TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ tlmgr won't update tikz

[reading]

A collaborator recently sent me a latex file that uses the package tikz. I couldn't compile it, and the .log file indicated that my tex distribution has a very old (2005) version of tikz. I used
tlmgr update --all
and found out I had to update my whole tex distribution. So I installed the newest MaxTeX package, and did
tlmgr update --all
again. It updated a lot of packages but logfiles show that I'm still using the same 2005 tikz. So I did
tlmgr update tikz
and got

tlmgr: package repository http://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan ... live/tlnet
tlmgr: saving backups to /usr/local/texlive/2014/tlpkg/backups

tlmgr: tikz mentioned, but neither new nor forcibly removed
tlmgr: no updates available

Any ideas? What is "tikz mentioned, but neither new nor forcibly removed" trying to tell me?

[Stefan Kottwitz]

The package is called pgf, so you could try

tlmgr update pgf

Just make sure that your old version is removed, so it won't be accidentally used.

Stefan

[reading]

Thanks for replying.

tlmgr update pgf did not, by itself, work (and who knew that to update a package called by "\usepackage{tikz}" you should update pgf?). But since tlmgr said that no pgf update was available, it occurred to me that maybe I do have a fully updated version. I looked back at the log file to see that the old tikz package was coming from /Users/myusername/Library/texmf, and then I looked on the web and found out that that's not where texlive puts stuff. I went and moved the texmf folder from that location to the trash (and moved a few other things that looked like old tex distributions, none of which had been touched since 2011).

Problem solved! My file now compiles, and the log file shows that I'm using a 2013 tikz package (instead of 2005 like before).

Thanks!

Nathan

P.S. If anyone is reading this trying to solve a similar problem, maybe don't start trashing folders from your user library just on my recommendation... ask someone who knows more about this.