Docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at. Is the docker daemon running?

I downloaded and installed the Docker desktop(Intel chip) for Mac from the official website. Once run the docker desktop, I tried several docker commands in the terminal and all of them failed with the following error.

docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

Why is this error?

The error “docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the Docker daemon running?” occurs when the Docker command-line interface (CLI) is unable to communicate with the Docker daemon. The Docker daemon is the background process responsible for managing Docker containers on your system.

Here’s a breakdown of the components of the error message

docker: Indicates that the error is related to the Docker CLI.

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon: Specifies that the Docker CLI is unable to establish a connection with the Docker daemon.

unix:///var/run/docker.sock: Represents the default Unix socket used for communication between the Docker CLI and the Docker daemon.

Is the Docker daemon running?: Asks whether the Docker daemon is currently active and operational.

To resolve this issue, consider the following steps

Check Docker Daemon Status: Verify whether the Docker daemon is running on your system. You can do this by running:

sudo systemctl status docker

If it’s not running, start the Docker daemon using:

sudo systemctl start docker

User Permissions: Ensure that the user running the Docker command has the necessary permissions to access the Docker daemon. You may need to add the user to the docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

After making this change, you may need to log out and log back in for the group changes to take effect.

Docker Daemon Restart: Restart the Docker daemon to apply any changes:

sudo systemctl restart docker

Socket File Existence: Confirm that the Docker socket file /var/run/docker.sock exists. If it’s missing, it could indicate a problem with the Docker installation.

Reinstall Docker: If the issue persists, consider reinstalling Docker on your system.

After performing these checks and steps, you should be able to resolve the “docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the Docker daemon running?” error.