apple messages app not responding (rainbow wheel of death)

HI,

I have not heard of anyone saying that they seemed to have found a limit to the open conversations displayed in Messages.

I would try to start the app again whilst you have the Activity Monitor open (Applications/Utilities) and see in Messages or IMAgent become "Stuck" or unresponsive.

It may also pay to open the Console App (Also Applications/Utilities) to see if there any items relating to the Messages app there.

If there is nothing obvious in either Activity Monitor or Console then I would delete com.apple.ichat.plist

Have the Finder as the "Front" app

Use the Go Menu > Go to Folder and type ~/Library/Preferences in the Dialogue box that appears.

Find the .plist and drag to the Trash.
Restart Messages.

9:12 PM Wednesday; January 2, 2013

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Glad to hear you are sorted.

for the Points

8:11 PM Sunday; January 6, 2013

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Using El Capitan. I am having this issue listed above: when I open Messages, I get the rainbow wheel. And Messages is very unresponsive and locks up. Checked Activity Monitor: Messages jumps to the top with 100% CPU, in addition, soagent is up there as well. Messages is taking up a lot of energy as well. Energy impact revolves around 97, 98, 99.

Tried to do ichat plist steps Ralph listed, Didn't work. Still unresponsive. Any suggestions?

HI,

Since this thread was started one other issue has been seen to cause this.

It is when you either send and very long iMessages (normally by Cut and Paste) or if someone send you a similarly sized incoming iMessage.

Do either of these scenarios apply to you ?

The SOAgent .plists are actually hidden away in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/Data/Library/Preferences

Some in here are actual .plists and most are Aliases that point to the actual .plists in ~/Library/Preferences

If these are the issue it is more likely you have lost the Ability to Read them.

9:10 pm Wednesday; April 6, 2016

I am sure both of those scenarios apply to me. I'm always sending/receiving very long/large messages such as audio clips, photos, you name it.

Following this: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/Data/Library/Preferences

I see a few curious plists related to messages:

ichat.statusmessages.plist

imessage.bag.plist

messageshelper.accountinfocontroller.plist

messageshelper.accountstatuscontroller.plist

I do also see the soagent.plist. Shall I trash the soagent.plist?

Hi

In a Buddy list you can change the Status and also the messages it show to your Buddies as well

There are some default ones from Apple and you can make your own.

The .plist tends to be Saved ones.

The imessages.bag one only holds the Server you happen to be logged in to.

I don't have an Alias of this one in the soagent folder in Containers.

the first of the messageshelper items holds details of all the Buddies fro all the Buddy List then it moves on to iMessages handles as they are called.

Some are listed as Valid and some Invalid but for me it does not list everyone I have ever contacted.

It does the same for FaceTime as well as Favourites for the same, so a plain deletion is not the way I would go.

It can be Edited in Xcode which is free to download.

The second messageshelper one you list holds the Off Line on Quit Setting made in Messages > Preferences > General section and whether the Status Menu item is visible (I think this gets turned Off if you have no Buddies Lists at All) It is in the App Menu itself.

Some .plists don't show you all the info they influence unless you change the settings that effect it.

I am sure the soagent.plist itself does control more but it lists very little.

Mine is saying it has not been changed sine 11Jul 2014.

I see little point in deleting it to solve the large iMessages if that is the cause.

Deleting to try and reduce the Activity Monitor CPU usage might have some merit. DO it whilst FaceTime and Messages are shut down.

I was not talking about the amount of items in an iMessages as this is handled differently.

It does seem though that there might be a character limit.

However it seems to be quite large that even extended writing does not seem to trigger it.

An excessive Paste job will do it it seems.

If it is a large section of text either Sent or Receive get Time Machine to Restore ~/Library/Messages to just before this happened.

9:52 pm Wednesday; April 6, 2016

Alrighty,

I used Time Machine to restore ~/Library/Messages from a week ago (before problem occurred). Nada.

So I said, screw it! I went to Internet Accounts and deleted all of my accounts. Reboot. Then added iCloud first. Pow! Messages is working properly! Then I added back in Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. Everything is fine now! Working properly.

I guess that should've been the first step before I went gungho on the plists. But Ralph, thank you so much for your time and what you do. You've taught me a lot and helped signifiantly.

Hi,

You're welcome.

7:13 pm Thursday; April 7, 2016