Mathematica 10.0 doesn't open (Mavericks os 10.9.4) - what's wrong?

Questions
1

Dear Community,
Suddenly this morning Mathematica (version 10.0.1) failed to open on my computer (Mac, os 10.9.4). There have been no changes to the system since I used the software most recently last night. The software tries to open (the icon bounces up and down) and the mathematica toolbar appears, but nothing ever happens beyond that. I tried the following without success:

  1. Rebooted several times
  2. Uninstalled and re-installed
  3. Updated to version 10.0.2

Has anyone had the same issue? I would appreciate any help or tips.

2

It may be the same problem as this one:

Hopefully the solution described there will work for you too.

3

I just talked with tech support who were very helpful and fast. This was due to some software cloud update. Here’s the solution:

  1. Turn off your internet connection.
  2. Open the Mac terminal and type…
  3. /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/MacOS/MathKernel
  4. The mathematica Kernel should be running in the window now - type:
  5. PacletUpdate[“CloudObject”]
  6. Close everything
  7. Open Mathematica and it should work

Also see this recent post:
http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/92931/mathematica-10-0-x-freezes-in-initializing-kernels

4

Yes, that was it! Just found it as well. Thanks for your quick reply.

5

I also had the same issue on my Mac and the suggested steps in the linked posts worked.
Given that I had not manually installed any Mathematica updates am I correct in assuming that Mathematica must be downloading updates/data in the background without my knowledge? I did try disabling my network connection but that did not fix the issue so I assume that something was transferred and saved locally for the problem to persist. Does anyone have any information regarding background updates that Mathematica does and how I can check for recent changes in case I get any future issues.

Thanks