The version of R you are using is newer than the maximum version of R supported by this version of RStudio

igor · July 8, 2026, 3:45pm

I've been using RStudio for years. I just installed it on a new machine. When I try to launch it, I get an error:
The version of R you are using (R 4.6.1) is newer than the maximum version of R supported by this version of RStudio (R 4.6.0).

RStudio version: RStudio 2026.06.0+242 "Blue Plumbago " (d1dc28bb, 2026-06-18) for macOS.

Yes, technically this version of RStudio was released a few days before 4.6.1, but it was very much expected. It's really odd that the latest version of RStudio is not working with the latest version of R.

GaryR · July 9, 2026, 4:23pm

I'm able to use R 4.6.1 with that same build of RStudio without the error. I've only tried on Windows so far, but will try on Mac in a bit.

igor · July 9, 2026, 4:43pm

Thank you for checking. It turns out the real problem was permissions of ~/.local/share/rstudio/log. After fixing that, RStudio opened.

However, it's odd that the R version error was showing up at all.

GaryR · July 9, 2026, 4:51pm

Yup, looking at the code, this message is only shown when there is a problem at startup of RStudio. Just having a version > 4.6.0 is not enough on its own to trigger the message.

There's no problem with 4.6.1 and current RStudio. I've opened an issue to bump the constant so this red-herring message isn't shown.

github.com/rstudio/rstudio

Update maximum tested R version (RSTUDIO_R_VERSION_MAXIMUM) to 4.6.1

opened 04:49PM - 09 Jul 26 UTC

gtritchie

bug

### Summary The maximum tested R version in `cmake/globals.cmake` is stale. It …is currently set to `4.6.0`: ```cmake set(RSTUDIO_R_VERSION_MAXIMUM "4.6.0") set(RSTUDIO_R_MAJOR_VERSION_MAXIMUM 4) set(RSTUDIO_R_MINOR_VERSION_MAXIMUM 6) set(RSTUDIO_R_PATCH_VERSION_MAXIMUM 0) ``` R 4.6.1 was released on 2026-06-24 and is now the latest R 4.6.x. This constant should be bumped to `4.6.1`. ### Background This value is a "tested with" ceiling, not a hard version gate. It does not block RStudio from starting, and R 4.6.1 on its own works fine in RStudio. The constant is consumed in only two places: - `src/cpp/session/SessionMain.cpp` (~line 604): logs a warning ("...newer than the maximum version of R tested with this version of RStudio...") when the running R exceeds the maximum. Log-only; no user-facing effect. - `src/node/desktop/src/main/gwt-callback.ts`, `addRVersionTooNewError()` (~line 1187): adds a note to the desktop launch-error page ("The version of R you are using (R x.y.z) is newer than the maximum version of R supported by this version of RStudio..."). Importantly, the desktop message is only produced when the launch-error page requests the `launch_failed` diagnostic, which happens only when the rsession process fails to launch for some other reason. In that situation the note is prepended to the actual launch-failure message. With the maximum stuck at `4.6.0`, any user running R 4.6.1 (or newer) who hits an unrelated startup failure will see this note appended to their error page, which is misleading since the R version is not the cause. ### Proposed change Bump the maximum to the current released R version (4.6.1) in `cmake/globals.cmake`. This should be revisited each time a newer R is released.

GaryR · July 9, 2026, 4:53pm

This warning was added, I believe, because R 4.6.0 was a hard-break; we had to make significant changes to RStudio to support it, and earlier version of RStudio would crash with R 4.6.0.

igor · July 9, 2026, 7:04pm

I discovered the real issue when I tried to launch from CLI:

$ /Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/RStudio
Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/Users/username/.local/share/rstudio/log'
    at Object.mkdirSync (node:fs:1350:26)
    at e.exports._createLogDirIfNotExist

It would've been great to have that show up somewhere in the GUI error window.

GaryR · July 9, 2026, 7:33pm

Agreed, opened Show error at startup when permission denied on critical folder · Issue #18179 · rstudio/rstudio · GitHub.

Curiously, when I triggered that error by modifying permissions, RStudio still started.

igor · July 9, 2026, 8:01pm

Interesting. Maybe there is another level of error messages to uncover.

emmawalter45 · August 3, 2026, 12:08pm

That does seem unusual. Minor R releases like 4.6.1 are normally compatible with the latest RStudio release. It may be an overly strict version check or a bug in that specific build rather than an actual compatibility problem.

I'd check if there's a newer RStudio patch release available or try the daily preview build to see if the issue has already been fixed. If not, it's worth reporting it to the RStudio/Posit team, as they can confirm whether it's a known issue. In the meantime, temporarily using R 4.6.0 (if feasible) is a reasonable workaround until an updated RStudio version is released.