Big Sur - LaunchAgents - Load error 5: input/output error

Code Block 
[...] XML version, etc.
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>gnu.emacs.daemon</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/usr/local/Cellar/emacs-mac/emacs-27.1-mac-8.0/Emacs.App</string>
    <string>--daemon</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Code Block language
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.zerowidth.launched.auto_delete_folder_cleanup</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>sh</string>
                <string>-c</string>
                <string>find ~/Desktop/AUTO_DELETE -mindepth 1 -mtime +30 -delete</string>
        </array>
        <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
        <array>
                <dict>
                        <key>Hour</key>
                        <integer>23</integer>
                        <key>Minute</key>
                        <integer>0</integer>
                        <key>Weekday</key>
                        <integer>1</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                        <key>Hour</key>
                        <integer>23</integer>
                        <key>Minute</key>
                        <integer>0</integer>
                        <key>Weekday</key>
                        <integer>3</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                        <key>Hour</key>
                        <integer>23</integer>
                        <key>Minute</key>
                        <integer>0</integer>
                        <key>Weekday</key>
                        <integer>5</integer>
                </dict>
        </array>
        <key>UserName</key>
        <string>XXXXXX</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Code Block xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>hotel</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Users/esbanarango/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.4/bin/node</string>
    <string>/Users/esbanarango/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.4/lib/node_modules/@envoy/hotel/lib/daemon/bin.js</string>
    <string>start</string>
    <string>--hotel-dir</string>
    <string>/Users/esbanarango/.hotel</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
  <string>/Users/esbanarango/.hotel/daemon.log</string>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/Users/esbanarango/.hotel/daemon.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Code Block 
Load failed: 5: Input/output error

Code Block 
launchctl load -w path/to/plist

Code Block 
						<key>UserName</key>
						<string>dev</string>

Code Block 
						<key>SessionCreate</key>
						<true/>

Code Block 
						<key>KeepAlive</key>
						<true/>
		</dict>

What I did to solve it was to unload and load the plist

There are a few possible causes of / solutions to this error, some of which are detailed in previous responses. To hopefully help people coming across this as I did, I'll aggregate the solutions and add the one that worked in my case (adding .plist to the filename).

For sake of example, let's say we're adding a launch agent for the user "johnny" whose service name is "com.appleseed.runthings".

• Make sure your filename ends in .plist, e.g. /Users/johnny/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appleseed.runthings.plist
• Check the syntax of the file: plutil /Users/johnny/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appleseed.runthings.plist
• Unload and reload your service:
  • launchctl unload /Users/johnny/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appleseed.runthings.plist
  • launchctl load /Users/johnny/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appleseed.runthings.plist
• Force load in case your job has been disabled: launchctl load -w /Users/johnny/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appleseed.runthings.plist

chmod 755 your plist file

I fixed all of my issues like this by using load -w and unload -w`

I have tried all of these on M1 with no success so far. After unloading the plist and running launchctl print we still see the labeled in a disabled format. Load and unload do not seem to work in Monterey M1 . The label is loaded but after a crash or force quit the app does not restart properly. All we get is the Problem Reporter ui reporting the crash and asking to reopen but launchctl does not restart the app

Hello, Discovering my plist was not working since the Big Sur update, it seems the issue was my shell script was located in the ~/Documents/ folder, and seen as forbidden for security reasons. I moved my script in another folder (in ~/ ), unload and load again, and it worked.

Hello, the same happened to my system. I placed a small shell script in /usr/local/bin and it worked fine when I call it from the Terminal. After trying to load the launchctl command I got the "Load failed: 5: Input/output error" My plist file was very simple and plutil check was w/o any complains.

[mf@Server]:/Users/xyz/Library/LaunchAgents $ launchctl load local.demo.plist Load failed: 5: Input/output error Try running launchctl bootstrap as root for richer errors.




[mf@Server]:/Users/xyz/Library/LaunchAgents $ plutil local.demo.plist local.demo.plist: OK

After moving this script into /Users/xyz/ it worked fine.

Consider this small script:

% cat /usr/local/bin/greetings.sh 
#! /bin/sh

logger 'Hello Cruel World!'

It’s marked as executable:

% ls -l /usr/local/bin/greetings.sh 
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  40  9 Jul 12:23 /usr/local/bin/greetings.sh

Now consider this launchd property list file:

% cat com.example.test665661.plist 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.example.test665661</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/greetings.sh</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

You can load this as a job:

% launchctl load com.example.test665661.plist 

IMPORTANT Because I didn’t use sudo, this is loaded as a launchd agent in the current session.

And then start it:

% launchctl start com.example.test665661     

And in console you see this:

type: default
time: 12:32:02.647234+0100
process: logger
category: -
message: Hello Cruel World!

I ran this all on macOS 13.4.1 but it should work this way on any version of macOS that supports launchd (so 10.5 and later).

Oh, and to tidy up:

% launchctl unload com.example.test665661.plist
% rm com.example.test665661.plist 
% sudo rm /usr/local/bin/greetings.sh

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"