[2020] Issue opening the game from GoG Galaxy, MacOS (launcher-installer-macos: permission denied)

Is your MacOS User Documents folder on your local disk, or has iCloud grabbed it? If the latter, that's a problem with the launcher at the moment - can you move it back?

If that's not the issue, then it's probably a file access/permissions issue in MacOS. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy. Then select the Privacy tab. Scroll down to files and folder in the left column. You’ll see a list of apps and the folders they need access to. Check the box to give access.  

The launcher has problems with iCloud and OneDrive, it is true. It would need a fix in the launcher I believe.  

snark_21 said: Have the same problem, iCloud is disabled, when I tried your method I receive "No such file or directory" in Terminal. Almost give up (

Did you look at the permissions as I described in post #2?  

g0k said: I have a similar problem. When I try to start the game I get the message: "Failed to install Paradox Launcher: fork/exec /Applications/Stellaris/launcher-installer-macos: no such file or directory..."

GOG Galaxy 2.0.15 (43)
macOS Catalina 10.15.5
iCloud: ON

This is an unrelated problem to the one discussed in this thread; in future please make your own thread, thanks.


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.

If that does not get the launcher running, we will need these files from that same folder:

Attach ALL .log files Found here ~/Library/Application Support/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/  

eglinski said: Also getting this error.

I use GOG Galaxy to install to a separate drive on macOS 15.7.

Failed to install Paradox Launcher: fork/exec … permission denied

Did you try the steps in the post above yours?  

Odd then how they helped them but not you! What output did you see from those two commands?

@Shoshin I wonder if you have any further thoughts on this?  

eglinski said: From the .log—

2020-10-21 09:32:51 [main] [INFO][0m Dowser version: 2019.11.1
2020-10-21 09:32:51 [main] [INFO][0m The `launcherpath` file does not exists:
/Users/eglinski/Library/Preferences/Paradox Interactive/launcherpath
[35m2020-10-21 09:32:57 [main] [CRITICAL][0m Failed to install Paradox Launcher:
fork/exec /Volumes/Київ/GOG/Stellaris/launcher-installer-macos: permission denied
2020-10-22 11:22:52 [main] [INFO][0m Dowser version: 2019.11.1
2020-10-22 11:22:52 [main] [INFO][0m The `launcherpath` file does not exists:
/Users/eglinski/Library/Preferences/Paradox Interactive/launcherpath

You're still using a very old version of the launcher installer there. Let's try forcing an update of the launcher.

Download the installer package: https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/emailsignatures/2020.13-mac-prod.zip

Unpack the file you just downloaded and place the three files in the GoG folder for the game you're having issues with. If asked if you want to replace already existing files click "yes" - that's a sign you are in the right place!

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 GoG, to reinstall the launcher.

Good luck with that!  

eglinski said: Now I can’t even post this comment to you because the forum is responding: “Your content can not be submitted. This is likely because your content is spam-like or contains inappropriate elements. Please change your content or try again later. If you still have problems, please contact an administrator.”

Forum users with low numbers of posts cannot include links to anywhere. This is an anti-spam measure. You can post anything else but links.  

New launcher link:
https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/emailsignatures/2021.5-mac-prod.zip