How to resolve the Could not open Postman error?

If one of this error message brought you here, read on and follow the troubleshooting steps.

You can easily unblock yourself and continue with your work by following the steps below: 

Restart the app

1. Quit the app.
2. Cleanup all processes of the app.
   1. For Linux and macOS -
      1. Run the following command in the terminal - killall Postman
   2. For Windows -
      1. Open the Task Manager. (Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc)
      2. End all processes with the name Postman.
3. Restart the app.

Update the app

If the error still persists, try updating to the latest version of the app -

1. Before installing the new version, follow the previous section to quit the app and clean up all processes.
2. The latest version of the app can be downloaded from https://www.postman.com/downloads.

Clean up local files and restart the app

Before going ahead and deleting your Postman local data - please check if your system is out of hard disk space. If it is, then clearing up some storage by deleting unnecessary files should fix the issue.

If the above steps don't work for troubleshooting the issue, then deleting your Postman installation local files and reinstalling the App latest version should fix this issue.

Please go through the following requirements before deleting your Postman data.

Deleting your Postman installation local files and reinstalling the App latest version should fix this issue.

Before going ahead and deleting your Postman local data - please go through the below list of requirements. 

Requirements

Please note that removing the local files will permanently delete all your local Postman data. The resolution of this issue will depend on whether you have a Postman account registered or not. 

You have a Postman account

Make sure your work is synced to your Postman account.

1. Head to this page and check that your data is synced to your Postman account.
2. Check your Activity Feed to make sure recent changes have been captured.
3. If your work is Synced, then let's proceed with the Resolution steps to remove the local data.

You work locally without any Postman account

Do not delete your local data and go to the Resolution steps to rename your Postman folder. 

Resolution steps to remove the local data

1. Force quit all open instances of the app. 
   
   • macOS | Opt+Cmd+ Esc
   • Windows | Ctrl+Alt+Del
     
     
2. Uninstall Postman (Windows users only)
   
   • Windows users - uninstall all versions of Postman, including our Chrome app. Note that the Postman Canary runs independently, so it doesn't need to be uninstalled. 
   • macOS users - go to step 3. 
     
     
3. Delete the local data
   

   Delete the Postman folder(s), found at the below locations depending on your operating system. 

   macOS - Go to Finder (Cmd+Opt+Space) > Go to folder (Shift+Cmd+G) > Paste ~/Library/Application Support/Postman  > hit return > Delete the files.

   Windows

   Open File Explorer and paste in the Path field

   C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Postman and
   C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Postman 

   and delete the files in both locations.

   Linux

   ~/.config/Postman

4. Head to the download page and install the latest version of Postman (Windows users only).  

Resolution steps to rename your Postman folder

1. Rename your Postman file (e.g Postman.old) located at the below locations depending on your operating system.

   

   macOS

   Go to Finder (Cmd + Opt + Space) > Go to folder (Shift + Cmd + G) > Paste ~/Library/Application Support and hit return.

   Windows

   Go to File Explorer and paste in the Path field
   C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Postman and
   C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Postman

   You can then rename the file Postman_local.old and Postman_roaming.old

   Linux

   ~/.config 

2. Open the Postman app. This will trigger the creation of a new Postman folder in your local data. 
3. Quit the app. 
4. Transfer your Indexed DB files from your Postman.old folder to your new Postman folder. 
   
   
   
   
5. Open the Postman app, if the data populates as expected, go ahead and remove the <Postman.old> folder.
   
   
   

Further troubleshooting 

Windows users 

If the above steps did not help in solving the issue, the following options may help.

• Launch Postman from the command prompt, using the following command:

start /affinity 1 %LocalAppData%\Postman\app-7.3.4\Postman.exe

• Check your Windows environment for a NODE_OPTIONS variable. Remove it, then launch Postman again using the command above.

Black screen when launching Postman

Please follow the steps mentioned in this article here: Postman window is blank

Please contact Postman Support team if you are still seeing this error

If the app continues to throw this error upon the launch - please reach out to our Support and submit a ticket from this page. 

For our team to help you solve this issue efficiently, please make sure to share the information below.

• a walkthrough of the steps you already took to try to resolve the issue.
• a screenshot of the error. 
• your app the logs - How to share app logs with Postman for debugging the issue