If you like me use Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac on macOS 10.14.6 you’ll find yourself at some point trying to start Parallels Desktop and it alerting
Unable to start Parallels services
The dialog includes a URL for the following KB article with various troubleshooting steps. The first time I had this issue, the only thing helped was logging into macOS Recovery and re-installing the macOS 10.14 (last thing on that troubleshooting list).
However the issue re-occured after I have installed all available macOS 10.14 security updates.
So today after trying again all items of the KB article and as I wasn’t really keen on re-installing macOS 10.14 for Parallels Desktop to run as long as don’t re-install security updates, I did yet another search and found following article on the forum.parallels.com
The solution mentioned there worked for me… so here I am noticing this info, to able to find it, next time my Parallels Desktop refuses to start.
- Restart in Recovery Mode (hold down Cmd-R until you see the Apple Logo)
- Select Terminal from the Tools menu
- Enter chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement” (with “Macintosh\ HD” being replaced by the name of your hard drive)
- Restart the Mac. All should be good.