DFAbove

Q: Message.app crashes on 10.9.2

I've been unable to use message in OSX for the past few days. I didn't install any upgrades between it working and not working. It seems to crash when I click certain things. I think it is an issue with displaying the text, as a conversation may glitch so that the text is displayed in large times new roman (or some similar looking serif font). I didn't change the text setting myself and sometimes it will display the message properly in Helvetica then glitch, display it in the serif font and crash. I cannot access the preferences anymore either, so I can't even change the font I'm using.

 

The app appears to function properly, as it will receive all my new messages. I can even send messages if I do so before it crashes, however, the messages I send will not appear in the chat window and seems random as to whether it will display those from others.

 

I've tried troubleshooting with almost every thread I could find. So far I've tried:

 

1. Booted in safemode

2. Restoring the app from a time machine backup (I wouldn't let me delete the previous instance of the app, but I launched the new one from the desktop)

3. Deleting all the preference data and save state files, in the Library (Preferences, ByHost and Message Folder)

4. I've deleted all the messages that appear open, which makes it stable, but when new messages come in they render incorrectly or crash the app.

2. I've tried opening it in a guest and new user account and it works fine there.

 

So I've finally caved and decided to ask myself. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Feb 28, 2014 2:39 PM

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Q: Message.app crashes on 10.9.2

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  • by travisstraub,

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 2:47 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 2:47 PM in response to DFAbove

    Hey DFAbove,

    It sounds like you might have an issue with user installed fonts. Try this:

     

    1. Open FontBook.

    2. Click on User on the left side under Collection.

    3. In your user fonts, press Command + A to select all the fonts.

    4. Press File > Validate Fonts.

    5. After that, it will report some errors, if there are any errors, check the fonts with problems and press Remove Checked.

    Screen Shot 2014-02-28 at 2.46.52 PM.png

    6. After this, reboot your computer and see if Messages crashes again.

     

    Keep me updated!

  • by DFAbove,

    DFAbove DFAbove Feb 28, 2014 3:02 PM in response to travisstraub
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 3:02 PM in response to travisstraub

    Hi Travis,

     

    I just tried that to no avail. Still having the same issue.

  • by travisstraub,

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 3:11 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 3:11 PM in response to DFAbove

    Hmmm, strange!

     

    If you go into System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items do you have any items in there? If your problem didn't exist in a new user or safe boot, you can try to remove those items and reboot to test the issue again.

     

    Keep me updated.

  • by DFAbove,

    DFAbove DFAbove Feb 28, 2014 4:24 PM in response to travisstraub
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 4:24 PM in response to travisstraub

    No luck. Messages didn't work when I did the safe boot, only in the new user did it work.

  • by travisstraub,

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 4:26 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 4:26 PM in response to DFAbove

    Try logging out of iCloud in system preferences, and logging back in, This one is a strange issue.

  • by DFAbove,

    DFAbove DFAbove Feb 28, 2014 4:40 PM in response to travisstraub
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 4:40 PM in response to travisstraub

    Just tried that to no avail. It doesn't seem to be connected to Messages though as I was still logged in there. I had tried that when messages was initially crashing by going through the preferences within Messages, but now I cannot even access the system preferences.

     

    I've signed in to the same icloud account on the new user and messages worked fine there.

     

    Here is a screenshot of how messages is being formatted. It is now crashing about 10 seconds after opening.Screen Shot 2014-02-28 at 4.28.39 PM.png

  • by travisstraub,Helpful

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 10:21 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 10:21 PM in response to DFAbove

    Have you tried to move the entire ~/Library/Messages folder to the desktop and reboot? It seems like a content specific error. When you grabbed the plists did you include ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imagent.plist as well?

  • by travisstraub,

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 10:32 PM in response to travisstraub
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 10:32 PM in response to travisstraub

    I tracked what plists are modified here with fseventer:

    Screen Shot 2014-02-28 at 10.31.10 PM.png

    Keep me updated, i'm very interested!

