# Communication error. Is FTL running?

**URL:** <https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [June 1, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299 "2025-06-01T17:14:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jawherbelmabrouk](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/jawherbelmabrouk/32/50035_2.png) [@Jawherbelmabrouk](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Jawherbelmabrouk)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/1 "2025-06-01T17:14:20Z")

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Break after upgrade

## Expected Behaviour:

sudo pihole enable  
Should start pihole

## Actual Behaviour:

sudo pihole enable  
/opt/pihole/api.sh: line 25: utilsfile: readonly variable  
Communication error. Is FTL running?

## Debug Token:

[Replace this text with the debug token provided from running `pihole -d`](https://discourse.pi-hole.net)

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**Author:** ![Jools](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jools](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Jools)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/2 "2025-06-01T19:02:10Z")

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After update to FTL 6.2 same error:

/opt/pihole/api.sh: line 25: utilsfile: readonly variable  
Communication error. Is FTL running?

service pihole-FTL restart doesn't help

Update on a Raspberry Pi without issues...

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**Author:** ![ag6qr](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@ag6qr](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ag6qr)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/3 "2025-06-02T00:38:11Z")

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I am seeing the same symptom. Rather than reporting to the developers by opening a new ticket, I thought I'd tag onto this one, but if the development team would prefer me to open a new ticket, let me know.

I just installed pihole on a newly imaged Raspberry Pi today (Jun 1, 2025). I installed using instructions at https:/docs.pi-hole.net/main/basic-install. Did a clone of the repository and ran basic-install.sh.

I have two problems:

1. "sudo pihole enable" returns the two error messages exactly as Jawherbelmabrouk described above
2. When I try to browse to the web interface at http:\<my pihole's IP\>:80/admin, my browser displays "Unable to connect". I'm guessing that might be because FTL isn't running?

I have uploaded debug logs via pihole-d, and the debug token is:  
[https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/5gjKdaCO/](https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/5gjKdaCO/)

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**Author:** ![DanSchaper](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/danschaper/32/91_2.png) [@DanSchaper](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/DanSchaper)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/4 "2025-06-02T01:42:03Z")

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Please try updating to the most recent bugfix releases.

`pihole -up`

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**Author:** ![ag6qr](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@ag6qr](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ag6qr)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/5 "2025-06-02T03:17:07Z")

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Thanks for the quick update! Unfortunately, while "pihole -up" did pick up newer updates, my symptoms remain the same, as far as I can tell. After doing the update followed by a reboot, the output from "pihole enable" has the same error message, and I'm still unable to get to the web interface at "http:\<my\_ip\>/admin" I've uploaded a new set of logs at:  
[https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/RDjICSdO/](https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/RDjICSdO/)

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**Author:** ![roberto](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/roberto/32/50050_2.png) [@roberto](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/roberto)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 5:24am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/6 "2025-06-02T05:24:10Z")

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I can confirm that unfortunately the latest updates do not fix the issue. Still seeing the exact same behaviour.

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**Author:** ![ag6qr](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@ag6qr](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ag6qr)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/7 "2025-06-02T17:26:38Z")

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Browsing around other parts of this board, I found this thread:

> [@PSA: FTL v6.2 / FTL v6.2.1 crashes workaround](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/psa-ftl-v6-2-ftl-v6-2-1-crashes-workaround/80339):
>
> Originally published at: [https://pi-hole.net/blog/2025/06/02/psa-ftl-v6-2-ftl-v6-2-1-crashes-workaround/](https://pi-hole.net/blog/2025/06/02/psa-ftl-v6-2-ftl-v6-2-1-crashes-workaround/) We are currently aware of FTL crashing with a segmentation fault on some systems – more detailed information about this issue can be followed on Github, here: [https://github.com/pi-hole/FTL/issues/2473](https://github.com/pi-hole/FTL/issues/2473). If you are currently affected by this issue, the easiest way to get things back up and running is to downgrade FTL to the previous version. There are instructions in the above Github th…

That suggests temporarily replacing the newest 6.2 pihole-FTL with the 6.1 version. I can confirm that following those instructions and running the 6.1 FTL fixes the problems that I was experiencing.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![roberto](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/roberto/32/50050_2.png) [@roberto](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/roberto)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 4:38am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/8 "2025-06-05T04:38:41Z")

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The newly released FTL 6.2.2 fixes the problem. I just updated Pi-hole and all works as expected.

Thanks to the developers for the quick fix!

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**Author:** ![system](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/uploads/default/original/3X/7/c/7c8792f649eeb921c5d2b4c41564ffa873d9a2b8.png) [@system](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:39am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/communication-error-is-ftl-running/80299/9 "2025-06-26T04:39:23Z")

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