Install Personal Capture for Mac

Owned by Hannah Petty
Last updated: Mar 17, 2016Version comment
4 min read

In this section:

Overview

Installing EchoSystem Personal Capture for Mac (also called PCAP Mac) is an easy process.  You will need:

  • Access to your EchoSystem Server (ESS). If you do not have access to the ESS, you can the get installer from your System Administrator.
  • Permission to install software on your laptop or PC.  

To install Personal Capture, follow these phases:

  1. Download the correct installer for your operating system

  2. Launch the installer. See the instructions for your operating system.

Do I Need to Remove Personal Capture If It's Already Installed?

Personal Capture will automatically check for updates on launch. If there is an update to the version you have installed, you will be asked if you want to update now or later. No need to uninstall to reinstall a new version.

Download the Installer

Download the Personal Capture for Mac installer from the ESS web interface.  If you have questions about accessing the ESS, see your ESS System Administrator.

  1. Log in to the ESS.
  2. Navigate to the Downloads tab.
  3. Download the installer by selecting and clicking the appropriate link from the list of downloads, identified in the below figure. The installer must be run locally, so save the file to your computer.
    list of downloadable executables on ESS with PCAP Mac identified as described

Alternate method:  Get the installer directly from your System Administrator. In this case, the Administrator downloads the file from the ESS and provides it directly to you.  Put the installer executable on your computer.

Use Local Directories for Installation and Capture Storage Directories

The Personal Capture installation and data directories must be on the local drive; They cannot be located on a network, remote (mapped), or USB thumb drive.

Install the Program

Depending on the browser you are using and the browser settings you have configured, clicking the software download link in the ESS results in either a .zip file or a .app file being saved to your Downloads folder. If it is a zip file, clicking the zip file should extract the .app file contained within it. Use the steps below to install Personal Capture from the .app file.

Important: Unzipping Personal Capture for Mac zip file

If an archive utility other than Apple's official Archive Utility is used to extract/unzip the Personal Capture for Mac zip file, a silent error may occur when trying to launch the application. This is documented on Apple's support forums here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6141474?tstart=0

It is our recommendation to use Apple's official Archive Utility, built into OS X, to unzip the Personal Capture for Mac zip file.

 

  1. Find and click on the downloaded or extracted .app file for the Personal Capture installer. In most cases, it will be located in your Downloads folder.
  2. Depending on your security settings, you may receive the following dialog box indicating that the installer cannot be opened. If you are running OS X 10.8 or later, the default security "curtain" is to only allow the launch of applications downloaded from the Mac App store.
    notice of security preventing launch of application as described

    In this case, you have two choices:

    1. Locate and right-click or command+click the .app file and select Open from the pop-up menu. This should provide you with a similar warning box, but the option to Open the installer file. This method is recommended.

    2. Navigate to System Settings > Security & Privacy and change the settings to allow applications downloaded from "Anywhere" to be launched, as shown below. If you choose this option, you will want to return your security settings to their previous configuration after installation.
      system security and privacy settings as described

  3. Once the installer is launched, follow the prompts to complete the installation.
  4. Depending on your firewall settings (if it's enabled), you may receive the following dialog box indicating that "osx-intel" would like make network connections.  In this scenario, "osx-intell" represents the Personal Capture application and you need to select Allow in order to allow Personal Capture to connect to the ESS and upload captures.  
     
    If Deny is selected, you can still use Personal Capture to make recordings but you will be unable to upload to the server or upgrade the application.  If you selected Deny by accident and need to change this setting, you can make a firewall exception yourself by navigating to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall > Firewall Options

After Personal Capture is installed, launch it. Ensure it works as expected. If it does, you may delete the downloaded zip file and the extraction folder, including the installer file. These are no longer needed.

Uninstall from MacOS X

Uninstalling Personal Capture is easy; however, please make sure that all your important content (captures/recording) has been uploaded to the ESS before uninstalling.

To remove Personal Capture, delete it from the Applications folder.