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

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

Yes, I looked there and also searched for all plist files on my Mac. It’s nowhere to be found.

I set up a new user on my Mac and, under this test user, the accessibility crash problem isn’t an issue. I checked the Preferences folder and did find the file you all indicated under this new user.

I’m truly stumped.

Thanks a lot!!

I got crazy for the past week!

Firefox crashing every time I was opening pages that I was commonly opening several times a day.

Switched to Safari and same story!!

I was ready to reinstall everything or downsizing the last macOS Sonoma.

And then, I opened the crash report and start to search the error codes and magically you gave the solution!

Many many thanks!

Giovanni

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.

I will add my most grateful thanks for this fix. Had exactly the same problem in the last 3 days and was about to attempt drastic measures this afternoon until I saw this thread. Chrome, Safari and (default) Firefox all crashing. The plist deletion did the trick. Have no idea how the plist change occurred. Muchas gracias.

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!!!!

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:

Send to...

carfax c/o BDAqua! :D

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

Thank you carfax! This solved it for me.

Thank you so much, but the first time I had not found your solution, took half a day to reinstall everything... But it started again, and thank God I found your thread. Life saver.

Thank you! I was about ready to do a complete clean system reinstall. Thank goodness I found this thread. This fix corrected by browser issues as well.

This saves lives !

just move the file to desktop as a backup:

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