The executable ... could not be started, although it does exist.

[fdaniel]

Hi,
first of all thank you for developing this product, it's very good. I have been using Synergy for a couple of weeks now and today I got this error message saying: "The executable /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys could not be successfully started, although it does exist. Please check if you have sufficient permissions to run this program." Until now everything worked fine. I haven't changed anything - neither in the Synergy config nor in my Mac's system/security configs. I googled the problem but I only found a closed GitHub issue from you, where no actual solution is provided. Could you please help me out? I already re-installed the application, it didn't do anything - my assumption is that I'd have to delete the config file itself so that a clean install would re-create a (hopefully) working one. FYI on my Windows machine (I use it as the client part) everything works perfectly meaning it listens to a server without error. I hope you can help me with this problem.

Key information:

• GitHub issue: https://github.com/symless/synergy/issues/3680
• System: Macbook Air, OSX El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1510)
• See attached images

Kind Regards,
Daniel

[Paul Suarez]

What version of Synergy do you have @fdaniel?

[fdaniel]

@Paul Suarez I bought and downloaded the product one week ago. As I noticed the error today (yesterday it worked flawlessly), I removed it and downloaded again from your homepage. My "About Synergy" below:

 

[fdaniel]

Maybe I should manually set read and write permissions on the synergys executable using "chmod"? 

[Paul Suarez]

Can you try installing v1.9 after uninstalling that and rebooting your machine? You can get it from Download Synergy 1.9-rc3 (Fixes the macOS WiFi lag bug) forums thread.

[fdaniel]

I've just uninstalled the old and installed the mentioned version and rebooted my Mac. I'm still getting the same error on initialization. 

Should I try and delete the config files manually, so that a new installation would re-create it? As you know, uninstalling a program on Mac doesn't automatically delete config files stored in a completely different directory. (Just trying to figure it out on my own...)

 

[Paul Suarez]

Can you try doing the steps in this comment on GitHub?

[fdaniel]

Thanks! This solved the issue, I can successfully connect to my Windows PC. However, I also get the "WARNING: unknown quartz event type: 0x1d" message constantly spammed on server side as described in the GitHub issue. Not that it bothers me at the moment, but I wanted to let you know. Thank you for the help!

For anyone out there who might stumble across this thread, here's the solution:

• Exit Synergy
• Open Terminal
• "rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.http-symless-com.Synergy.plist" then hit Enter
• "rm -rf ~/Library/Synergy/" Enter
• "killall -u $USER cfprefsd" and again Enter
• Restart Synergy

[Paul Suarez]

Great! Thanks for sharing the steps @fdaniel. 

[wyg.com.co]

Also works for me. I just want to let Synergy team know i got this problem when I install XAMPP

[Christopher Mann]

I'm having the same issue.  Willing to try the steps listed in the comment on GitHub, but the link above from Paul Suarez is a dead link

https://github.com/symless/synergy/issues/5901#issuecomment-286767441

Does anyone have instructions for how to fix this?  (Version 1 latest, on OSX).

Thanks for any help.

Oh, I should mention... this has been a stable installation for at least a week or so, and to my knowledge I have not installed any new software which could have caused a permissions change to any files.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Christopher Mann

[Christopher Mann]

Found an additional relevant bit of debugging info...

A stop/start within a running instance of the app repeatedly shows the aforementioned error message.

However, a full quit/start of the app clears the condition and it starts OK.  Hope that helps for others trying to figure out how to get around this.

[Kelvin Tran]

53 minutes ago, Christopher Mann said:

Found an additional relevant bit of debugging info...

A stop/start within a running instance of the app repeatedly shows the aforementioned error message.

However, a full quit/start of the app clears the condition and it starts OK.  Hope that helps for others trying to figure out how to get around this.

Have you tried reinstalling the software or repairing the permissions on the entire Synergy folder?

If not, use AppCleaner or a similar piece of software to completely remove all Synergy-related files from the system and then proceed to retry the installation.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Kelvin Tran

[Christopher Mann]

Hi Kelvin.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Do you have a link handy for the permissions fix?  Pardon me if it was mentioned earlier in this thread and I missed it.  I'd like to try, if this happens again.

Unless I'm missing something reinstalling is actually counterproductive here.  Restarting fixed the issue.  So to put it another way "why reinstall when simply restarting does the trick?"  A reinstall would also count as a 'restart' but indirectly.  I take your point though; if this happens *again* then yes I'll start looking for better long-term solutions and maybe a full reinstall might provide that.

