IBM Support

IBM SPSS Statistics 'hangs' after you launch and begin using it.

Troubleshooting


Problem

You have installed IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 or later for macOS.  After launching the product and while trying to use it, you receive no errors and the interface hangs.  Suddenly you can't do anything other than "Force Quit" the application.

Cause

The executing user does not own the "~/Library/Application Support" nor "~/Library/Application Support/IBM" paths.

Environment

macOS

Diagnosing The Problem

One thing to test is to make certain that the account you are using to run Statistics is the same account that owns your writable folders. To test that, run the following:

  1. Open a MacOS Terminal window
  2. Type:  ls -l ~/Library  <return>
  3. Look down the listing until you find the "Application Support" folder.  

The owner name in the 3rd column should be the same user account as the one you are logged in to for running Stats. For example for me it shows my username for my MacOS account: SPSSSupport

If the account name is correct above, do the same thing for the "~/Library/Application Support" folder, and look to see if there is an "IBM" sub-folder there. If there is, make sure the owner of that folder is also your username account.

 

Resolving The Problem

Normally the owner of this folder is the same as the logged in account and that is documented by Apple.

For the following example, assume a user named "SPSSUser".  Every place you see "SPSSUser" in this example, substitute your own user credentials when you attempt to implement these steps.


Here’s what you should do to make your account the owner of the “~/Library/Application Support” folder:

  1. Open a MacOS Terminal window
  2. Type:  cd ~/Library  <return>
  3. Type:  sudo chown SPSSUser "Application Support" <Return>  

You will be prompted for your account password in step #3 above. Provide the password and then do an ls -l from the same command prompt to confirm that the "SPSSUser" account now owns the "Application Support" folder.

One more thing to confirm before you can start happily using Statistics: We need to see if there is already an "IBM" folder under the "Application Support" folder.

  1. Type: ls -l "Application Support" <Return>  

To see if there is an IBM folder already beneath "Application Support". If there is no folder there, no problem. If there is already an IBM folder there, make sure the owner is "SPSSUser" and not "fred" or  "501" or some other unique identifier (UID). If the owner is some value other than your own username (e.g. "SPSSUser"), then change directories into the "Application Support" folder and fix the IBM folder in the same way:

From the same terminal window, change to the "Application Support" sub-folder and change ownership of the "IBM" folder:

  1. Type: cd "Application Support" <Return>  
  2. Type:  sudo chown -R SPSSUser "IBM" <Return>  

Once you are sure that your account owns either the "Application Support" folder or the "IBM" folder beneath it (if it exists), you should then be able to run SPSS Statistics normally.

Document Location

Worldwide

[{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSLVMB","label":"IBM SPSS Statistics"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m500000008hFJAAY","label":"Statistics-\u003EErrors\/Issues"}],"ARM Case Number":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF017","label":"Mac OS"}],"Version":"27.0.1;28.0.0;28.0.1;29.0.0"}]

Document Information

Modified date:
04 October 2022

UID

ibm16826765

Page Feedback