openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug] 2026.5.6 → 2026.5.19 upgrade left macOS LaunchAgent Gateway unrecoverable; Time Machine restore required

Summary

A macOS LaunchAgent install upgraded from OpenClaw 2026.5.6 to 2026.5.19 and left the Gateway unusable. The Gateway would not recover through openclaw doctor --fix; the only successful recovery path was a Time Machine restore of ~/.openclaw, followed by generating a new Gateway token.

This may be related to #84809, but this report is from a separate Intel macOS host and the observed symptom was Gateway startup/recovery failure after the 5.6 → 5.19 upgrade, not just workspace deletion.

Environment

• Host: macOS 15.7.3 / Darwin 24.6.0 / Intel x64
• Node/npm before restore: Node v25.5.0, npm 11.8.0
• OpenClaw before upgrade: 2026.5.6 (c97b9f7)
• Update target shown by Gateway: v2026.5.19
• Gateway: macOS LaunchAgent, port 18789
• Workspace/config root: /Users/tess/.openclaw
• Recovery: Time Machine restore back to OpenClaw 2026.5.6, then new Gateway token generated

What happened

1. System was running normally on OpenClaw 2026.5.6.
2. Gateway log showed update available:

2026-05-20T16:32:13.080-05:00 [gateway] update available (latest): v2026.5.19 (current v2026.5.6). Run: openclaw update

1. User attempted the upgrade from 2026.5.6 to 2026.5.19.
2. The pre-upgrade Gateway shut down cleanly:

2026-05-21T09:03:10.595-05:00 [gateway] signal SIGTERM received
2026-05-21T09:03:10.611-05:00 [gateway] received SIGTERM; shutting down
2026-05-21T09:03:10.647-05:00 [shutdown] started: gateway stopping
2026-05-21T09:03:11.005-05:00 [gmail-watcher] gmail watcher stopped
2026-05-21T09:03:11.273-05:00 [shutdown] completed cleanly in 631ms

1. The failed .openclaw tree, preserved as /Users/tess/.openclaw_5.19, shows managed npm packages were advanced to 5.19:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@openclaw/brave-plugin": "2026.5.19",
    "@openclaw/codex": "2026.5.19",
    "openclaw-workspace-sync": "2.4.0",
    "ws": "8.20.0",
    "zod": "4.4.3"
  }
}

1. The LaunchAgent was rewritten for v2026.5.19:

/Users/tess/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.gateway.plist
Comment => OpenClaw Gateway (v2026.5.19)
ProgramArguments => /Users/tess/.openclaw/service-env/ai.openclaw.gateway-env-wrapper.sh ... /usr/local/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js gateway --port 18789
WorkingDirectory => /Users/tess/.openclaw

1. Post-upgrade logs show the Gateway appearing to start, then entering a repeated Bonjour/probing failure loop until it was terminated:

2026-05-21T09:16:03.593-05:00 [gateway] loading configuration…
2026-05-21T09:16:05.173-05:00 [gateway] resolving authentication…
2026-05-21T09:16:05.208-05:00 [gateway] starting...
2026-05-21T09:16:08.133-05:00 [gateway] starting HTTP server...
2026-05-21T09:16:13.508-05:00 [gateway] http server listening (12 plugins: bonjour, browser, canvas, device-pair, elevenlabs, file-transfer, memory-core, memory-wiki, openai, phone-control, talk-voice, telegram; 8.3s)
2026-05-21T09:16:14.334-05:00 [gateway] ready
2026-05-21T09:17:41.998-05:00 [Miller’s Mac mini (OpenClaw)._openclaw-gw._tcp.local.] failed probing with reason: Error: Can't probe for a service which is announced already. Received announcing for service Miller’s Mac mini (OpenClaw)._openclaw-gw._tcp.local.. Trying again in 2 seconds!
... repeated continuously ...
2026-05-21T09:21:01.382-05:00 [gateway] signal SIGTERM received
2026-05-21T09:21:01.397-05:00 [gateway] received SIGTERM; shutting down
2026-05-21T09:21:01.433-05:00 [shutdown] started: gateway stopping

1. User reports the Gateway would not start/recover in practice, and openclaw doctor / openclaw doctor --fix did not fix it.
2. User renamed the failed .openclaw tree to .openclaw_5.19, restored ~/.openclaw from Time Machine, generated a new Gateway token, and recovered on 2026.5.6.

Expected behavior

• Upgrade from 2026.5.6 to 2026.5.19 should either complete cleanly or fail atomically and preserve a working Gateway.
• openclaw doctor --fix should be able to repair the post-upgrade state or clearly explain why it cannot.
• LaunchAgent/service state, managed npm plugin state, Gateway token/auth state, and Bonjour advertisement state should remain consistent after upgrade/rollback.

Actual behavior

• Upgrade left the system unusable from the user's perspective: Gateway would not start/recover and doctor could not fix it.
• Manual Time Machine restore was required.
• A new Gateway token had to be generated after restore.
• The preserved failed state shows a mix of 5.19 LaunchAgent / managed npm plugin state and a Gateway log loop around Bonjour service probing/announcement.

Notes / possibly related evidence

• Existing related issue: #84809 (2026.5.19 update/backup flow removed ~/.openclaw/workspace and left plugin/npm state inconsistent).
• This report is distinct because the preserved local evidence points to a 5.6 → 5.19 upgrade leaving Gateway startup/recovery broken on macOS Intel, with repeated Bonjour probe errors after gateway ready.
• There is also an older stray /Users/tess/Library/LaunchAgents/openclaw.plist that is malformed XML-escaped text, but the active service appears to be ai.openclaw.gateway.plist. If the updater/doctor scans all *openclaw* LaunchAgents, this malformed legacy plist could be a contributing factor and should be handled defensively.

Recovery performed

• Renamed failed ~/.openclaw to /Users/tess/.openclaw_5.19
• Restored ~/.openclaw from Time Machine
• Generated new Gateway token
• Confirmed recovered version: OpenClaw 2026.5.6 (c97b9f7)