it—and it would make sense that the tripwire for running on a read-only volume would trigger, since the whole point of that mechanism is to render the software incapable of even changing itself. The nature of the problem means there may be many other little weird things that don’t work right, such as registration and the use of external tools with Scrivener.
More technically, you can confirm if this is happening by using the following command-line in Terminal, while Scrivener is running:
ps x | grep Scrivener
You may get a few lines of output, but you should see at least one of them that indicates a copy of Scrivener running from /Applications. If you see a copy running from weird temporary path, then it is stuck in a sandbox.
The only way I know to fix it is to reinstall—which you say you’ve already tried. But try doing it very, very basically: open another window for Applications, and drag the Scrivener icon from the DMG into the other window.
This problem tends to occur more often when one uses any other method of installation. For example I’ve seen it happen over and over when I do a command like cd /Applications;unzip ~/Downloads/downloaded_thing.zip—but then if I go and use the GUI with a mouse and Finder it works fine. I’ve heard reports of less esoteric means though—Time Machine, copy and paste, third-party file managers, perhaps symlink drops as well like in the DMG. My guess is these other methods don’t get as much QA testing over in Cupertino. 
Hi Amberv,
thanks for the detailed explanation. Very helpful.
I think that part of the problem may have been the method of installation. I use Pathfinder ( which is excellent) instead of the finder and was installing via the pathfinder application. Once I deleted the problematic Scrivener installation. repaired permissions, restarted and installed a fresh copy using the OSX finder (with no other applications running) and deleted the .DMG file , the problem disappeared.
thank you.
take care
Yup, I use LaunchBar for most file management, and so it tends to happen to me now and then as well. Path Finder would be in the same category—I mean in theory these tools should be using the same mechanisms Finder does internally, but in practice there seems to be some difference. For a time there I avoided third party stuff entirely, but I’ve found the rate of malfunction is less than it used to be, so now I only bother if something doesn’t work right after installation.
Glad to hear it’s working for you now.