Installation failed because the extension is not compatible

Installation failed because the extension is not compatible with the installed applications macOS. ZXP installer says “Installation failed because the extension is not compatible with the installed applications”. If you have this issue, please read through this article to fix the problem.

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Warning about extensions

There’s no denying the huge benefits of installing extensions for Safari. However, that does not mean that you can install many extensions for this browser. One of the downsides that you will realize when you install too many extensions is that the performance of your Mac suffers.

Especially, Safari’s browsing speed is significantly reduced, the time to load web pages is also slower than usual. This disadvantage does not only happen to Safari but also other web browsers.

Therefore, you should only search, choose to download and install useful and necessary extensions. If you have a lot of extensions installed in Safari, consider disabling or deleting those you don’t use anymore to improve Safari’s speed and performance.

Find and install Safari extensions

Find Safari Extensions

Like apps, you can find extensions for Safari through the Mac App Store. Proceed as follows:

Step 1: Activate the App Store.

Step 2: Select Categories in the left pane.

Step 3: Then click Safari extensions in the right pane. You can also quickly access this by going to the Safari > Safari Extensions menu in the browser window.

Step 4: Now search for the extension you need using the search bar on the top left of the App Store. If you find the app you need, click the Get or Payment amount button (if it’s a paid extension) next to the Safari extension you want to install.

Step 5: Finally click the Install button to install this utility for Safari.

Note: Currently the App Store still doesn’t offer more specific options to limit the search to only Safari extensions. Also, you can’t always tell if it’s an extension for Safari or a standalone macOS app.

Enable Safari Extensions

After installing extensions for Safari, it does not mean that they are activated. Instead, you have to do this manually. Proceed as follows:

Step 1: Activate Safari browser.

Step 2: Click the Turn On and Review… button next to the New Safari Extensions Available message . This will open the Extensions dialog box in Safari.

Step 3: Click on the square box next to the name of the new Safari extension.

Step 4: In the new dialog box displayed, click the Turn On button to activate this utility.

Disable, remove Safari extensions

As mentioned above, when you don’t use the extensions anymore, you can turn them off or completely remove them. Not only does this speed up the Safari browser, but it’s also a way to find problems with the browser when it crashes. To disable or remove unnecessary extensions from Safari, do the following:

Step 1: Activate Safari browser.

Step 2: Click Safari on the Safari menu bar.

Step 3: Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.

Step 4: Uncheck the option next to the Safari extension name to disable it.

Step 5: Click on the name of the Safari extension you want to delete in the left pane. Then click the Uninstall button in the right pane.

Step 6: Next, click the Show in Finder button in the newly displayed dialog box.

Step 7: Right-click the extension you want to delete and select Send to Trash or press Cmd + Backspace . Repeat the same steps as you need to remove other extensions.

How to fix Installation failed because the extension is not compatible

ZXP Installer uses ExManCmd, Adobe’s official command line tool for installing extensions. You can learn more about it here: https://www.adobeexchange.com/resources/28. Implementation-wise, all ZXP Installer does when you drag an extension onto it is capture the filename and then create the command line string needed to run Adobe’s tool.

Adobe dropped support for the Extension Manager after CC 2014, so it isn’t possible to install CC 2015.5 extensions with the Extension Manager. However, because some extensions support versions that did work with the Extension Manager, you’ll find that it will still launch and try to install them, probably one of the most common support tickets I answer for my extensions.

The metadata used to define how extensions are installed is the same between ExMan (ZXP Installer) and the Extension Manager, and as far as I know, they use the same system storage for managing and checking which extensions are and are not installed. Adobe extension installation is notoriously buggy and I’ve seen many instances where one Adobe tool causes silent conflicts with others. By deleting the Extension Manager, which is obsolete if you’re using CC 2015.5, you remove half of the conflict letting Adobe’s other installer do all the work.

Give it a try:

https://aescripts.com/learn/zxp-installer/

FAQ:

https://aescripts.com/knowledgebase/index/view/faq/zxp-installer-faq/