Postgres.app Could not start on port 5432

user_765357 0
Viewed 127340

I'm using http://postgresapp.com. In the menubar it gives the error " Could not start on port 5432." Similarly if I try to start the server from the terminal, I get:

psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
    Is the server running locally and accepting
    connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

I also ran pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start and got the output server starting but still get the same errors when connecting to psql.

macos postgresql
26 Answers

If you are running your server on a macOS machine and installed Postgres through Homebrew, you can stop the current instance like this:

brew services stop postgresql

Then click the Elephant in the native menu-bar at the top of the screen and it should successfully startup.

user_15862310

If you've installed Postgres via another method (for example, from www.postgresql.org) and it's starting automatically at startup, you can prevent that Postgres from starting via the following:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.edb.launchd.postgresql-X.X.plist  
sudo rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.edb.launchd.postgresql-X.X.plist

TIP: use tab to autocomplete after the com.edb.launchd part to figure out what version is loading.

Restart Postgres.app and you should be good to go.

(from http://forums.enterprisedb.com/posts/list/1831.page;jsessionid=70621DC48C99EDE663A6A594B05F1A02#6782)

user_2040440

This command is a one-liner that instantly kills all PostgresSQL processes.

sudo kill -kill $(sudo lsof -t -i :5432)

This fixed all my problems on Mac OSX Mojave 10.14.1.

user_61798270

I generally face this issue on my mac, and this fixes it for me always

rm /usr/local/var/postgres/postmaster.pid
brew services restart postgresql

Hope this is helpful

user_92274480
user_75521480

For those using mac, this code worked for me like charm.

sudo pkill -u postgres
user_49937150

Netstat, ps aux, etc ... none showed 5432 in use. Checked /Library. Found PG9.6 old install still there. Did rm -rf and bang. Version 11 works fine.

user_18298460

I was losing my mind over this problem! i kept running

lsof -i | grep 5432

and nothing was showing up! finally i ran it using sudo and a potgres client showed up. so if anyone else has tried the lsof and went nowhere, try it with sudo.

sudo lsof -i | grep 5432

and then

sudo kill <the_pid_from_postgresql_found_from_lsof>

user_164741500
user_42998330

I had this same issue and mine was caused by some configuration issues I was having. Clearing the user configurations and reinstalling postgres in brew worked for me!

brew uninstall postgresql
rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres

user_122435620
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