www.makemkv.com

When upgrading from the previous version of MakeMKV to 1.14 (using Windows 10 x64 1709), the installer uninstalled the previous version and after that gave me the error "Installation directory not empty". So I had to exit the installer and then actually reboot, because Windows Explorer still was telling me that the directory was in use. (At the time I unfortunately didn't think about checking which process was holding the handle).

I double- and triple-checked the MakeMKV directory, there were absolutely no files and directories in there, not even hidden ones. (My MakeMKV profile file is in my user directory).

In order to verify this I uninstalled MakeMKV 1.14 and manually deleted the "MakeMKV" program directory. Then I manually created that directory in the same sport and started the installer again. And sure enough I once again got the error that the installation directory is not empty.

So at the last step I did the following:
1. Deleted "MakeMKV" program directory
2. Installed MakeMKV 1.12.3
3. Started installation for MakeMKV 1.14
4. Click "Ok" when prompted to remove previous version
5. When I got the confirmation popup that the previous version was uninstalled, I saw that the program directory was removed.

So here are my conclusions:

a) The check for empty installation directory is wrong, it actually checks, if the installation directory already exists and then triggers the error popup.

b) Usually that is not a problem, since the uninstaller will remove the installation directory.

c) However sometimes (for whatever reason) the installation directory is in use and cannot be removed. (I didn't check at the time which process was holding a handle on this directory and I couldn't reproduce this, when trying the upgrade again). When that happens, the erroneous check for empty installation directory triggers.

So it would be nice, if the check for empty installation directory in the installer could be fixed, at least for those cases when case c) happens.

This happened to me today while trying to update from v1.17.2 -> v1.17.3, what do I do to fix this error?

Had you previously saved something to the MakeMKV directory (the main program directory, NOT the separate data directory)?

MakeMKV's install program won't delete stuff that it didn't put there. So if you had, it would not be "empty" to install the update. That means it isn't empty, so no install.

I went through this years ago, like tangofan did. The installer wants ONLY the files it's supposed to overwrite in the directory, so anything else you save in it will cause this.

It was empty no files. I ended up deleting the folder and trying the install again and it worked. The installer asked to uninstall previous version then wouldn't reinstall after. I even tried a reboot and no luck before deleting folder and getting it to work.