For those who have problems launching or running SPSS statistics 22 or 23

I use SPSS statistics for data analysis all the time. However, recently I had two problems and I was able to find a reliable solution for both of them.

I have an intel iMac (late 2013) running Yosemite 10.10.2.

The first problem is the slow launch of SPSS. Recently SPSS would take up to 3 minutes to launch. I found the solution on IBM's site and it worked.

1- Quit SPSS if it is running. Wait until it quits completely (look at the application's dock icon).

2- Delete the following file : com.ibm.spss.plist from user/library/preferences

3- Launch Activity Monitor (in Applications/Utilities) and search for a process called CFPREFSD. In my case I found two : one owned by me and one by root. Force quit the one owned by the user. Wait until process restarts. Quit Activity Monitor.

4- Launch SPSS

The second problem is more complicated and I was not able to find a working solution on any site nor through technical support. I found it by logical deduction.

The problem appeared suddenly. When I launch SPSS a dialog box opens showing a server connection to local computer with two check boxes : if you click OK nothing happens. If you click "cancel" SPSS quits. I was completely unable to use SPSS !

The solutions proposed by IBM, by technical support and internet discussion did not work.

For example :

Solution 1 (did not work) : in Terminal type "sudo /Applications/IBM/SPSS/Statistics/22/SPSSStatistics.app/Contents/MacOS/stats"

Solution 2 (did not work) : create a new user account with admin privileges.

Solution 3 (did not work) : uninstall SPSS completely following instructions on IBM site; and then reinstall (they gave me a new licence code)

Solution 4 (did not work) : uninstall all Java components; reinstall them.

I decided then to look at the console at the moment the dialog appears and I noticed a line indicating a Warning about Java not being able to connect to a server. Unfortunately, now that I solved the problem I cannot find the exact line in Console. So I thought the problem must originate from some system file that was modified by Java or that is used by Java to connect to Internet. So here is the solution that worked :

1- Reinstall Mac OS Yosemite while maintaining the same user.

2- Install the Apple Java = SPSS works perfectly

3- Update Yosemite to 10.10.2 and Java from Oracle to version 8 update 40 : SPSS is still working.

I hope that these 2 solutions help mac SPSS users.

Cheers !!