IDE hangs on startup: "Error: reading inventory file: While parsing config: yaml: line 14: found unexpected end of stream"

[jocardu]

@ptillisch

In order to gather more information that might help us to troubleshoot your problem, I'm going to ask you to run Arduino IDE from the command line, then share the output.

Please do this:

1. Open your Applications folder in Finder.
2. Open the Utilities folder.
3. Double-click on "Terminal".
4. Type the following command in the Terminal window:

   "/Applications/Arduino IDE.app/Contents/MacOS/Arduino IDE"
   

5. Press Enter
6. Wait until you are sure the IDE startup has gone into the hang state
   (as indicated by no additional output being printed to the Terminal window).
7. Switch back to the Terminal window if the Arduino IDE window took the focus.
8. Press ⌘+A.
   This will select all the text in the Terminal window.
9. Press ⌘+C.
   This will copy the selected text to the clipboard.
10. Open a forum reply here by clicking the Reply button.
11. Click the </> icon on the post composer toolbar.
    This will add the forum's code block markup (```) to your reply to make sure the output is correctly formatted.
    
12. Press ⌘+V.
    This will paste the output into the code block.
13. Move the cursor outside of the code block markup before you add any additional text to your reply.
14. Click the Reply button to post the output.

Hello,
I have the same problem with Arduino IDE hanging on startup with flashing logo on Macbook Air M1 OS Ventura and Arduino 2.0.4
Restart, Deinstallation and Installation of IDE did not change anything.
My log copied below and does not help me as I am an Arduino beginner.
Any help appreciated, thanks!

23-03-27T08:18:47.348Z daemon ERROR Error: Error: reading inventory file: While parsing config: yaml: line 14: found unexpected end of stream
    at Socket.<anonymous> (/Applications/Arduino IDE.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/arduino-ide-extension/lib/node/arduino-daemon-impl.js:203:42)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:394:28)
    at addChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:312:12)
    at readableAddChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:287:9)
    at Socket.Readable.push (node:internal/streams/readable:226:10)
    at Pipe.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:190:23)
2023-03-27T08:18:47.348Z daemon INFO Starting daemon from /Applications/Arduino IDE.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/arduino-ide-extension/build/arduino-cli...
2023-03-27T08:18:47.348Z daemon INFO Daemon exited with exit code: 7.
2023-03-27T08:18:47.358Z daemon INFO Error: reading inventory file: While parsing config: yaml: line 14: found unexpected end of stream

[ptillisch]

Hi @jocardu. It looks like one of the configuration files was corrupted. Please close all Arduino IDE windows if the IDE is running, then delete the file at the following path:

~/Library/Arduino15/inventory.yaml

The Library folder is hidden by default. You can make it visible by pressing the Command+Shift+. keyboard shortcut.

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Please be very careful when deleting things from your computer. When in doubt, back up!

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After that, try starting Arduino IDE again. This will cause it to regenerated a valid inventory.yaml file. Hopefully this time the IDE will start up without any problem.

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Please let me know if you have any questions or problems while following those instructions.

[jocardu]

Thanks for the fast reply - this solved my problem!

[jocardu]

when I leave the program running for some time it freezes quite frequently and I have to kill it with the task manager. This might have been the reason for the corrupted file. I should remember to close it after use

[ptillisch]

You are welcome. I'm glad it is working now.

Regards,
Per