I know this has been asked and answered, but the answers I see are all about Windows computers. I'm using a MacBook Pro, with an intel processor. I deleted and reinstalled several times, but the IDE program still hangs on start-up and shows only a pulsating logo.
Hi @keith888. I'm going to ask you to provide some additional information that might help us to identify the problem.
This procedure is not intended to solve the problem. The purpose is to gather more information.
Please do this:
- Close all Arduino IDE windows if the IDE is already running.
- Open macOS Launchpad.
- Type
terminalin the "Search" field. - Click on the "Terminal" icon.
A "zsh" window will open. - Type the following command in the zsh window:
"/Applications/Arduino IDE.app/Contents/MacOS/Arduino IDE" - Press the Enter key.
- 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). - Switch back to the Terminal window if the Arduino IDE window took the focus.
- Press the Command+A keyboard shortcut.
This will select all the text in the Terminal window. - Press the Command+C keyboard shortcut.
This will copy the selected text to the clipboard. - Open a forum reply here by clicking the "Reply" button.
- Click the
<CODE/>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.
- Press the Command+V keyboard shortcut.
This will paste the output into the code block. - Move the cursor outside of the code block markup before you add any additional text to your reply.
- Click the "Reply" button to post the output.
Please let me know if you have any questions or problems while following those instructions.
Thank you.
Not much to report. I'm going to try again later, and also to be able to not show confidential information. At the first attempt, terminal returned the following:
zsh: no such file or directory: /Applications/Arduino
And yet, the Arduino application is right there in the applications directory.
When I use finder to search for the Arduino IDE, and then use the copy pathname option, the following path is returned.
'/Applications/Arduino IDE.app'
This is because you omitted the quotes from the path. You must write the command exactly as it is in the instructions I provided:
(note the " double quote characters)
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I ran the line in Terminal with quotes as suggested, and the output never stopped. Below is a sample that I've anonymized by removing my real account name.
2025-04-13T13:27:09.942Z daemon INFO Starting daemon from /Applications/Arduino IDE.app/Contents/Resources/app/lib/backend/resources/arduino-cli...
2025-04-13T13:27:09.943Z daemon INFO Daemon exited with exit code: 10.
2025-04-13T13:27:09.956Z daemon INFO time="2025-04-13T08:27:09-05:00" level=info msg="arduino-cli version 1.1.1"
2025-04-13T13:27:09.956Z daemon INFO Error: invalid path creating config dir: /Users/myMacBookProAccount/Library/Arduino15 error: mkdir /Users/myMacBookProAccount: permission denied
Time to fire up Disk Util and see if there's any error in the file structure.
The MacBook has been completely rebuilt, with no change. Deleted the app and reinstalled, and again there is change in the outcome. It continues to hang.
I'm adding a comment to the post from yesterday, perhaps this additional information will be helpful. The problem is occurring with the Arduino IDE that was compiled for the Apple MacBook Pro with the Intel chip. The current macOs is 15.4.1, which I believe is the latest. I installed the latest update within the last week. There was a time when the Arduino IDE ran on this computer, then there was a lapse in my use it as I worked on other projects. When I returned to the Arduino projects and downloaded the latest IDE, that's when it stopped working. So it seems to me there was some change in the program that resulted in this inability for it to run. When started, the program displays the logo on a blank background, and the logo pulses in size. I did two things in this latest attempt to fix the problem. First, the computer was completely rebuilt (a fairly drastic step), and second, I deleted and re-downloaded the program from the Arduino site. Unfortunately, several Arduino projects are now on hold.
Sorry to hear. I'm still curious about that permission denied message. When the program runs as you, it should also have same access.
The sample you provided does not provide sufficient information for me to verify my hypothesis, but the most likely cause is that you changed your macOS username since the time you first installed Arduino IDE.
Does the true name of the myMacBookProAccount folder in that error match exactly with your macOS username? I understand that you changed the name of the folder for anonymity. I am asking you to check the real name of the folder shown in the logs against your current macOS username.
Thank you. Yes, the username was changed when it was rebuilt. However, since then, I deleted the app, redownloaded, and reinstalled it. I did that several times. As I write this, the app and folder are not present because I deleted it again. If I attempt to reinstall again, I'm certain that unless I do something different, it will fail again.
The first time you run Arduino IDE, it generates a configuration file that defines the paths to several folders used by the IDE. The default locations of these folders are under your home folder, which means the username is part of the path. When you change your username it makes the paths in the configuration file outdated. When the IDE attempts to access the old path, the operating system does not allow it, which causes the startup to hang.
I think the easiest solution will be to simply delete the configuration file. Arduino IDE will automatically generate a new file on startup with the correct paths.
I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:
- Select Arduino IDE > Quit Arduino IDE from the Arduino IDE menus if it is running.
All Arduino IDE windows will close. - Delete the file at the following path:
(where/Users/<username>/.arduinoIDE/arduino-cli.yaml<username>is your current macOS username)
The .arduinoIDEfolder is hidden by default. You can make it visible by pressing the Command+Shift+. keyboard shortcut.
Please be careful when deleting things from your computer. When in doubt, back up! - Start Arduino IDE.
Arduino IDE should now start up fully and be functional as usual.
Note that the file you deleted is used to store some of your IDE preferences. These will all have been reset to the default values. If you had customized either the "Sketchbook location" or "Additional Boards Manager URLs" preferences before, you'll need to select Arduino IDE > Settings... from the Arduino IDE menus and then set those preferences once again after performing the instructions I provided above.
Please let me know if you have any questions or problems while following those instructions.
The configuration file is stored separately from the Arduino IDE installation, and is not removed when you uninstall Arduino IDE.
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I found, and deleted, the hidden .arduinoIDE file and that fixed the problem. Thank you very much for your help and thank you for staying with me to fix the problem.
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You are welcome. I'm glad it is working now.
Regards, Per
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