I use MacOS High Sierra (v. 10.13.6) and have a license to SPSS v 29 and I am unable to open SPSS syntax files. 

Nothing happens if I attempt to open a syntax files from SPSS. If I have SPSS closed and attempt to open a syntax file, SPSS launches and then crashes/closes. The files are not corrupt as I can open them as text files, and have tried several different syntax files. 

To try to get around the issue, I went to SPSS preferences and selected the option that opens a syntax file on launch. Unfortunately, SPSS just crashes on launch now and I'm unable to turn that setting off. 

What is the issue with syntax files on Mac computers? I had this with v 28 and 29. Any solutions will be much appreciated. 

Hi. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but I'd like to try something.

I've attached a shell script that I want you to run after you edit it. Edit it by changing the line

USERID=<your userid here>

Replace the right-hand side with whatever your userid is. If you don't know what that string is, in a terminal window, enter the command

whoami

and the Mac will return the string to use. Once you've done that, run the script using sudo:

sudo sh </path/clean_script.sh>

where /path is wherever you saved that script to.

Think of this script as kind of "reset" button for SPSS. After successfully running it, please start SPSS again, and let's see what happens.

Attachment(s)

clean_script.sh   1 KB 1 version

Hi Rick,

Thanks so much for trying to help me with this issue. I wasn't able to run that script - I get the error "cannot execute binary file" when run using sudo in a terminal window. Do you have any suggestions? 

Looking at it in Script Editor, which I used to save the file as a .sh, some error messages do pop up (e.g., the " is unexpected in the line starting with echo, and the "." in the line rm -fr /Library/Preferences/com.spss* ). Could this be the issue? 

Thanks again,

Samantha 

The file I sent you is already a script - just a text file.

Send your email address to me at marcantr@us.ibm.com.

We'll try sending it a different way.