Environment: macOS 15.3.1 (Sequilla), Cursor version 2.1.42.
I have installed Cursor on an external drive at /Volumes/External/Applications/Cursor.app and created a symlink in /Applications pointing to this external app. When the auto‑update mechanism runs, it appears to delete the actual app bundle on the external drive rather than updating it. After accepting the update prompt, Cursor closes and the Cursor.app on the external volume is gone. I then have to re‑download and reinstall the app.
Expected behaviour: the updater should respect an installation that lives on an external drive (with a symlink in /Applications) and either update it in place or error gracefully without deleting the app.
Steps to Reproduce
Install Cursor on an external volume. In my case I installed it in /Volumes/External/Applications/Cursor.app.
Create a symlink in the internal /Applications folder that points to the external app (ln -s /Volumes/External/Applications/Cursor.app /Applications/Cursor.app).
Launch Cursor via the /Applications symlink.
When the app prompts for an update, click to confirm the update.
Wait for the update process to complete. Cursor closes and does not reopen.
Observe that the original Cursor.app on the external drive has been deleted. The symlink in /Applications now points to a non‑existent file.
Workaround: reinstall Cursor manually and/or disable auto‑updates when using an external drive installation.
Operating System
MacOS
Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
Hi Dean, thanks a lot for the detailed reply and for looking into this.
Update dialog / versions
The issue seems to reproduce on every auto-update, regardless of the version. I’ve seen it since the 1.x versions, and it also happened just now when updating to 2.1.48. Unfortunately I don’t have a screenshot of the update dialog yet, but I’ll capture one the next time an update is offered and share it.
External volume details
From Disk Utility and Finder:
Format: APFS
Capacity: 1 TB
Available: 719.39 GB (10.43 GB purgeable)
Used: ~290.9 GB
Connection: USB (local external drive, not network)
Permissions on the volume (from “Get Info”):
northcat (Me): Read & Write
staff: Read & Write
everyone: Read only
“Ignore ownership on this volume” / owners: disabled
Launching directly from /Volumes/External/Applications/Cursor.app
I can’t re-test this scenario right now because I’ve just updated to the latest version. From what I remember, the problem appears regardless of whether I launch Cursor via the /Applications symlink or directly from /Volumes/External/Applications/Cursor.app, but I’ll re-check this explicitly and report back with precise results.
Console logs
I’ll also try to reproduce the issue again and then collect logs from Console.app filtered by “Cursor” during the update, and share them with you in a follow-up message.
Thanks again for your help and for forwarding this to the team.