
So Google Chrome has recently stopped playing nicely with Little Snitch, mainly because there is an issue with Chrome that it creates a temp file to check for updates every X hours. Since its making a new temp file for some reason it sets off Little Snitch, which is quite annoying.
By entering the following code into your terminal will make it check once a week rather than every few hours:
defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 604800
Hopefully one of the next version of Chrome they will address this, as it is very annoying having to click allow/deny every X hours.
Great and elegant solution. I was already thinking of redirecting all the LS alerts to the email-account of the founder of Google >-)
This is just awesome, sigh, thank you so much for doing the research on this!
A different solution is available on: http://www.wardt.info/little-snitch-and-ksfetch/
Nice. Looks like a good solution, I honestly haven’t had the error in ages now so they may have patched it on newer releases.
Thanks. I came across this bug on a somewhat older system, so it could actually be version specific.
Thank you so much for your help !
thanks maaaan! this saved my mental peace!
IT WORKS THANX A MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i don’t know where to write the code and how to make it works…could you give me some help? i’coming crazy…..
You have to open your Terminal.app located in Macintosh HD->Applications->Utilities
THANKS!
i delete chrome with “appcleaner” and “clean my mac” but message come again and again? So have i forgotten some files? this code has no function for my mac…i try it with sudo and normally…now i will wait a bit and then i kill all google stuff in my mac…
Why don’t you guys just allow it forever?
The issue with that is that Chrome creates a new temp file every time so the rules in little snitch didn’t apply to the newly created file.
I’m not familiar with what to do when you say, “enter the following code into your terminal”? I use a mac, OS 10.6.8. Can someone please enlighten me on how to accomplish this?
The terminal.app is located under Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities
Maybe then it’d be better if you didn’t use the Terminal at all.
Thanks a milion
I found the solution
After weeks of driving me nuts with calls every 20 or so minutes always twice in a row, I was ready to kill Google and I like Google.
I did all kinds of reading and found that short of uninstalling the Google apps and running the command line to change something it seemed hopeless. On one forum that seemed out of date as they didn’t have any idea what was going on one hero offered a simple solution that worked brilliantly.
Go to user > Library > Google > Software Update. Select the Google folder, Cmd I (get info) and change the folder permissions to read only and then check apply permissions to folder contents. Yeah It has never reared it’s ugly head again!!!
I tried that and it worked for a while, then the permissions reverted and back to the same old. Just rand the OP’s command. We’ll see.
Es perfecto. Funciona perfectamente. Hay que marcar la casilla Bloqueado.
Mil gracias.
I am not a Chrome user, but I do have Google Drive on my system (10.6.8), I’ll give a try to your code. Thanks for sharing it!
Oh man, thanks for this.
I don’t use chrome, it’s not even installed on my macbook, so why does Little Snitch ask me to allow ksfetch all the time, if it’s linked to chrome? Is the same solution working anyway?
It’s linked to any Google software you have installed, not just Chrome.
Marry me
Thanks!!!
No problem, glad it helped.
Thank you so much! I used to darken my MBP’s screen at night while I sleep and this thing popped and suddenly turned the screen on…
Well it worked for a while, then it popped up again, its driving me mad ! Also tried the permissions workaround and still get that annoying message.
Looks like this fix is no longer working for me either actually. OS X 10.8, Google Chrome Version 22.0.1207.1 dev
I got rid of the callback entirely by changing the permissions on the root /library/google/googlesoftwareupdate folder to ‘No Access’
time unistall google chrome. I never use it anyways
Thank you for sharing this information. Such an annoyance
No problem.
Thanks ever so. Was going mad about this.
Thank you for this! Also have a look at this official Google help article on how to disable updates completely and starting manual updates: http://support.google.com/installer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=go&answer=147176
Thank you so much. I barely even use the apps I have… They don’t need to update every 5 seconds.
Just in case you skip past the above comment, this is the command google gives in the above link:
To disable Google Software Update from checking for updates, execute the following in the Terminal application:
defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0
Thanks for this workaround, this was so annoying. It seems that the popup didn’t come back the last hours.
After doing this, it got worse. Not only is little snitch still popping up for ksfetch twice every hour, now chrome itself also pops up twice after that, wanting to connect itself via ksfetch, totalling in four dialogs to dismiss. *sigh*
I just upgraded to Mountain Lion 10.8 GM (Build 12A269) with Google Chrome Version 21.0.1180.15 dev and this fix looks like it stopped working … Currently researching a new fix for this.
Correction, after rebooting my machine this fix is still working.
Yeah, I think we should declare Chrome malicious software as this is not how proper software works it does not create a temp and then execute. Like apple, Like Chrome, like them to behave like they respect us.
thank you! this has worked. the only problem is that now chrome isn’t keeping me logged into my various accounts after i quit, even though i specify that i want to remain signed in. don’t know if this is because of the code or another issue (i just installed google boomerang calendar, which was also adding another issue – tabs popping up spontaneously with a request from a third party to access my gmail accounts).
This shouldn’t do anything to effect you staying logged in as this simply tells the update checker not to check every hour.
Thank you so much. This was bugging the hell out of me. I almost switched back to firefox.
Glad that I was able to help prevent that drastic switch hehe
I’m using firefox with Chrome not launched. Still get the ksfetch. I may have to delete Chrome.
So annoying. Thank you!
Thanks a million. It is the most annoying thing in the world.
thank you !
It also has set off Hands Off as well. Hopefully the Terminal hack will work with it as well.
thanks you same me !
Is there a way to permanently allow each new ksfetch using TLS?
Not that I have been able to find. I read that a newer version of Little Snitch might allow for RegEx so this can be filtered out in the future.
THANK YOU!!!
Thanks for this find!
Not a problem at all hope it cuts down on the annoyance for you as well.
thank you Shelby!