Postgres.app Could not start on port 5432

Question

I\'m using http://postgresapp.com. In the menubar it gives the error \" Could not start on port 5432.\" Similarly if I try to start the server from the terminal, I get:

Answer 1

I have tried just about every solution to this problem that is out there. For me it always happens when my MacBook's battery dies, even if the computer is already sleeping. I was poking around in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Postgres/var-9.4 and I discovered another postmaster.pid file that I had not seen before. I deleted it, and now everything is back up and running! I am running the Postgres.app version, not the brew version.

Steps I took:

1. Make sure postgres.app is not running.
2. Run rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Postgres/var-9.$X/postmaster.pid
3. If you don't have a var-9.$X directory, just run rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Postgres/postmaster.pid
4. Restart postgres.app
5. Get back to developing cool stuff.