I’ve just installed it from Appstore on a Macbook Pro M1. But the application won’t start. The icon shows up and quits quickly. It’s the same when I call
open -n /Applications/DeltaChat.app
Not sure how to get a verbose log from it on a Mac.
The latest news in the Appstore description are for version 1.42, so that must be the app version.
Is it a problem with the M1 chip or something else? Should I try to download from the Deltachat website instead of installing from Appstore?
works for me under rosetta on macOS Sonoma.
Try this to get some log output:
/Applications/DeltaChat.app/Contents/MacOS/DeltaChat --devmode
you can find log files under:
~/Library/Application Support/DeltaChat/logs
you can also download the new beta version under Index of /desktop/v1.43.1/
Thanks! The log says it cannot bind some socket and “only one instance allowed”:
% /Applications/DeltaChat.app/Contents/MacOS/DeltaChat --devmode
[5466:0229/003537.465329:ERROR:process_singleton_posix.cc(1161)] Failed to bind() /var/folders/bx/5wzkf_gn64z9n53__wlycypr0000gn/T/chat.delta.desktop.electron/S/SingletonSocket: Operation not permitted (1)
Only one instance allowed. Quitting.
It’s similar to this issue on electron github. They closed the issue with saying: “You need to package your app for the mas platform instead of the darwin platform if your intention is to ship the app to the Mac App Store (MAS)”. Not sure if it applies here.
Not sure what “Only one instance allowed” means. I do not see any other Delta process running. But the directory chat.delta.desktop.electron did not contain the subdirectory S. So I tried to just make it and launch again:
% pgrep elta
%
% mkdir /var/folders/bx/5wzkf_gn64z9n53__wlycypr0000gn/T/chat.delta.desktop.electron/S
% /Applications/DeltaChat.app/Contents/MacOS/DeltaChat --devmode
zsh: trace trap /Applications/DeltaChat.app/Contents/MacOS/DeltaChat --devmode
And now macOS opened the application crash report program. Among other things it says:
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 5 Trace/BPT trap: 5
Terminating Process: exc handler [7991]
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 Electron Framework 0x118e41113 node::AsyncResource::get_async_id() const + 68818307
1 Electron Framework 0x118e4051d node::AsyncResource::get_async_id() const + 68815245
2 Electron Framework 0x118e404c9 node::AsyncResource::get_async_id() const + 68815161
3 Electron Framework 0x112098300 ElectronInitializeICUandStartNode + 27904
4 Electron Framework 0x1120ab3eb ElectronInitializeICUandStartNode + 105963
5 Electron Framework 0x1120ab393 ElectronInitializeICUandStartNode + 105875
6 Electron Framework 0x1120ab268 ElectronInitializeICUandStartNode + 105576
7 Electron Framework 0x111c9c502 0x111c68000 + 214274
Also, it created nothing in that S/ subdirectory.
Apparently, I do not have the directory ~/Library/Application\ Support/DeltaChat/. And neither /Library/Application\ Support/DeltaChat/.
I will give it a couple more tries in the following days, and after that will download the beta version.
It works indeed on macOS Sonoma 14.3!
But I messed up how delta.chat works on multiple devices. I logged into my email on this macbook and found that all the Saved Messages cannot be decrypted, you need to “add second device”. Of course, scanning a QR code is easier with the phone, so I did “add second device” from macbook and scanned the QR code with the phone. Now the app on the phone cannot decrypt all my old Saved Messages either 
It’s not a problem for me, those were just a few messages. But just a surprise.
I guess, each client app generates a key pair locally, right? So, the QR code of “add second device” passes the private key?
yes
It passes everything (keys, chats, messages, contacts, attachments). it basically the same as a backup transfer, but automatic, encrypted and transmitted over the local network p2p.