Katalon crashed and now it is not starting again, I'm getting ParseKeywordException as a reason

com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.parser.ParseKeywordException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid JSON syntax. Root cause: com.google.gson.stream.MalformedJsonException: Expected ‘:’ at line 2 column 10 path $.<<<<<<<
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.parser.ProjectCustomKeywordsParser.parseAllKeywordFilesInProject(ProjectCustomKeywordsParser.java:84)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.parser.ImprovedCustomKeywordParser.parseProjectCustomKeywords(ImprovedCustomKeywordParser.java:145)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.parser.ImprovedCustomKeywordParser.parseCustomKeywords(ImprovedCustomKeywordParser.java:57)
at com.kms.katalon.controller.ImprovedKeywordControllerDelegate.parseAllCustomKeywords(ImprovedKeywordControllerDelegate.java:41)
at com.kms.katalon.controller.KeywordController.parseAllCustomKeywords(KeywordController.java:165)
at com.kms.katalon.controller.ProjectController.openProjectForUI(ProjectController.java:132)
at com.kms.katalon.composer.project.handlers.OpenProjectHandler$1.run(OpenProjectHandler.java:166)
at org.eclipse.jface.operation.ModalContext$ModalContextThread.run(ModalContext.java:122)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid JSON syntax. Root cause: com.google.gson.stream.MalformedJsonException: Expected ‘:’ at line 2 column 10 path $.<<<<<<<
at com.kms.katalon.core.util.internal.JsonUtil.fromJson(JsonUtil.java:94)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.cache.ParseKeywordCacheContent.fromFile(ParseKeywordCacheContent.java:54)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.cache.ParseKeywordCacheFile.loadContent(ParseKeywordCacheFile.java:35)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.cache.ParseKeywordCacheFile.getOrCreate(ParseKeywordCacheFile.java:64)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.parser.ProjectCustomKeywordsParser.internallyParseKeywordFile(ProjectCustomKeywordsParser.java:92)
at com.kms.katalon.custom.improvement.parser.ProjectCustomKeywordsParser.parseAllKeywordFilesInProject(ProjectCustomKeywordsParser.java:78)
… 7 more

Is it your first time activating Katalon Studio?

If yes, please try installing it again.

If not, what kind of change did you do before you encounter the crash?

Not the first time, been using it for a while now.
I had a small issue where one of the windows was stuck on my screen from Katalon, so I decided to just restart the application and now I’m getting this error.

Unable to open project. Reason: ParseKeywordException - Product Forums / Katalon Studio - Katalon Community

This helped me, I found the solution had to delete some files.

Thank you @contrat for proactively sharing this with everyone. Your update is helpful to the community. Looking forward to more contributions!