[Kelvin Tran]

12 hours ago, Christopher Mann said:

Hi Kelvin.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Do you have a link handy for the permissions fix?  Pardon me if it was mentioned earlier in this thread and I missed it.  I'd like to try, if this happens again.

Unless I'm missing something reinstalling is actually counterproductive here.  Restarting fixed the issue.  So to put it another way "why reinstall when simply restarting does the trick?"  A reinstall would also count as a 'restart' but indirectly.  I take your point though; if this happens *again* then yes I'll start looking for better long-term solutions and maybe a full reinstall might provide that.

Correction: a reinstall would not count as a restart. In some situations, both will work. However, in situations where I suspect that broken dynamic file links or other issues with such a connotation are involved, I will suggest reinstall above all else. 

A reinstallation is counterproductive for a short period of time, but it's a necessary evil if it works to fix the issue that you're having. Permissions repair were not mentioned in this thread, you can research that further if you'd like, I don't recall how permissions repair would be handled, only that it's something in Disk Utility.

[nicekwell]

On 2017/6/23 at 3:17 AM, fdaniel said:

Thanks! This solved the issue, I can successfully connect to my Windows PC. However, I also get the "WARNING: unknown quartz event type: 0x1d" message constantly spammed on server side as described in the GitHub issue. Not that it bothers me at the moment, but I wanted to let you know. Thank you for the help!

For anyone out there who might stumble across this thread, here's the solution:

• Exit Synergy
• Open Terminal
• "rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.http-symless-com.Synergy.plist" then hit Enter
• "rm -rf ~/Library/Synergy/" Enter
• "killall -u $USER cfprefsd" and again Enter
• Restart Synergy

Thanks a lot. It helped me.

[l33tEd]

The fix doesn't work with macOS Catalina 10.15.1.  I did this:

• Exit Synergy
• Open Terminal
• "rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.http-symless-com.Synergy.plist" then hit Enter
• "rm -rf ~/Library/Synergy/" Enter
• "killall -u $USER cfprefsd" and again Enter
• Restart Synergy

Still doesn't work.

[Chris2]

Just upgraded to Catalina, having this issue, the above fix did not work for me either :-(

 

[Unshakeable]

Thread Resurrection

Version 1.11.0-stableb2173fb  just did for the same for me after about 5 days of use on a MacOs Catalina 10.15.3

For me though, it was just closing Synergy and restarted - then it worked again

 

 

[gdavisiv]

I've run into the exact same issue also, it was working completely fine for a about a week and then the following morning when I woke up my Mac which is the client, the keyboard/mouse was not working.  I logged in and noticed the app had stopped.  I started it and received the exact same error message.  I decided not to try the above fix I'm running :  Synergy Version 1.11.1-stable-55ec3105 with Mac Version : 10.15.2

What fixed it was closing and re-starting the synergy app on the MAC

The synergy server or PC was turned off and then turned back on.

[I Can't Do That Dave]

Just purchased this software.  And I am having the same problem.  This must have something to do with the new security/permissions in Catalina set up with Apple.

I tried:

Re-install

chmod -R 777 Synergy.app

Did not work.

_______________

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.http-symless-com.Synergy.plist

rm -rf ~/Library/Synergy/

killall -u $USER cfprefsd

Re-install

chmod -R 777 Synergy.app

Did not work.

[JackTheBodiless]

I'm a fully paid up user of this wonderful software; but I am still at a complete loss as to why this happens on MacOS 10.13.6 with a Windows server - If I reboot my mac-mini, synergyc works fine for a few days, then I get this error. I'm not upgrading the OS, or installing security patches, or upgrading the app. Why does it consistently fail over time, then after rebooting, it just works? This has been the case for the last year. What is changing over time that breaks it? (As a very highly experienced Linux software developer, something is extremely smelly - is it MacOS or Synergy?!)

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by JackTheBodiless
Adding more facts

[Kennedy]

I'm seeing the same behavior on Mac OS Catalina client connecting to a Windows server. Works fine for a few days to a week and then I get this error.

[Unshakeable]

And just to add,   Catalina 10.15.4 on both server and client still has this issue after a fair few hours of inactivity.

Could it be if you leave the cursor / active window on the client,   client goes into sleep/hibernation, server doesnt regain cursor and then memory leaks itself out to death ?

[AUssieMate]

This is also an Huge issue for me.  After I come back to my MACS after a time of inactivity one of the 3  has this showing which make synergy useless as you have to remote into the Mac to restart synergy.