Mac client does not run at all

[f0zb0z]

The launcher starts fine, but when I click "Play", a new window appears, which is just a black screen. The mouse cursor does change to the FFXIV cursor. My only option then is to force quit.

Anyone else having this problem?

2018 MacBook Pro 13-inch
2.7 GHz i7
16GB RAM
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536MB

OSX 10.15.1

[Avenger]

I ran into a similar “black screen” problem this week with the latest update. What fixed it was Config>Reset System Settings (which helpfully does actually say “this option is recommended when the game fails to launch.”)

Note that this does delete your UI, hotbar, macro and gear sets so you will probably want to back them up beforehand using Config>Back Up.

In my case I had a server side backup but when I restored it it was somehow deleted, so having a local backup is also good. I also had screenshots of my hotbars and old macros, but just ended up making new ones from scratch.

[Avalon_Albrook]

I'm having the exact same issue right now -- launcher starts great, I log in, the play button appears without a hitch, but when the new window opens for the game itself, it stays on a black screen while giving me the XIV mouse cursor. The cursor moves around just fine, it's clearly not frozen. And slowly but surely, my fan will rev up harder and harder until I have to force quit it.

Doing the system setting reset was pointless for me as this was me trying to even load the game for the first time (bought the mac version because of Black Friday to supplement my PS4 habits). But i tried the system settings reset anyway. No luck. Still the same problem.

[Socke]

I'm able to launch the game but if I move my mouse diagonally it completely tanks the FPS. It is making the game unplayable since every time I try to look around I start to drop to single digit frames.

Here's a couple videos showing it -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqdOxwgSI4A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk2Kj6dwCHg

In the 2nd video you can see that I am running in Windowed mode, I have turned my refresh rate down to 60 (from 144). It only drops the frames when I move my mouse in-game when it is the active window.

I've tried clearing my user settings, I've tried turning my graphics down, using the OS cursor instead of the FFXIV one. I completely reinstalled the game cleanly and it didn't change anything.

Any help would be much appreciated. I can't play the game when it's doing this.

Specs:

Mac mini 2018
i7 6-Cores 3.2GHz
32GB Memory
Razer Core X eGPU with a RX 590
macOS Catalina (fully updated)

[Maram]

Anyone else having this problem?

Yes. I am having exactly the same problem. Running a 2018 13 inch Macbook Pro.

Resetting system settings didn't help.

No problems until I updated to Catalina.

[f0zb0z]

I'm having the exact same issue right now -- launcher starts great, I log in, the play button appears without a hitch, but when the new window opens for the game itself, it stays on a black screen while giving me the XIV mouse cursor. The cursor moves around just fine, it's clearly not frozen. And slowly but surely, my fan will rev up harder and harder until I have to force quit it.

Doing the system setting reset was pointless for me as this was me trying to even load the game for the first time (bought the mac version because of Black Friday to supplement my PS4 habits). But i tried the system settings reset anyway. No luck. Still the same problem.

Same here, bought the Mac version in Black Friday sale so I can play on my laptop while I'm travelling around during the holidays, but it seems I've wasted my money.

I am somewhat glad to see that others have the problem after upgrading to Catalina, so at least it's not my hardware that's preventing the game from launching.

[Avenger]

That is too bad. I am running Catalina and the 64-bit FFXIV client with no problems at the moment.

Catalina does add some new permission restrictions.

I think I added the following changes to System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Privacy:
Files and Folders: give FFXIV access to Documents and Desktop folder (not sure if either is actually necessary.)
Accessibility: enabled for FFXIV.

[Avenger]

Regarding the mouse issue perhaps you might have different results with the OS pointer vs. ffxiv software pointer. You could try adjusting the ffxiv mouse pointer settings.

One difference for me is that I am not using the intel integrated gpu - perhaps there are issues with it.

Until they fix the issues you could try running under Windows/boot camp. It is annoying to have to reboot (and to have to buy another copy of ffxiv) but I find that the Windows client has about double the frame rate of the macOS/WINE FFXIV client on the same hardware.

[Socke]

Regarding the mouse issue perhaps you might have different results with the OS pointer vs. ffxiv software pointer. You could try adjusting the ffxiv mouse pointer settings.

One difference for me is that I am not using the intel integrated gpu - perhaps there are issues with it.

Until they fix the issues you could try running under Windows/boot camp. It is annoying to have to reboot (and to have to buy another copy of ffxiv) but I find that the Windows client has about double the frame rate of the macOS/WINE FFXIV client on the same hardware.

Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately setting it to either OS cursor or software cursor doesn't fix the issue. I'm not using the integrated GPU either, I'm using an eGPU, or I'd try that out.

Running in Bootcamp would definitely solve the problem for now but I only own the Mac version of Shadowbringers. Hopefully they fix this soon.

[f0zb0z]

Thanks for the suggestion. I already had access to Documents and Accessibility enabled. Even tried giving it full-disk access, that didn't work either.