You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

System Preferences "unexpectedly crashes" every time after updating to Catalina

In my main user account on my MacBook after updating to Catalina, I am no longer able to access System Preferences. It crashes each time whenever I attempt to start it.


I have tried:

  • Reinstalling Catalina and doing one of the combo updates
  • Deleting files from ~Library/Caches
  • Deleting files from ~Library/Preferences
  • Booting into Safe Mode


None of these seemed to have any affect. System Preferences crashes every time.


I did check the other admin / user account on my machine and logged into that. I am having no issue launching System Prefs in that profile so it is something with this specific user profile.


I'm no longer able to hit the "report" button either when the error message pops up but this is the error coming from the Terminal:


/System/Applications/System\ Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System\ Preferences ; exit;

2020-10-30 10:05:14.244 System Preferences[1787:13287] ### Error:Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4864 "*** -[NSKeyedUnarchiver _initForReadingFromData:error:throwLegacyExceptions:]: data is NULL" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=*** -[NSKeyedUnarchiver _initForReadingFromData:error:throwLegacyExceptions:]: data is NULL} File:/AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/PrefPanesFramework/PrefPanesFramework-374/NSPrefPanesCenter.m Line:308

2020-10-30 10:05:14.244 System Preferences[1787:13287] building SYSTEM cache...

2020-10-30 10:05:14.251 System Preferences[1787:13287] Filtering out duplicate preference bundle "/System/Library/PreferencePanes/PrintAndFax.prefPane"

2020-10-30 10:05:14.311 AllowPasswordPref[1792:13321] error == Error Domain=com.apple.LocalAuthentication Code=-6 "Biometry is not available on this device." UserInfo={BiometryType=0, NSLocalizedDescription=Biometry is not available on this device.} isSupported == 0

2020-10-30 10:05:14.312 AllowPasswordPref[1792:13321] Hardware Check err == 0

2020-10-30 10:05:14.312 AllowPasswordPref[1792:13321] Result -1

2020-10-30 10:05:14.324 System Preferences[1787:13286] ### AE 1868656752 sender's PID is 1787 (System Preferences)

2020-10-30 10:05:14.578 System Preferences[1787:13286] *** Assertion failure in -[NSTextFieldCell _objectValue:forString:errorDescription:], /AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppKit/AppKit-1894.60.100/AppKit.subproj/NSCell.m:1417

2020-10-30 10:05:14.579 System Preferences[1787:13286] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Invalid parameter not satisfying: aString != nil'

*** First throw call stack:

(

0  CoreFoundation           0x00007fff36e8ab57 __exceptionPreprocess + 250

1  libobjc.A.dylib           0x00007fff6fb3b5bf objc_exception_throw + 48

2  CoreFoundation           0x00007fff36eb3d08 +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 88

3  Foundation             0x00007fff395a5e9d -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 191

4  AppKit               0x00007fff340c3075 -[NSCell _objectValue:forString:errorDescription:] + 300

5  AppKit               0x00007fff340c2ea3 -[NSCell setStringValue:] + 44

6  AppKit               0x00007fff34143a99 -[NSControl setStringValue:] + 121

7  System Preferences         0x000000010aef7df1 System Preferences + 142833

8  System Preferences         0x000000010aef81b9 System Preferences + 143801

9  libdispatch.dylib          0x00007fff70c896c4 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12

10 libdispatch.dylib          0x00007fff70c8a658 _dispatch_client_callout + 8

11 libdispatch.dylib          0x00007fff70c95cab _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 936

12 CoreFoundation           0x00007fff36e4de81 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 9

13 CoreFoundation           0x00007fff36e0dc87 __CFRunLoopRun + 2028

14 CoreFoundation           0x00007fff36e0ce3e CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 462

15 HIToolbox              0x00007fff35a39abd RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292

16 HIToolbox              0x00007fff35a397d5 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 584

17 HIToolbox              0x00007fff35a39579 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 64

18 AppKit               0x00007fff3407f039 _DPSNextEvent + 883

19 AppKit               0x00007fff3407d880 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1352

20 AppKit               0x00007fff3406f58e -[NSApplication run] + 658

21 AppKit               0x00007fff34041396 NSApplicationMain + 777

22 libdyld.dylib            0x00007fff70ce3cc9 start + 1

23 ???                 0x0000000000000001 0x0 + 1

)

libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

Abort trap: 6

logout

Saving session...

...copying shared history...

...saving history...truncating history files...

...completed.


[Process completed]


MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 30, 2020 10:30 AM

Reply

Similar questions

1 reply

Nov 3, 2020 1:04 PM in response to seaotta

Hi there seaotta,


Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like every time you are trying to launch System Preferences in your user account on Mac you are receiving an error. Learn what to do when receiving these errors here: If your Mac restarted because of a problem.


If you still have this issue after following those steps, please reach out to Apple directly here: Get Support.


We hope this helps!

System Preferences "unexpectedly crashes" every time after updating to Catalina

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.