Dear Han,
I just upgraded my Macbook to the new OS Sierra.
I downloaded ELAN 4.9.4., but I can’t open and install it. If I click on the ELAN symbol, nothing happens, and the window closes automatically. I don’t know whether it has anything to do with Java (I just installed the newest Java version for Mac) or if there is any other reason.
Do you have some advice what I could do to get ELAN running?
Thank you!!
Best,
Josefina
Hi,
I did exactly the same as Josefina and I am having the same problem. I called apple and they have not been able to resolve the issue on their end. Please let me know if you have any advice on how to fix this. Thank you!
~Sara
Hi Sara 
Which Java version did you install?
Josefina
Hi Josefina! I downloaded this version: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?locale=en_US. I was a little worried at the time because it didn’t include Sierra in the list it was supporting, but as soon as I downloaded it, I stopped getting the pop up message about installing Java Runtime 6E. But if I try and open ELAN, there’s a movement in my toolbar as if it will open there, but then immediately closes and ELAN never actually opens. I have another call with Apple this morning. I’ll let you know if I make any progress. Hope all is well!
~Sara
Yes, this is exactly what is happening for me, too. Hope we will try to sort it out!
Josefina
I spoke with Apple for the second time and they say that the problem isn’t something they can fix, it’s that the ELAN software needs to be updated to work with OS Sierra. The only other option would be resetting your computer and installing an earlier version of OS X, but you would need to make sure you had a backup of your computer at an earlier version, because otherwise you lose everything, and the whole re-installing and putting everything back on your computer is going to take a while to do. 
I won’t be able to upgrade one of our Macs to Sierra before next week. Hopefully we’ll then discover in what way ELAN has to be updated to make it compatible with Sierra.
I don’t suppose any of you tried the JavaFX based version of ELAN (which requires Java 8)? Or maybe you found some meaningful messages in the system logs?
-Han
Hi Han,
thanks for your answer!
No, I have not tried the JavaFX version, but will do. If I understand it right, it has some limitations compared to the other versions?
@Sara: Yes, I thought about that, too, but I don’t really wanna go back to installing an earlier OS X version unless there is really no other way of fixing it, because as you say, re-installing is kind of a hassle.
Please Han, let me know when you have had time to try out installing Sierra and testing it. Thank you very much for your support.
Josefina
Yes, the JavaFX version is a special variant of ELAN 4.9.2 (so it doesn’t have the fixes and new features of 4.9.3 and 4.9.4) and it is limited in its support for video files (basically only .mp4). But if this one does launch, it would indicate the problem has to do with the Java version.
Yesterday I tried to upgrade an old MacBook to Sierra but the machine is not supported by the latest OS version. So, I have to wait a little until I have a newer Mac available.
I now got a Mac with Sierra and on this system the JavaFX version launches and seems to work (based on a quick test).
The normal ELAN 4.9.4 indeed fails to launch and in the system log there is only a message that launch application terminated with an error code, nothing more. We have to sort out what is the actual problem and how to solve it.
I created a shell script to launch ELAN from the command line, maybe this could work for you too (for the time being). If you download this zip file and copy the .sh file it contains to the ELAN_4.9.4 folder (so at the same level as the “normal” ELAN_4.9.4.app executable) then you can run a from the command line in a Terminal window. If you are not familiar with the command line you could do this:
- launch Terminal (e.g. via Spotlight)
- drag the above mentioned .sh file (from the ELAN_4.9.4 folder) into the Terminal window (this copies the path)
- with the Terminal window active hit Enter
If ELAN then launches you can try if everything works correctly.
Hi Han,
thank you so much for your help, amazing, this indeed seems to work. Do I then need to launch ELAN via terminal every time?
Best
Josefina
Yes, I’m afraid so, until we found a more long term solution for this problem. So far, no luck.
I’ve noticed that when using the JavaFX version of ELAN, video playback does not work correctly; the video will not scrub with the mouse, and when annotating, if you click and drag, the video doesn’t update at all. Is this a known issue? – I haven’t tried using the shell script you’ve uploaded yet, but I will try that and see if it helps.
Some known issues of the JavaFX version are mentioned in the release notes (including concerning frame stepping):
https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/release-notes/#JFX
In the meantime I’ve been testing and trying different system settings and somehow I got ELAN 4.9.4 running now on Sierra, but I can’t reproduce the right settings for e.g. ELAN 4.9.3, so it’s still unclear how to really fix it. We’ll probably (first) release a special ELAN 4.9.4 version with the shell script packaged in the .app, which will make launching ELAN a bit more like on previous OS versions.
We’ve now uploaded a modified version of ELAN 4.9.4 that hopefully runs on Sierra. It runs on our test machine but I’m not sure if this means that it’ll run on other Mac with Sierra installed. So it would be good if someone else could try this version:
ELAN 4.9.4 for Sierra
I downloaded the special ELAN 4.9.4 for Sierra application, replaced the standard ELAN 4.9.4 in the subfolder in my Applications directory with the Sierra version, and it seems to launch just fine.
(I have tried launching from the subdirectory itself, launching by clicking on an .eaf file, and launching it via QuickSilver.)
Also works for me. Thanks Han!
Thanks for the confirmation, I’ve added the link to the ELAN download page. For the next release we’ll try to create a package that works on all supported Mac OS versions again.
ELAN 4.9.4 Sierra worked for me too!
Thanks Han!
Just to be clear, should ELAN 4.9.4 Sierra be run with the legacy Java SE 6 runtime or Java 8? Thanks!