  • by DFAbove,

    DFAbove DFAbove Feb 28, 2014 11:06 PM in response to travisstraub
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 11:06 PM in response to travisstraub

    So I moved the entire messages folder and restarted, which has stablized the app. I believe I did include the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imagent.plist as it is not in the preference folder.

     

    Right now the app isn't crashing. When I first opened it I got my wife to send me a message. It appeared as normal in the bubble then as soon I send my own message the font changes to a serif and my own messages don't appear in the window (though they do send as she received it on her phone). I cannot access the prefernces for the app still. I select it from the menu or hit cmd + , but nothing comes up.

     

    Should I move those plists you've highlighted in that screenshot?

     

    Thanks so much for you help. Really hoping to have this solved.

  • by travisstraub,

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 11:13 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 11:13 PM in response to DFAbove

    I wouldnt be concerned with the plists too much anymore, but try

    try pulling the com.apple.iChat.plist, do another Safe Boot and dump the ~/Library/Caches folder. Hopefully that will reset the app to normal! It's odd that the app is being so erradic.

     

    I'm glad to help! This is a tough one.

  • by travisstraub,

    travisstraub travisstraub Feb 28, 2014 11:27 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 11:27 PM in response to DFAbove

    Also taking out and readding the accounts might do the trick!

  • by DFAbove,

    DFAbove DFAbove Feb 28, 2014 11:29 PM in response to travisstraub
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 11:29 PM in response to travisstraub

    I left the plists, but I did

     

    1. Get rid of com.apple.iChat.plist

    2. Dump the Caches folder

    3. Did a safe boot

     

    And...still not working. Right after the safe boot I was able to open the preferences, which seemed to work fine except fot the Viewing panel, which would not appear and then seemed to crash the app. Now the preferences won't appear anymore.

     

    Perhaps I'll try that again and then try to remove the account before clicking on the viewing pane. Will have to wait until tomorrow, as I have a mid-term tomorrow that I'm avoided studying for too much already.

     

    Thanks again!

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Mar 1, 2014 5:45 AM in response to DFAbove
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Mar 1, 2014 5:45 AM in response to DFAbove

    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

     

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

     

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

     

    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

     

    Step 1

     

    Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select

    View Show Log List

    from the menu bar.

    Enter the name of the crashed application or process in the Filter text field. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).

    When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.

    Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

     

    Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

     

    Step 2

     

    In the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports (not "Diagnostic and Usage Messages") for crash reports related to the crashed process. The report name starts with the name of the process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report — they're very long and not helpful.

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Mar 1, 2014 2:04 PM in response to DFAbove
    Level 9 (73,224 points)
    Applications
    Mar 1, 2014 2:04 PM in response to DFAbove

    HI,

     

    The App needs Helvetica and Lucida Grande to display windows and Buddy list group bars correctly.

    iChat used to crash if either of these were missing (something that was not mentioned earlier) or if they were corrupt.

     

    There are separate issues for iChat if Helvetica Fractions was installed.

    There are a couple of related issues http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/garbled_fonts_troubleshooting_guide.html

     

    The Font shown for your incoming Messages in not the default Helvetica

    For iMessages text from an iOS devices the "bubble/Balloon" will not contain any colour info so a white "balloon/bubble" might actually be the default.

     

    As you can't access the Viewing Pane it would appear to be a Font issue related to this.

    Prior to Mavericks deleting (moving to Trash) the com.apple.ichat.plist will reset this on a  restart of the app.

    A Safe Boot should have got around the Restarting of the app.

     

    However in Mavericks the Font Choices are held in com.apple.messageshelper.MessageController.plist

    This is controlled by the SOAgent support app and the .plist is held in the sandboxed area for this and does not make it to ~/Library/Preferences

     

    Viewed in Xcode

    Screen Shot 2014-03-01 at 21.56.20.png

    Full path:-

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/data/Library/Preferences

    There are several actual .plists in this folder that are not Aliases to the ~/Library/Preferences folder.

     

    The above choices translate to

    Screen Shot 2014-03-01 at 22.02.20.png

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    10:04 pm      Saturday; March 1, 2014

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     Couple of iPhones and an iPad
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