"winget add -a x64 --scope machine BbtN.FFmpeg.GPL" works; "winget rm --id BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL" says "No installed package found matching input criteria."

[felixkasza]

Brief description of your issue

Here is an installation and attempted uninstall of a package (BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL). Note that winget claims to have no knowledge of the package it just installed.

ETA: winget rm --name "FFmpeg (GPL static variant, master branch) works as expected, removing the package.

C:\bin\portable> winget install -a x64 --source winget --scope machine BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL
Found FFmpeg (GPL static variant, master branch) [BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL] Version N-118197-gbb85423142-20241231
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/download/autobuild-2024-12-31-13-02/ffmpeg-N-118197-gbb85423142-win64-gpl.zip
  ██████████████████████████████   138 MB /  138 MB
Successfully verified installer hash
Extracting archive...
Successfully extracted archive
Starting package install...
Command line alias added: "ffmpeg"
Command line alias added: "ffplay"
Command line alias added: "ffprobe"
Successfully installed

C:\bin\portable> dir *ffmpeg*

 Volume in drive C is OS           Serial number is b24d:678f
 Directory of  C:\bin\portable\*ffmpeg*

2025-01-01   2:42         <DIR>    BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe
                   0 bytes in 0 files and 1 dir
   1 598 145 347 584 bytes free

C:\bin\portable> winget rm ffmpeg
No installed package found matching input criteria.

C:\bin\portable> winget rm --id BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL
No installed package found matching input criteria.

Steps to reproduce

winget install -a x64 --source winget --scope machine BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL

followed by

winget rm --id BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL

Expected behavior

Installation of the requested package, followed by removal of the package.

Actual behavior

Installation happened, removal fails because winget claims that the just-installed package is not installed.

WinGet-2025-01-01-02-49-43.015.log

WinGet-2025-01-01-02-49-17.341.log

Environment

Windows Package Manager v1.9.25200
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.26100.2605
System Architecture: X64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.24.25200.0

Winget Directories                 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Logs                               %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Diag…
User Settings                      %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\sett…
Portable Links Directory (User)    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Links
Portable Links Directory (Machine) C:\Program Files\WinGet\Links
Portable Package Root (User)       C:/bin/userportable
Portable Package Root              C:/bin/portable
Portable Package Root (x86)        C:/bin/portable
Installer Downloads                C:\dl

Links               
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Privacy Statement   https://aka.ms/winget-privacy
License Agreement   https://aka.ms/winget-license
Third Party Notices https://aka.ms/winget-3rdPartyNotice
Homepage            https://aka.ms/winget
Windows Store Terms https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/storedocs/terms-of-sale

Admin Setting                             State
--------------------------------------------------
LocalManifestFiles                        Disabled
BypassCertificatePinningForMicrosoftStore Disabled
InstallerHashOverride                     Disabled
LocalArchiveMalwareScanOverride           Disabled
ProxyCommandLineOptions                   Disabled
DefaultProxy                              Disabled

[Trenly]

2025-01-01 02:49:44.125 [REPO]  ... installed package [ARP\Machine\X64\BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe] had multiple correlations and is being ignored as a match for [BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL]

It's looking like there might some overlap where the data written to the registry is the same as another application. I'll check what other packages it may be conflicting with

[felixkasza]

Ah! In that case, the prime suspect would be a conflict between package IDs "BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL" and "Gyan.FFmpeg".

Background: An install of package "yt-dlp.yt-dlp" pulled in "Gyan.FFmpeg" (ignoring the already-installed, and for this purpose theoretically equivalent, "BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL" package). I then removed, or attempted to, the existing "BtbN.FFmpeg.GPL" since one instance of FFmpeg is plenty for my purposes. That was when I noticed the (mis?)behaviour described above.

And btw, the symlinks placed in $(programfiles)/winget/links/ would also conflict if both packages were to be installed. Not that I have a neat and simple solution for that.

Thanks,
Felix.

[Alfamari]

I'm having this issue with every program that has a symlink in this directory, even without having duplicate packages: C:\Users\alfamari\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Links

Update:
None of the packages that I'm having trouble with have a Data key in the registry. Whereas the ones that do are visible with winget list do.
I'm also realizing my problem is a bit different because it doesn't happen directly after installing a package. In fact, re-installing the package overwrites everything to make it visible to winget again so that I can uninstall it.