Mail.app crashes when sender is in local Exchange Global Address Book

Question

For myself and several others at our organization, Mail.app started crashing a couple of days ago whenever a message is opened and the sender&#x27;s email address is in our Exchange Global Address Book.  The question then is, how does Mail display or look up those addresses differently in the message reading window/pane rather than "external" email addresses?  Does anyone have any insight as to why this would be happening?Thanks.- Brian

bspohio · Answer

Here is the crash stack trace:Process:     Mail [480]Path:        /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/MailIdentifier:  com.apple.mailVersion:     7.3 (1878.6)Build Info:  Mail-1878006000000000~1Code Type:   X86-64 (Native)Parent Process:  launchd [219]Responsible: Mail [480]User ID:     502Date/Time:   2014-08-27 13:52:35.099 -0400OS Version:  Mac OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)Report Version:  11Anonymous UUID:  2904EFEE-B0AE-5023-3B2F-17FA02432752Crashed Thread:  31  Dispatch queue: NSOperationQueue Serial QueueException Type:  EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000Application Specific Information:*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception &#x27;NSInvalidArgumentException&#x27;, reason: &#x27;-[__NSCFString getBytes:length:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7f9ed9a53000&#x27;abort() calledterminating with uncaught exception of type NSExceptionApplication Specific Backtrace 1:0   CoreFoundation                  0x00007fff8eef925c __exceptionPreprocess + 1721   libobjc.A.dylib                 0x00007fff8f7a5e75 objc_exception_throw + 432   CoreFoundation                  0x00007fff8eefc12d -[NSObject(NSObject) doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 2053   CoreFoundation                  0x00007fff8ee57272 ___forwarding___ + 10104   CoreFoundation                  0x00007fff8ee56df8 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 1205   AppKit                          0x00007fff95378a1a +[NSEPSImageRep canInitWithData:] + 656   AppKit                          0x00007fff953ee864 +[NSImageRep imageRepClassForData:] + 1777   AppKit                          0x00007fff953e5679 -[NSImage initWithData:] + 368   Mail                            0x00007fff98627662 __44-[MFAddressManager consumeImageData:forTag:]_block_invoke + 589   Foundation                      0x00007fff8d1d20b5 -[NSBlockOperation main] + 7510  Foundation                      0x00007fff8d1b18a1 -[__NSOperationInternal _start:] + 63111  Foundation                      0x00007fff8d1b154b __NSOQSchedule_f + 6412  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8c7e928d _dispatch_client_callout + 813  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8c7eb673 _dispatch_queue_drain + 45114  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8c7ec9c1 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 11015  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8c7eaf87 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 7516  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8c7ec177 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 4017  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff91787ef8 _pthread_wqthread + 31418  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff9178afb9 start_wqthread + 13

bspohio · Answer

Another data point.The crashes only happen when Mail.app queries "Directory Services" to look up the sender&#x27;s info based on their email address.If the Mac is on a network that does not have access to directory lookups, the crash is avoided.  So, this is clearly related to directory lookups.Does anyone have any insight?

dhudak · Answer

I actually hit this problem (or what I think is this problem) when I was given a new Mac on Monday that is bound to our local AD domain.Here is the explanation I got from one of the Mac experts:We have identified the problem as being Mail.app connects to Active Directory and asks if there is a thumbnail photo for the displayed sender.  Up until last week, AD replied “no”.  Then, it started replying “yes”, after which Mail.app requests to download the photo.  AD sends garbage (or maybe nothing) because there ARE NO photos currently in AD. This causes Mail.app to crash.This is the fix that worked:1.  In the Users &amp; Groups System Preferences pane, click "Login Options".2.  Next to "Network Account Server", click "Edit"3.  Click "Open Directory Utility".4.  Under the "Search Policy" tab, choose the "Contacts" subtab and in the "Search" select field choose "Local directory” (mine was set to the "Custom path": "/Active Directory/...”)I hope that someone, somewhere on the internet finds this and it helps them!  It worked for me.

Process:	Mail [480]
Path:	/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
Identifier:	com.apple.mail
Version:	7.3 (1878.6)
Build Info:	Mail-1878006000000000~1
Code Type:	X86-64 (Native)

Date/Time:	2014-08-27 13:52:35.099 -0400
OS Version:	Mac OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)

0 CoreFoundation	0x00007fff8eef925c __exceptionPreprocess + 172
1 libobjc.A.dylib	0x00007fff8f7a5e75 objc_exception_throw + 43
2 CoreFoundation	0x00007fff8eefc12d -[NSObject(NSObject) doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 205
3 CoreFoundation	0x00007fff8ee57272 ___forwarding___ + 1010
4 CoreFoundation	0x00007fff8ee56df8 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 120
5 AppKit	0x00007fff95378a1a +[NSEPSImageRep canInitWithData:] + 65
6 AppKit	0x00007fff953ee864 +[NSImageRep imageRepClassForData:] + 177
7 AppKit	0x00007fff953e5679 -[NSImage initWithData:] + 36
8 Mail	0x00007fff98627662 __44-[MFAddressManager consumeImageData:forTag:]_block_invoke + 58
9 Foundation	0x00007fff8d1d20b5 -[NSBlockOperation main] + 75
10 Foundation	0x00007fff8d1b18a1 -[__NSOperationInternal _start:] + 631
11 Foundation	0x00007fff8d1b154b __NSOQSchedule_f + 64
12 libdispatch.dylib	0x00007fff8c7e928d _dispatch_client_callout + 8
13 libdispatch.dylib	0x00007fff8c7eb673 _dispatch_queue_drain + 451
14 libdispatch.dylib	0x00007fff8c7ec9c1 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 110
15 libdispatch.dylib	0x00007fff8c7eaf87 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 75
16 libdispatch.dylib	0x00007fff8c7ec177 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 40
17 libsystem_pthread.dylib	0x00007fff91787ef8 _pthread_wqthread + 314
18 libsystem_pthread.dylib	0x00007fff9178afb9 start_wqthread + 13

Responsible:	Mail [480]
User ID:	502