Continuing the discussion from Can't get Arduino IDE working on Mac M1mini:emphasized text
I have the same problem. I can open the IDE (using a MacMini M1, running Sonoma 14.5) and the IDE opens but there is no FILE menu, I cant open any of my Arduino files. I deleted the hidden file as advised above but this made no difference. So right now I cannot open or edit any of my Arduino Sketches. Any help please?
Which IDE, are they both the same?
Hi @morrissey007.
On macOS, the File menu is in the macOS "menu bar", rather than being a part of the Arduino IDE window itself.
So it is normal that you won't see a File menu or other menus at the top of the IDE window:
You must instead look at the top of the screen here:
Note that the macOS menu bar is contextual, so you will only see Arduino IDE menus in it when you have an Arduino IDE window focused.
AND if you have the menu bar set to auto hide, you need to push the cursor all the way up to get it to show.
Here is the menu bar auto hiding
Thanks but unfortunately thats not the cure. When I said there's no file menu I meant there's no menu that drops down when clicking on FILE. there is no option to open any file. And If I double click on an Arduino sketch it doesn't open in the IDE. In fact there is no IDE window either, just the Arduino IDE Menu bar. I suspect there may be some Arduino IDE files missing from the install, but I reinstalled and still nothing.
Locate any sketch, that is a file ending in .INO. Right Click the INO, and select Get Info. About 3/4 down will be 'Open With'. select the arduino.ide and when prompted select apply to all.
Thanks, they are already associated with the IDE, when I double click on any sketch the IDE starts but there's no window. And the File menu doesn't have the usual open, close, save etc.
Then the install must have failed in some way. Do a re-install and watch for anything unusual.
Yup, Ive tried the install twice but had another go, still doesn't work. On Mac its just a case of dragging the app to the Applications folder so there is no real "install" process. Whats interesting I tried running it from the App package and got a terminal pop up with a bunch of messages, two being interesting:-
2024-08-09T16:41:02.746Z root WARN The local plugin referenced by local-dir:/Users/Clive/.arduinoIDE/extensions does not exist.
2024-08-09T16:41:02.746Z root WARN The local plugin referenced by local-dir:/Users/Clive/.arduinoIDE/plugins does not exist.
Here is my .arduinoIDE folder structure. I do NOT see a plugins folder, and the only extension I have is the print function that isn't yet in IDE2.x.
You may be able to get past that step by just creating empty folders. The question is how did you mess them up?
Its not folders thats missing, it is plugins as the message says "The local plugin referenced by local-dir:/Users/Clive/.arduinoIDE/extensions does not exist" but I've no idea what plugin its looking for and I couldn't just create a plugin. And I dont see how I could mess them up if there's no installer. I'd be interested to know what messages you get if you run the IDE from the MAcOS package. You said "here is my .arduinoIDE folder structure but I cant see anything, did you forget an attachment?
Is there an extensions folder there? If not, just create it, normally nothing is in it.
I have NO idea what you mean by this, is this a clue?
what messages you get if you run the IDE from the MAcOS package.
OOPS, probably forgot the attachment, it should be here now
when say run the IDE from the package I mean right click on the App>Show Package Contents>Contents>MacOS> then open "Arduino IDE" .
Thank you for the picture, I don't have that "extensions" folder in my .arduinoIDE folder, in fact I dont have any other folders or files in my .arduinoIDE folder, I just have 1 folder called "localization-cache nothing more. So we may be homing in on the problem. Trouble Is I don't know how to get them, I've installed 4 times now and non of these folders/files are installed. I wonder if there's an arduino IDE installer instead of just a .pkg that has the App in it?
It maybe that those folders only get created when some certain action happens in the IDE.
Have you created the extensions folder and plugins folder?
I've created the two folders, but this hasn't changed anything. I think that somehow the App is not creating all the files on the mac thats required for it to run. I'll try older versions of the IDE App and see if it creates anything more.
I doubt that will help. I am out of ideas, muting.
Shame you muted this and wont see the answer as actually it did help. I finally got a workaround to the problem. I installed the Legacy V1.8.19 and this version works. V2 doesnt work and I've given up trying to make it work.
Having spent days trying to get version 2 of the IDE working. (it would open but there is no file menu drop down to open any files) I gave in, deleted everything (again for the 6th time) and installed the legacy 1.8.19 App and everything is fine. So seems like V2 does not work on Mac Mini M1 devices (for me).
I have merged your topics due to them having too much overlap on the same subject matter @morrissey007.
In the future, please only create one topic for each distinct subject matter and be careful not to cause them to converge into parallel discussions.
The reason is that generating multiple threads on the same subject matter can waste the time of the people trying to help. Someone might spend a lot of time investigating and writing a detailed answer on one topic, without knowing that someone else already did the same in the other topic.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
This is nothing more than a "red herring". These messages are normal and occur even on systems where Arduino IDE works perfectly.
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:
terminal in the "Search" field."/Applications/Arduino IDE.app/Contents/MacOS/Arduino IDE"
<CODE/> icon on the post composer toolbar.```) to your reply to make sure the output is correctly formatted.
Please let me know if you have any questions or problems while following those instructions.