Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#21

Post by doc_gunthrop »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #20
s09dfhks wrote: post #16

another plug for the zoom redirect plugin https://github.com/arkadiyt/zoom-redirector

Except it appears Zoom has disabled their web client for now?

How up-to-date is this? I was able to join a zoom videoconference yesterday evening from the web browser.

And while on the topic of the web client, it turned out to be a very disappointing experience. There was no way to set focus on a given attendee; I wanted to view the host's video feed but the website kept switching feeds, seemingly haphazardly, to different attendees.

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#23

Post by mulmen »

wool_gather wrote: post #7

It's doubtful that this is Zoom doing anything in particular. Rather it's likely the OS doing the best it can to handle the URL for you. The OS has a mapping between the URL and the bundle identifier of the app, and apparently looked for the bundle on a disk that happened to be attached, after it didn't find it on your main disk. Which is perfectly reasonable in itself.

This is unexpected to me. If I remove an application I do not expect it to run. If the OS is willing to reach into the Time Machine backups will it also modify them? What if I delete an app, run it then install an update? Will it install to the backup? That would be very unexpected.

Looking at multiple application directories is one thing but executing things from the backup directory is another.

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#24

Post by [deleted] »

rbanffy wrote: post #18
floatingatoll wrote: post #13

Open a bug with Apple about this. They fixed an issue I reported a few years back about being able to launch applications in the Trash. They will likely want to add the same restriction to Time Machine Backups as well.

What if you need to run an old version of the application?

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#25

Post by ComputerGuru »

doc_gunthrop wrote: post #21
ComputerGuru wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it appears Zoom has disabled their web client for now?

How up-to-date is this? I was able to join a zoom videoconference yesterday evening from the web browser. And while on the topic of the web client, it turned out to be a very disappointing experience. There was no way to set focus on a given attendee; I wanted to view the host's video feed but the website kept switching feeds, seemingly haphazardly, to different attendees.

This is just today. https://github.com/arkadiyt/zoom-redirector/issues/7

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#26

Post by mulmen »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #20
s09dfhks wrote: post #16

another plug for the zoom redirect plugin https://github.com/arkadiyt/zoom-redirector

Except it appears Zoom has disabled their web client for now?

That's too bad because it is the only way I am willing to use Zoom.

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#27

Post by tvon »

wool_gather wrote: post #7

It's doubtful that this is Zoom doing anything in particular. Rather it's likely the OS doing the best it can to handle the URL for you. The OS has a mapping between the URL and the bundle identifier of the app, and apparently looked for the bundle on a disk that happened to be attached, after it didn't find it on your main disk. Which is perfectly reasonable in itself.

I've cloned drives with SuperDuper and had an uninstalled app launch from the clone. So, toss that anecdote on the pile.

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#28

Post by greglindahl »

rbanffy wrote: post #18
floatingatoll wrote: post #13

Open a bug with Apple about this. They fixed an issue I reported a few years back about being able to launch applications in the Trash. They will likely want to add the same restriction to Time Machine Backups as well.

What if you need to run an old version of the application?

An informative popup beats running a deleted app any day of the week.

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#29

Post by geofft »

nexuist wrote: post #4
taurath wrote: post #2

I guess in some sense it is the price one pays for "it just works". The main problem I have is this seems like going to very far extremes in order to run the app no matter what and the tradeoffs were never discussed or put in front of people, which I find to be pretty unethical. Sort of like the privacy debate - the tradeoffs of everyone sharing their personal data were never really up for debate.

This is a bit of a charitable explanation. How can any project manager say, with a straight face, "we need to make sure the application is still available, even if the user deletes it." How can you accidentally delete an application? It is not like you press a button by accident and it is suddenly gone. Deleting an application requires the user to express intent and go through a process (go to the Applications folder…

This seems like a macOS bug, not a Zoom bug, right?

Re: Tell HN: Zoom runs application from Time Machine backup when uninstalled on Mac

#30

Post by chrisseaton »

mikekij wrote: post #5

I wasn't aware that any non-OS service even had access to data and applications saved in Time Machine. This might be worthy of a bug bounty report to Apple.

But Time Machine is just a file system volume, mounted like any other? It has some unusual hard links in it, but it's just a regular file system mount.
Post reply on HN