Affected versions
This article applies to all versions of Connect Fonts , running on macOS Mojave (10.15) and later.
Symptoms
When you open Connect Fonts for Mac you get an error dialog; clicking OK quits the application.
Solution
The macOS hosts file is missing an entry that points the hostname “localhost” to the loopback address (127.0.0.1). Third-party applications or network utilities may remove or change this entry, and Connect Fonts must be able to resolve localhost to 127.0.0.1 in order to connect to the type core.
You can check your hosts file in a Terminal window:
- Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
- Enter the following command and press Enter:
cat /private/etc/hosts
The default hosts file should look like this:
## # Host Database # # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface # when the system is booting. Do not change this entry. ## 127.0.0.1 localhost 255.255.255.255 broadcasthost ::1 localhost
If your hosts file does not have an entry for 127.0.0.1 that points to localhost, you can download a script from https://cs.extensis.com/font/replace-hosts-file.zip that will replace your current hosts file with a clean copy. The script must be run from a macOS user account with Administrator privileges.
- Unzip repair-hosts-file.zip
- Double-click the repair-hosts-file.command file
- If there is a "Cannot verify Developer" error - try right clicking > Open With ... > Terminal.app
- If you still receive that error, please Open Terminal itself and Drag the .command file into Terminal
- Enter your macOS password when asked
- Restart your Mac