How to fix Accessibility settings issue leading to Browser Crashes on Sonoma?

Slightly easier fix:

I had essentially the same problem. Web pages making every browser crash.

System settings crashing on Accessibility-> Spoken Content and Live Speech

I went into preferences and found that the only recently changed pref was:

com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist

So I deleted that and System Settings Accessibility-> Spoken Content and Live Speech immediately began to work again and web pages began to display without crashing.

Hi Tigerladybarb - I had exactly the same issue straight after a Somona upgrade ... browser apps crashing on certain sites (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) - their dumps showed the crashes were linked to speech. I had the same errors in System Preferences -> Accessibility-> Spoken Content and Live Speech. Also in terminal "say hello" threw an exception.

I created a separate admin account on the macbook and tested for the above - none of the symptoms were present so how I fixed it was to make a backup of ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.* from both my existing and my new user accounts, then when logged in as my existing account, copied in the files from my new admin account overwriting the old settings. Apologies if anyone is looking for precision but I didn't find the specific properties list file as this does reset most of your settings but I was able to quickly redo my changed settings.

Not suggesting this approach is for purists as it needs more precision but it worked for me no guarantee it will work for anyone else - I first backed up all files in my ~/Library/Preferences in case I needed them

Login as new user

mkdir /tmp/user1

chmod 777 /tmp/user1

cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.* /tmp/user1

Login as original user then

cp /tmp/user1/com.apple.* ~/Library/Preferences

I just spent a week trying to sort this out on my own, but no joy. I turned to the Apple Support chat, but after three unsuccessful sessions they bumped me up to a supervisor. While I was walking through the problem in a screen share I noticed that the crash report always had the same "create-voices-avspeech" error message. I pointed that out to the Apple support supervisor and he told me to wait while he checked something. A minute later he came back with this advice:

delete com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist

I wonder if he just Googled the error like everyone else here did, and then found this page. In any case, this was absolutely the solution.

All my browsers stopped working as with other users. Things worked with alternate user. Things worked with parallels. Things did not work in safe mode. I spent 3 hours with apple support with no solution. I reinstalled sonoma in recovery mode with no fix. I was finally told to wipe the computer and reinstall from time machine before the problem began. I then found your thread and deleted com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist as a last resort. Everything began to work!!!! Please send this information to apple support.

Just adding my $.02 worth...I had a similar problem, but also my screen zooming in Accessibility Options wasn't working, either (I use that function a LOT). Was getting multiple crashes of items all related to Accessibility components. Deleting the com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist fixed the preference pane crash right away, and a reboot fixed the zoom issue.

THANK YOU CARFAX. EXTREMELY helpful!!!!

To expand upon the solution, just go to a terminal and do "rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist". Also for SEO here's the error from Chrome if someone searches for it.

Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException'

CarFax you are a genius. I wasted a lot of time reinstalling 14.5 with no luck until I looked more closely at the browser and Plex desktop app more closely and found the same/similar crashed threads and then I found this threed and your post. Deleting the com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist fixed the problem without even logging out of my user. Thanks for your help.

Well this is weard. After implementing CarFax solution and things working well since doing that suddenly this morning safari, safari development, chrome and plex desktop app all starting crashing again (as before) deleted om.apple.SpeakSelection.plist again and things now work.

The question is what is corrupting that preference that is causing these problems?

It works! Just delete com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist and reboot then all browsers are fixed. I give you a deep bow. Thanks a lot!

just move the file to desktop as a backup:

mv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist ~/Desktop

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

If the above doesn't help follow rkaufmann87's recommendation of running Etrecheck and posting the full report via the "Additional Text" button:

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

Have you looked in the hidden Library folder?

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist

~ tilde indicates  your user library folder

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...

Method 1:

1. From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.
2. In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.

Or…

 Use the Command-Shift-. 

Method 2:

1. Go to the Finder (or desktop).
2. Hold the Option key on your keyboard, and click the Go menu at the top of the screen.
3. With the Go menu open, you'll notice that pressing and releasing Option will display or hide the Library choice in this menu.

 4 Select Library from the Go menu (while holding down Option) to access the hidden folder.

Deleted com.apple.SpeakSelection.plist. And this helped for me as well.

Forgot that you have to run each of the above commands with sudo so:

Login as new user

sudo mkdir /tmp/user1

sudo chmod 777 /tmp/user1

sudo cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.* /tmp/user1

Login as original user then

sudo cp /tmp/user1/com.apple.* ~/Library/Preferences