Q: suggestd crashes due to permission issue

Hello,

On my iMac late 2009 running 10.11.4 I notice suggestd is constantly crashing, I see the below crash reports every 20-30 seconds.  I have turned of the service in launchd for now, which then made me realise I have a similar issue with mdworker.  I have repaired the permissions and last night even reinstalled El Capitan, no improvements at all.

I have seen some articles that suggest to empty the Suggestions folder in the user library, however the folder doesn't exist.  When I create a folder of the same name manually and change the permissions to read/write for all, the folder does not get populated and the errors and crashes continue.

Any suggestion on how I can fix this?

(In case it is related: I have the system and the user libraries running on a SSD and the home folders are stored on a HDD.  The user libraries are a symbolic link from the user folders to the SSD.  This has not caused any issue as far as I know.)

26/03/16 08:27:51,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(896) deny(1) file-write-create /Users/username/Library/Suggestions/entities.db

26/03/16 08:28:02,510 suggestd[897]: Sqlite didn't open (rc = 14)

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-write-create /Users/username/Library/Suggestions/entities.db

26/03/16 08:28:02,511 suggestd[897]: Sqlite didn't open (rc = 14)

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-write-create /Users/username/Library/Suggestions/entities.db

26/03/16 08:28:02,512 suggestd[897]: Sqlite didn't open (rc = 14)

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-write-create /Users/username/Library/Suggestions/entities.db

26/03/16 08:28:02,512 suggestd[897]: Sqlite didn't open (rc = 14)

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/SyncedPreferences/com.apple.CoreSuggestions.plist

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-write-create /Users/username/Library/Suggestions/entities.db

26/03/16 08:28:02,538 suggestd[897]: Sqlite didn't open (rc = 14)

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-write-create /Users/username/Library/Suggestions/harvestqueue

26/03/16 08:28:02,644 suggestd[897]: *** Assertion failure in +[SGPaths suggestionsSubdirectory:], /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/IntelligentSuggestions/IntelligentSuggest ions-356.20/SuggestionsInternals/Utility/SGPaths.m:66

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.lsd.mapdb

26/03/16 08:28:02,646 suggestd[897]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.mapdb

26/03/16 08:28:02,646 suggestd[897]: LaunchServices: received XPC_ERROR_CONNECTION_INVALID trying to map database

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.lsd.mapdb

26/03/16 08:28:02,646 suggestd[897]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.mapdb

26/03/16 08:28:02,646 suggestd[897]: LaunchServices: received XPC_ERROR_CONNECTION_INVALID trying to map database

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-read-data /private/var/folders/70/05g78tjx44vdmwbh67qbmnqh0000gn/0/com.apple.LaunchServic es-134501.csstore

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) ipc-posix-shm-read-data /tmp/com.apple.csseed.108

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-read-data /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchse rvices.secure.plist

26/03/16 08:28:02,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: suggestd(897) deny(1) file-read-data /Applications/App Store.app

(above line repeated for every app in the /Application folder)

26/03/16 08:28:33,530 suggestd[898]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.modifydb

26/03/16 08:28:33,539 suggestd[898]: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Error creating subdirectory for suggestions info: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 "You don’t have permission to save the file “harvestqueue” in the folder “Suggestions”." UserInfo={NSFilePath=/Volumes/iMac HD/homes/username/Library/Suggestions/harvestqueue, NSUnderlyingError=0x7f9d81d301e0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"}}'

*** First throw call stack:

(

  0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff91d2c4f2 __exceptionPreprocess + 178

  1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff8dff573c objc_exception_throw + 48

  2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff91d311ca +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106

  3   Foundation                          0x00007fff9827d7d6 -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 198

  4   CoreSuggestionsInternals            0x00007fff8637d6b5 +[SGPaths suggestionsSubdirectory:] + 399

  5   suggestd                            0x000000010c515af9 suggestd + 27385

  6   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc2740b _dispatch_client_callout + 8

  7   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc27303 dispatch_once_f + 67

  8   suggestd                            0x000000010c515aba suggestd + 27322

  9   suggestd                            0x000000010c529088 suggestd + 106632

  10  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc2740b _dispatch_client_callout + 8

  11  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc289f2 _dispatch_barrier_sync_f_invoke + 74

  12  suggestd                            0x000000010c528ff9 suggestd + 106489

  13  CoreSuggestionsInternals            0x00007fff863bba65 __52-[SGXPCActivityManager registerActivitiesWithSystem]_block_invoke + 144

  14  libxpc.dylib                        0x00007fff86ad448b __XPC_ACTIVITY_CALLING_HANDLER__ + 33

  15  libxpc.dylib                        0x00007fff86ad5442 ___xpc_activity_set_state_block_invoke_3 + 42

  16  libxpc.dylib                        0x00007fff86ad062f _xpc_connection_reply_callout + 26

  17  libxpc.dylib                        0x00007fff86ad05d0 _xpc_connection_call_reply + 36

  18  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc2740b _dispatch_client_callout + 8

  19  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc2c03b _dispatch_queue_drain + 754

  20  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc32707 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 549

  21  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc2ad53 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 538

  22  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8cc2ab00 _dispatch_worker_thread3 + 91

  23  libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fff84cd14de _pthread_wqthread + 1129

  24  libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fff84ccf341 start_wqthread + 13

)

26/03/16 08:28:33,540 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.suggestd[898]) Service exited due to signal: Abort trap: 6

26/03/16 08:28:33,540 diagnosticd[112]: error evaluating process info - pid: 898, puniqueid: 898

26/03/16 08:28:33,953 ReportCrash[895]: Saved crash report for suggestd[898] version 1.0 (356.20) to /Volumes/iMac HD/homes/username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/suggestd_2016-03-26-082833_Loc aliMac.crash