Font Activation Problem 2023

Bugs
1

I saw similar issues from previous users but no solutions provided that helped me. Bare with me, I’m not very technically minded.

Basically I got a new Macbook, and migrated my system over this week. Everything seemed to work alright, minor hiccups here and there. FontBook had issues finding the fonts, but I reset it’s root directory and then all the fonts appeared as normal. Only catch is that it WILL NOT activate any fonts. I get the error seen in the image below every time. I had the root folder set as a DropBox location, but Ive tried putting it in my main directory Fonts folder as well with no change.

What I’ve tried:

  1. Reinstalling FontBase - No Change.
  2. Duplicating root folder and re-connecting to the new location. It’s currently set to /Library/Fonts/FontBase. - No Change.
  3. I’ve checked and added FontBase to “Full Disk Access” in my Macbook settings - No Change.

Anybody have any tips for a layman like me?

I’m not sure what else to do, but if this isn’t going to work I’d like to get my money back on the annual subscription I just signed up for.

2

Hello @AndyGattis, thank you for such a detailed post and welcome to the forum:)
Just to double-check - after you’ve uninstalled FontBase, removed old app data, then re-installed it again font activation does not work even for the default Google fonts that come with the app?
Trying to figure out what the root cause might be,
Yuriy
FontBase Dev Team

3

Hi Yuriy, yes thats correct. I havent been able to activate any fonts at all through fontbase for some reason.

4

Really sorry for the delay in replying.
Did activation not work even after you’ve deleted FontBase, cleaned up all the old data, installed FontBase again and tried activating any fonts as it was, without changing the root folder location or restoring any previous data in any way or adding any previous fonts?

5

Hi Yuriy, sorry for the late response, myself.

I just did what you described a few more times to see if it reacted any differently, but even now with a fresh download and only one font added to test, its giving me the “Could not activate one font” error.

6

Thank you for the quick reply and for additional tests :pray:
You’ve mentioned adding one font to test.
Before adding it, when everything was freshly installed without any old data left whatsoever, did activation work for the Google fonts that come with FontBase?

7

Before I added the font I input, there werent any listed on the app at all, actually. Maybe Im missing something when I delete/reinstall the program? How can I confirm Im eradicating everything I need to before attempting a fresh install?

8

Sorry for the delay.
Try navigating to ~/Library/Application Support/FontBase
(In the Finder, hold down the Option key when using the Go menu. Library will appear below the current user’s home directory).
Removing this folder after installation and before the new installation should help.
After the fresh installation you should see Google provider and the respective fonts in your FontBase. If not, then something is left someplace else, which shouldn’t happen, but if it does, we’ll find it.
Thank you again,