Opening NI MAX or NI-VISA in LabVIEW Causes LabVIEW to Quit Unexpectedly.

Updated Oct 30, 2023

Reported In

Software

  • Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX)
  • LabVIEW

Driver

  • NI-VISA

Operating System

  • Mac OS X

Other

  • macOS 10.13.2 High Sierra
  • macOS 10.15.6 Catalina

Issue Details

I have a fresh installation of LabVIEW on my Mac, and both LabVIEW and NI MAX open correctly. After installing the NI-VISA driver, I try to open NI-VISA examples from the NI Example Finder and I get the message stating that LabVIEW has "quit unexpectedly". I try to open NI MAX and I receive a similar message. I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled LabVIEW and the NI-VISA driver, but LabVIEW and NI MAX still crash. 

Solution

This is a problem related to macOS and is due to either:

  1. The security settings on macOS blocking NI software.
    1. If during the first installation of NI software, the security permission were not set correctly, then macOS will block NI Software. This setting will be saved and will not appear again, even during reinstallation of NI software.
  2. Or incompatibilities with an minor update to the current macOS. 
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1. Changing the Security Settings to Allow NI Software 

  1. Restart your computer
  2. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General
  3. Go to System Software from Developer
  4. Find National Instruments. There should be a message that National Instruments was blocked from loading. Click the "Allow" button and then your NI software should work.
    1. The "Allow" button may not work if you are logged in remotely and may require manual log in.  

2. Updating Mac OS

If changing the security settings don't work, then update macOS. It's a good idea to do a minor version update first, for example change macOS 10.13.2 High Sierra to 10.13.6 or macOS 10.15.6 Catalina to 10.15.7. Instructions on how to update and finding update can be found in the Mac Help pages or by searching online. Before installing a major update (for example macOS Catalina 10.15.6 to macOS Big Sur 11), check LabVIEW and macOS Compatibility. 

Additional Information

As of December 2020, LabVIEW isn't support on macOS 11 Big Sur, however, this is expected to be fixed with LabVIEW 2020 SP1. If using LabVIEW on macOS 11, read this KB for guidance: LabVIEW Crashes on Home Page on macOS 11 Big Sur.

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