What causes "Failed to move new installation into place: {e}" in gitbutlerapp/gitbutler?

Fix write permission on the install dir (or install as a user who owns it) and retry

Failed to move new installation into place: {e}

Error message

Failed to move new installation into place: {e}

What it means

First macOS install (no previous app, hence no backup): fs::rename moving the staged .app into the install location failed. Staged artifacts are cleaned up and the raw rename error is reported. Nothing pre-existing was damaged, but the install did not land.

Source

Thrown at crates/but-installer/src/install_macos.rs:222

        cleanup_artifacts();

        // Critical failure - restore backup if we created one
        if had_backup && install_app_backup.exists() {
            warn("Failed to move new installation into place - restoring backup");
            if let Err(restore_err) = fs::rename(&install_app_backup, &install_app) {
                bail!(
                    "Failed to install new version: {}. Also failed to restore backup: {}. Your app may be at {}",
                    e,
                    restore_err,
                    install_app_backup.display()
                );
            }
            bail!(
                "Failed to install new version: {e}. Previous installation restored successfully."
            );
        }
        // No backup to restore, just fail
        bail!("Failed to move new installation into place: {e}");
    }

    // Update the symlink to point to the new installation
    let final_target = install_app.join("Contents/MacOS/gitbutler-tauri");
    let _ = fs::remove_file(&but_symlink);

    // Try to create symlink and verify - if either fails, rollback
    let symlink_result = unix_fs::symlink(&final_target, &but_symlink);
    let _ = fs::remove_file(&but_new);

    if let Err(e) = symlink_result {
        // Symlink creation failed - rollback to backup
        warn(&format!(
            "Failed to create symlink: {e} - attempting to restore backup"
        ));
        if install_app_backup.exists() {
            if let Err(remove_err) = fs::remove_dir_all(&install_app) {
                bail!(

View on GitHub (pinned to caf1f223d3)

Solutions

Fix write permission on the install dir (or install as a user who owns it) and retry
Free disk space - the swap needs roughly twice the bundle size
Remove any partial leftover at the target path, then re-run but-installer

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Ensure the install dir is writable before a first install
let probe = install_dir.join(".write-probe");
std::fs::create_dir_all(&install_dir)?;
std::fs::write(&probe, b"")?;
std::fs::remove_file(&probe)?; // Err here = permission/disk problem, fix before install

Try / catch

if let Err(e) = but_installer::run_installation_with_version(request, false) {
    if e.to_string().contains("Failed to move new installation into place") {
        // surface the fs error: EACCES -> permissions, ENOSPC -> space, EBUSY -> app running
        eprintln!("fix install-dir permissions/space and retry: {e}");
    }
    return Err(e);
}

Prevention

Run the installer as a user with write access to the install dir
Free disk space before installs (about 2x bundle size needed)
Remove leftover partial bundles at the target path before retrying

When it happens

Trigger: The install location is not writable by the current user (system /Applications without admin), the volume is full, or an unexpected object already occupies the target path in a form rename cannot atomically replace.

Common situations: Non-admin first install into /Applications on managed Macs; disk full; leftover partial bundle from a previous aborted install.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gitbutlerapp/gitbutler@caf1f223d3 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a27d1d78b27f1bef. Report an issue: GitHub.