Troubleshooting

Quick Checklist

If something isn’t working, go through this checklist in order:

1. TWS or IBKR Gateway is running and logged in
2. Rover is running. Rover automatically starts NATS in the background — no separate step required.
3. Confirm Rover is publishing. On the Configuration view, the Throughput column should show non-zero bytes streaming for each account
4. Launch OptionsRealTime UI and select your account

If all four steps check out, data should be flowing.

---

Stale Data or Connection Errors

If things were working and suddenly aren’t, the cause is almost always TWS in a bad state — particularly after-hours, where TWS frequently has data connection issues, the API stops responding, or the application locks up. NATS and the account analyzers are rarely the culprit, and logs typically don’t reveal the issue because the failure isn’t in the code path that logs.

The pragmatic order:

Step 1: Restart the Account Analyzers (try this first, it’s free)

Sometimes a quick analyzer restart shakes things loose — usually because the reconnect happens to coincide with TWS recovering on its own.

• In OptionsRealTime UI: Click Restart all data analyzers in the upper right corner
• Or in Rover: Click the Restart button in the Configuration view for the affected account

Step 2: Restart TWS (the real fix, most of the time)

If the analyzer restart didn’t help, restart TWS:

1. In TWS Desktop: File → Restart
2. Wait for TWS to reconnect to IBKR and the market data farms
3. Rover automatically reconnects to TWS — no action needed on Rover

Step 3: Restart Rover (rare)

If TWS restart didn’t help either, quit and relaunch Rover. This is rarely necessary — in most situations it’s equivalent to Step 1 since Rover’s main job is managing the analyzers. The one thing it adds is a fresh NATS, which is worth a try if the messaging layer is somehow in a bad state.

---

Connection Issues

TWS API Connection Fails

1. Verify TWS is running and logged in
2. Check API settings in TWS:
   • File → Global Configuration → API → Settings
   • Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients: ✅
   • Socket Port: 7496 (or other value if running multiple TWS instances)
   • Allow connections from localhost only: ✅
   • Read-Only API: ✅ (recommended for security)
3. Restart TWS after changing settings

Rover Reports “Messaging Service Unavailable”

This means Rover could not start or stay connected to NATS. Steps to diagnose:

1. Check <InstallDir>\logs\nats.log for the underlying error from NATS itself
2. Verify port 4222 is not in use by another application — common culprit is a leftover nats-server.exe from a previous session, or another NATS install. In Task Manager, check for any existing nats-server.exe processes and end them.
3. Check antivirus — some antivirus tools block nats-server.exe from launching. If found, whitelist <InstallDir>\nats-server.exe.
4. Restart Rover — Rover spawns a fresh NATS on every launch.

For deeper diagnosis, run NATS manually in a console: from the install folder, double-click run_nats.bat. The console window will show NATS startup output and any errors directly. Quit Rover first, since both will compete for port 4222.

Remote Machine Can’t Connect

See the Multi-Machine Setup guide for firewall configuration.

---

Data Issues

No Positions Loading

1. Confirm Rover shows non-zero Throughput for the account
2. Verify you selected the correct account in the UI
3. Check TWS for any API error messages

Market Data Not Updating

1. Verify your IBKR market data subscriptions cover the instruments you hold
2. Check TWS for “Market data farm” connection status (bottom of TWS window)
3. Try the restart steps above

---

Need More Help?

Contact support@optionsrealtime.com