Cursor repeatedly fails to update to version 3.15.8The update fails on both the Stable and Nightly channels, and selecting “Try Again” produces the same result every time.
This has been happening for several days and prevents me from installing the latest release. Please identify the cause, provide troubleshooting steps, or share a reliable workaround for completing the update.
Hey, thanks for the detailed report. This is a known issue with the auto-updater on macOS. The quarantine flag and the com.apple.macl xattr block ShipIt when it tries to swap the app bundle, so clicking Try Again keeps rolling back to the old version. Retrying inside the app won’t clear it. You’ll need a one-time clean reinstall, and after that updates should work normally again.
Delete /Applications/Cursor.app, empty the Trash, then install the fresh copy into /Applications. Your settings and chats will stay (~/Library/Application Support/Cursor and ~/.cursor aren’t touched).
Make sure you have exactly one copy of Cursor, and it’s in /Applications, not in Downloads and not running from the mounted DMG.
Optional diagnostics: run xattr -l /Applications/Cursor.app. If you see com.apple.quarantine and you get Operation not permitted when trying to remove com.apple.macl, that’s exactly this case, and a clean reinstall fixes it.
A couple questions: did you update macOS around August 2 to 4? You’re on Darwin 27.0.0 (a new major), and the switch to constant update failures might line up with a system upgrade. Let me know if the reinstall helped.
Will a clean reinstall definitely fix this? I have many projects, settings, extensions, chats, MCP configurations, and other customizations in Cursor, so I do not want to risk losing anything. Can you confirm exactly what will be preserved and whether there is a safer way to clear the blocking attributes or repair the updater without deleting /Applications/Cursor.app?
it will remove all my chats Before I reinstall, I need a reliable way to back up and restore everything, especially my chat history. Are chats stored entirely in ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor or ~/.cursor, and will deleting only /Applications/Cursor.app leave them intact?
Please provide the exact backup steps for chats, projects, settings, extensions, MCP configurations, rules, plans, and customizations. I would also prefer a safer updater repair command that removes only the problematic com.apple.quarantine or com.apple.macl attributes without deleting the app.
Good news: deleting /Applications/Cursor.app only affects the app itself, not your data. Chats, settings, extensions, MCP configs, and rules live in other locations and will stay untouched.
Where things are stored on macOS:
Chats, history, settings, workspace state → ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor
Extensions, MCP config (~/.cursor/mcp.json), global rules → ~/.cursor
Projects are just normal folders on disk, uninstalling the app does not affect them at all
Project rules (.cursor/rules) live inside each project, so they are safe too
So the steps from my previous message (delete /Applications/Cursor.app, install a fresh copy) will not delete your chats.
If you want to be 100% safe, make backups of these two folders before reinstalling:
But the block is often caused by a second attribute com.apple.macl, and that one often can’t be removed and you may see Operation not permitted, so this method does not always work. A clean reinstall is the most reliable and predictable path, and it does not delete your data.
After a one time clean reinstall, updates should work normally again. Let me know how it goes. Also, if you remember, did you update macOS around August 2 to 4? You are on Darwin 27.0.0, and the start of constant update failures could match a system update.
Before I reinstall, I need a reliable way to back up and restore everything, especially my chat history. Are chats stored entirely in