Safari suddenly won't open. error message: "safari unexpectedly quit, etc."

The Sandbox registration failed: message usually means you need to reinstall the OS to fix the problem.

Do a backup, preferable 2 separate ones on 2 drives. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart). Run Disk Utility and select First Aid. Then re-install the OS.

Reinstall from macOS Recovery

OS X Recovery

An update:

• Forgot to say so in my first post, I'm running Safari 13.0.2.
• Booted into Recovery mode. Safari works there. (As I expected, as I believe Recovery Mode is run from a separate, minimum macOS partition with its own Safari.) Ran the Disk Utility test, clean — no errors found.
• Booted into macOS safe mode. Safari still will not launch, gives the same error.
• Per the link Carolyn Samit provided, I deleted extensions & scripts (in safe mode). Didn't have many, but a few were old. Tried launching Safari, failed with the same error. Put back the deleted files.

Quite frustrating, indeed! I use Safari as my main browser, so all my links, etc. are there. Currently using Firefox, it's working fine, so I have web access. Outside of this thread, haven't found anyone else having this problem. Not yet, anyway. May have to resort to reinstalling macOS via Recovery Mode. I've never had to do that before. Seems to me a heavy-handed approach, but it seems to be the only way to reinstall Safari and is often suggested as a way to fix various Safari problems. It's supposed to just reinstall macOS and leave one's data and settings intact, but I need to read up on it a bit. Not ready to go that route just yet, will continue poking around for a simpler solution. Someone here may yet have the solution for us. Fingers crossed!

I'm experiencing this error too. Everything was fine last night when I closed Safari and shut down my system. This morning, powered up, clicked on Safari, it bounced once in the dock then I got the "Safari quit unexpectedly" error message with a very lengthy list of problem detail messages. Clicked "Reopen", same problem. Tried to launch it several times, same problem. Perhaps this excerpt from the error message provides detail someone can use to identify a solution for us:

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)

Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Illegal instruction: 4

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0x4

Terminating Process: exc handler [869]

Application Specific Information:

dyld: launch, running initializers

/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

Sandbox registration failed: The code signature is not valid: The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -67030.)

Application Specific Signatures:

Registration error: The code signature is not valid: The operation couldn’t b

I'm running macOS Mojave 10.14.6. on a MacBook Air 13-inch mid-2012, 8GB, 512MB. Installed a large security update a few minutes ago thinking maybe it was a fix for the Safari problem. It wasn't. Every time I try to launch Safari, it crashes. I've also tried launching it in a guest account, no go (although I did not get the error message, it just wouldn't launch). Tried holding down the Shift key and launching Safari, same error message.

Hoping someone can point us towards a fix,

Gary

Thanks for your response Eric. Yes, when I saw it was a Sandbox error, I suspected a macOS reinstall would be required. Held out hope someone might suggest replacing a borked system file or two from a backup, but guess it's not that easy. Oh, well! Your suggestion worked for Charphar, so I'll give the reinstall a go. Won't have time until the weekend. I have two full bootable backups I alternate between. I'll make another "just in case" before the reinstall.

Thanks again!

Okay, posting my results (Success!) for anyone else who might find this thread searching for a fix to this problem.

I took Eric's advice and reinstalled macOS. First, I created a 3rd bootable full backup (I maintain 2 at all times) just to be cautious. That took a couple hours. Then I booted up my MacBook Air while holding down the Command and R keys to access the utilities. My understanding with this option was macOS gets reinstalled from the recovery partition. I thought that would go very quickly. However, it took well over 2 hours, during which time it appeared lots of data was downloading. I'm on a slow DSL connection; had I known it was going to download macOS I'd have waited & done the reinstall in the office where we have a very high speed connection.

There were several times where it appeared the process was hung. At one point "time remaining" stayed at 21 minutes for 5 - 10 minutes. But I left it alone, and eventually the entire process completed. I logged into my account and all my data & settings were still intact. Even better, Safari launched just fine!

I do have 2 system updates to install. I'd previously installed them, but somehow lost them with the reinstall. There's a huge macOS security update, and Safari 13.0.3. The security update is 1.6GB, so I'll wait & do it tomorrow at the office. It'll go much quicker there.

So, Safari is working again. I now have experience reinstalling macOS. It's easy, but can be time-consuming so plan accordingly.

Thanks again Eric for your suggestion, and Charphar for starting the thread & updating it with your positive results.

Hi,

Try the troubleshooting steps in this Apple support article > If Safari is slow, stops responding, quits unexpectedly, or has other issues - Apple Support

You are welcome. Glad to help.

That's great news Charphar! Glad to hear it went smoothly, no issues, and corrected your Safari problem. Looks like I have a macOS reinstall to do this weekend! I'll report back with my results.

You are welcome.

You are welcome.