How can I prevent GIFs from crashing Messages on iMac?

I recently had an issue where a contact sent me a GIF in a message that appeared to cause Messages to crash (become unresponsive) on my Mac. I turned on "Sync messages to iCloud" on my iPhone and deleted the message that contained the GIF and that resolved the issue. How can a GIF cause Message on the Mac to crash? Or was it something else about the message?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Message with GIF crashes

iMac 21.5″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jun 10, 2025 1:28 PM

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