Resolve "Binaries not found" error in Postgres.app

Question

I'm following these instructions to set up PostgreSQL on my Mac. Step 3 says I need to click Initialize, however there's no such button. Instead, the error message "Binaries not found" is displayed and, if I click the similar Start button, the error message "The binaries for this PostgreSQL server were not found" is displayed. I just downloaded a clean version of Postres.app, so not sure why this wouldn't be working right out of the box.

How to resolve?

Answer 1

I found this answer by stromal on Postgres.app's GitHub:

I solved it by opening up the application's sliding windows, than clicked a new server with the plus icon, than that had initialization button, than clicked initialise than it worked.

The hidden sidebar slideout was tricky. This solution worked for me!

Answer 2

Postgres.app's troubleshooting and support page says the following:

To fix this issue, make sure that the correct binaries for your server are in

/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/

without telling you how to actually do that.

One way to do it is to download "Postgres.app with all currently supported PostgreSQL versions" from Postgres.app's download page and replace any other versions you have. The app will then open without the "Binaries not found" error, assuming that you are only using supported PostgreSQL versions.