Messages not opening on MacBook Air

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Messages not opening on MacBook Air

A couple of months ago, imessage quit on my Macbook air, and I've never been able to open it since. I have restarted my laptop many times, but it doesn't open. I click it, the top left corner shows imessage is open for about half a second, then it quits again. The app itself never opens. Sometimes if I click on it enough, it opens a problem report telling me messages quit unexpectedly. It says "Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSGenericException', reason: 'Unable to activate constraint with anchors <NSLayoutDimension:0x600003992840 "CKUIWindow_60754894:0x148f91950.width"> and <NSLayoutDimension:0x600003992c80 "UILayoutContainerView:0x119c1b150.width"> because they have no common ancestor. Does the constraint or its anchors reference items in different view hierarchies? That's illegal."

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air (2018 – 2020)

Posted on Mar 16, 2023 3:06 PM

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Answer 1

Ben_Z1

Community Specialist

Mar 18, 2023 3:49 PM in response to soup_1_aa

Hi there soup_1_aa,

If the Messages app is not opening as expected on your Mac, these steps from If an app on your Mac stops responding, closes unexpectedly, or won’t open can resolve what's happening:

1. Quit and reopen the app

Quit the app, then open it again. If the app won't quit, force the app to quit. Then check to see if the problem with the app is fixed.

2. Restart your Mac

Restart your Mac. Then check to see if the problem with the app is fixed.

3. Check for updates

To see if updates are available for the app, open the App Store, then click Updates. If updates aren't available for the app, update the software on your Mac. Or if you didn't get the app from the App Store, look for updates to the app on the app developer's website. Then check to see if the problem with the app is fixed.

If this continues after your Mac is fully updated, let's test to see if this also occurs in a new user account to help further isolate the cause of this issue. The 'Add a new user' section here shows how to do this: Add a user or group on Mac

Cheers!

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Messages not opening on MacBook Air

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