Paradox Launcher not loading on MacOS

[Gawronex]

Information​

I have disabled all mods​

Yes

Required​

Summary​

Paradox Launcher not loading on MacOS

Expected Result​

Start of the game

Actual Result​

The launcher starts, and spins for 3/4 minutes before crashing

Steps to reproduce​

Launch game through Steam

Platform​

Steam

Game Version​

The newest as I just reinstalled the whole game

Optional​

Description​

I have macOS Ventura 13.0.1, the game is installed on a USB-C SSD Drive, not the system drive.

Tags​

Attachments​

View attachment cpatch.logView attachment launcher-2023-06-14.logView attachment launcher-bootstrapper.logView attachment launcher-dowser.log

 

[aru67]

Actually you don't have the same issue, as they had MacOS 13.x and you have 10.x - the PDX launcher seems to need at least 12.x now. But that happened way more than 2 weeks ago ?!?

We'd have to install an older launcher from a game that comes with it - maybe EU4, not sure? Then prevent that launcher from updating.

Please delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Paradox Interactive/ folder. To see it go to the Finder, hit command-shift-G (ie Go To) and paste in ~/Library/Application Support/ . Then run the game from the PLAY Button in Steam, to reinstall the launcher. DON'T restart it, what launcher version do you now see if anything?

The fix / solution you propose is what was enabling me to play EU4 up until recently but for some reason it's not enabling me to play anymore. I just deleted the folder again and followed your recommendation to no avail! The PDX Launcher loads and appears for a few seconds before shutting down.

I am certainly up for installing an older launcher to see if that does the trick. Any guidance on doing this would be greatly appreciated or any other solution. Thank you so much for the help.

 

[AndrewT]

After you deleted the launcher folders and ran EU4, what launcher version do you see BEFORE it updated? Or did you not see at all?

If not, then delete that folder again and run this game - what launcher version do you see BEFORE it updated?

 

[aru67]

After you deleted the launcher folders and ran EU4, what launcher version do you see BEFORE it updated? Or did you not see at all?

If not, then delete that folder again and run this game - what launcher version do you see BEFORE it updated?

I can't remember what launcher version I saw before the game updated.

I deleted the folder again and ran the game via Play button in Steam. The PDX launcher opened briefly then crashed. Right now after deleting the folder again I have v2 2024.7 version 0.1.0 in the Paradox Interactive Folder.

Is is possible to install an older launcher version or to launch the game with other launch options ?

 

[AndrewT]

You can bypass the launcher by following these instructions:

- Download the attached file dowser.CSL.zip
- extract from it dowser.CSL
- rename it to just dowser
- move it to your Home folder (the one in Finder with the little house icon)
- run the Terminal app. That will open up a command line to that folder; do LS to check that dowser is there.
- then do this command: chmod +x dowser This is to set the file to be executable on your Mac
- right click on cities.app, Show Package Contents, open the Contents folder then the Launcher folder in there. Rename that dowser to dowser.org or whatever, THEN move the new dowser we just made into that folder
- delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Paradox Interactive/ folder again
- Run the game

That should do it for you!

 

[aru67]

Hi Andrew - I am the " right click on cities.app" step but am unable to locate it.

Can you let me know where to look please ? Thank you.

 

[AndrewT]

Right click on this game in Steam, manage, browse local files. You'll see it there.

 

[Annonymus v0.2]

I, too, like others in this thread had the infinitely loading bug on macos (not an M2 mac in my case), and I too wasn't able to fix it by deleting the launcher in the Application Support folder. I did, however, manage to figure out why: for it to work I had to *restart steam after deleting the launcher* (and before trying to launch the game — which would reinstall the launcher). Writing it here because this is the first result on google when searching for help. On that note, AndrewT, it would probably be helpful if you could edit the first post in this thread in which you gave instructions on how to reinstall the launcher to mention restarting steam too, as I am sure there are others who search for help here, but perhaps don't read all the way through the second page.
Also interesting is that the problem appeared in the first place after I restarted steam earlier today (for the first time in quite a while).

Unfortunately I neglected to back up the logs before deleting the launcher, but what I can tell you is that there did not seem to be any anomalous entries in them.
The last entry in the bootstrapper and dowser logs denoted success, so those components probably worked as expected, while the launcher log stopped at "2024-08-07T19:13:17.110Z (pid:53025) info [Game container]: Game dist platform: steam" (this line taken from the log now that it's working, but I remember this being the last line while it didn't work, just with a different timestamp and process id of course).

One more note: this is at least the second time this happened to me. I remember having this problem another time, though at more than a year ago I believe (and not well enough that I didn't still have to search around for solutions for an hour).


P.S. I hadn't actually tried simply restarting steam without deleting the launcher — it is possible that it was purely some internal state in steam that was corrupted (or, you know, unexpected somehow) and the launcher was perfectly fine (except for relying on this apparently-untrue assumption about the state of steam).