I cannot use iMessages

Where is iMessages on your MacBook Pro?

What backups do you have?

Please update your profile to reflect that you are using Mountain Lion and version.

There is a way to isolate and remove that unfriendly message with the file:slash nonsense -- without impacting your other messages.

On Mountain Lion, iMessage stores messages in the format: Joe Blow on 2013-02-01 at 12:39.ichat. These files are kept in a date-stamped folder. Remember the date you got the bogus message. Now you know which folder it is in. If your login Library folder is hidden, in the Finder, press/hold option and choose Library from the Go menu.

The path is: ~/Library/Messages/Archive/yyyy-mm-dd/

You can find the specific message to remove by using the Terminal: Press shift+command+U and then double-click Terminal. You can triple-click the following to select it, then copy/paste into an open Terminal window.

fgrep -l -R "File:\/\/\/" ~/Library/Messages/Archive

This will recursively search through all of your messages, and will only print out the path and filename that match. Now you know which message you can move to the Trash via Finder, and once the Trash is emptied, you should be able to resume use of iMessage.

Back up all data.

Triple-click the line below to select it:

~/Library/Messages/chat.db

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. There may be other files in the same folder with names that begin "chat.db", Move those to the Trash.

Relaunch the application and test. If there's no change, quit again and put the file you moved back where it was, overwriting the one that may have been created in its place. Otherwise, delete the file you moved.

Although I already had Services > Reveal enabled in the Keyboard Shortcut preferences, no such service appears on the contextual menu, or with the chat.db icon selected, from the Finder > Services menu.

I was expecting it to work as you stated. Thoughts?

10.8.2

Works for me.

Did iMessage write anything (including hidden files) into /private/tmp, or / itself?

HI,

Linc Davis is right that any iMessage is stored in the chat.db.

VikingOSX is right that any Saved on Close Chat from any source (AIM, Jabber, iMessages or Yahoo or Bonjour) is Saved in the Archive folder

Both the chat.db and the Archive folder are in ~/Library/Messages.

Triple clicking the ~/Library/Messages/chat.db gets me

Using COPY then Services > Reveal gets me to the folder withn the chat.db item in it.

(As does the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Folder and entering ~/Library/Messages in the dialogue box)

If the said chat/Conversation with your Contact or Buddy (to use Messages parley-ance) has not been closed to Save it then it will not be in the Archive as you suggest.

If it is not from an iMessage Source it will not be in the data base item.

I am not sure what you mean by:-

... it is also a problem that no matter what application i type it into that application then crashes.

What are you trying to open with what app ?

Is it something to do with this Message ?

Is it an iMessage ?

Is it an IM from a Jabber, Yahoo or AIM Buddy ?

IF the Message was received in full in the first place what did it contain ?

For Instance if it was an iMessages did it have an Pic enclosed or a File ?

These will be in the Attachments folder in ~/Library/Messages (You need the date to start looking in the folders)

any suggestions that don't involve deleting all my iMessage History would be greatly appreciated.

Deleting the chat.db will delete all your iMessage History. (Messages from people using iPhone Numbers or Apple IDs over Apple's iMessage service).

However I am not entirely convinced that this is what you mean.

To be clear iMessages is one Account that can be used in the Messages app.

9:45 PM Sunday; February 3, 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

There's a bug in OS X that causes any application to crash when Data Detectors are applied to a text field that contains a certain string. That's what this is about.

OK.

7:16 PM Monday; February 4, 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