Apple Remote Desktop 3.7.2 Update Cannot Install On Yosemite

For Mac admins, there seems (at time of writing) to be another bug with Yosemite (10.10.1) which involves Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). At time of writing, the latest ARD release is version 3.7.2.

The problem has been logged since October 2014 at Apple’s Support Communities Apple Remote Desktop forum and centers around the apparent inability to update ARD to the latest 3.7.2 version.

Thus far it appears that the bug involves the App Store and being unable to update it to the latest version isn’t the only bug.

For those who have managed to install and run ARD 3.7.2, the App Store appears to be experiencing difficulty acknowledging this latest version’s presence and continues to bug users to update their ARD to version 3.7.2.

It would appear that for the update nagging issue, we will have to wait on Apple to address this on the App Store side of things.

However, if you encounter the inability to install or update ARD to the latest 3.7.2 there is a workaround.

The problem usually occurs during the installation process, which presents itself as an installation error displaying the following message, “Remote Desktop Admin update can’t be installed on this disk, a newer version of this package is already installed”.

Some solutions that have been attempted but failed include:

• updating through App Store
• downloading ARD Admin Update 3.7.2 directly from Apple Support Downloads and installing manually
• uninstalling existing ARD from OS X entirely and re-installing again

So far the surefire solution that seems to work is to retain the existing ‘problematic’ ARD on your Yosemite powered Mac and install and update ARD to the latest 3.7.2 on a Mac running pre-Yosemite OS X, e.g. OS 10.8.5 Mountain Lion or 10.9 Mavericks.

Verify that the install is working and copy it from the older OS X system to replace the existing ARD on the Yosemite system.