FileMaker Server on macOS no longer boots after restart. What can I do?

Moin Moin,

Recently, our customers have often experienced that the FileMaker Server does not start up after a restart of the Mac and databases are not shared in the network. Access to the Admin Console is not possible because the browser cannot find the server. In our case, it was often the case that the FileMaker Server process was specified as running, but the service could not be stopped or restarted even with direct commands via the terminal. 

What helped in all cases?

We have started Disk Utility on the Mac and run the First Aid function on the drive where the FileMaker Server databases are located, which in most cases is also the startup volume. It is quite possible that the "First Aid" function will not report any particular error after execution. After restarting the Mac after executing the "First Aid" function in Disk Utility, in our cases FileMaker Server started up correctly and released the databases in the network again.

Access to the databases is possible, but no data can be written.

In this case, please check the file system rights of the databases shared by FileMaker Server. These are located by default in the folder /Library/FileMaker Server/Data/Databases. Click on each file and check whether the macOS user "fmserver User" has read and write permissions for each shared file. You can also set these rights for the entire folder by clicking on the parent folder (Databases) and using the "Information" function to open the info window. Then add the user "fmserver User" and select the function "Apply to all sub-objects" at the bottom left. You may need to enter your Mac password here for confirmation.