Messages keeps quitting upon launch

[relativist]

Greetings!

I'm running 10.8.2.
All of a sudden my Messages app on my macbook pro stopped working.
I launch it, my buddy list pops up, then two seconds later, it quits.
No message, just quits.

Any thoughts?

In the console, i get the following error message log (only partial as i can't paste the entire thing due to character limitations on this post)

Process: Messages [34388]
Path: /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages
Identifier: com.apple.iChat
Version: 7.0.1 (3314)
Build Info: iChat-3312000000000000~7
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [131]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2013-03-13 19:24:24.305 -0400
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
Report Version: 10

Crashed Thread: 15 com.apple.coremedia.mediavalidator

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000000000ef

VM Regions Near 0xef:
-->
__TEXT 000000010ba45000-000000010bce3000 [ 2680K] r-x/rwx SM=COW /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages

Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff8e5a30fa __psynch_cvwait + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff9005df89 _pthread_cond_wait + 869
2 com.apple.CoreMedia 0x00007fff913ecff8 FigSemaphoreWaitRelative + 273
3 com.apple.QTKit 0x00007fff8a8354c2 +[QTMovie_FigMedia validationAttibutesForURL:fileTypes:withAttributes:error:] + 649
4 com.apple.QTKit 0x00007fff8a80acd6 +[QTMovie mediaHelperClassForAttributes:error:additionalAttributes:] + 567
5 com.apple.QTKit 0x00007fff8a80a84c -[QTMovie initWithAttributes:error:] + 749
6 com.apple.iChat.SocialUI 0x00007fff8e54e0ad -[NSURL(SocialUIAdditions) newMoviePreview] + 262
7 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010ba9c3cb 0x10ba45000 + 357323
8 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010ba8c36a 0x10ba45000 + 291690
9 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff8cb1310c -[SuperToWebKitParserContext parser:foundAttributes:inRange:fileTransferGUID:filename:bookmark:width:height:] + 795
10 com.apple.imfoundation 0x00007fff8dc812e7 0x7fff8dc7c000 + 21223
11 com.apple.imfoundation 0x00007fff8dc99274 0x7fff8dc7c000 + 119412
12 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff8cb15c03 -[MessageBodyFragmentProvider fragmentForChatItem:] + 326
13 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff8cb1ac01 -[TranscriptFragmentProvider appendFragmentForChatItem:toNode:] + 22
14 com.apple.iChat.Styles.Balloons 0x000000011111c70a 0x111119000 + 14090
15 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff8cb1ac01 -[TranscriptFragmentProvider appendFragmentForChatItem:toNode:] + 22
16 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff8cb29564 -[ChatItemFragmentProvider appendFragmentForChatItem:toNode:] + 357
17 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff8cb1bbe2 -[TranscriptStyleController appendChatItem:] + 310
18 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010ba70200 0x10ba45000 + 176640
19 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010ba6eef6 0x10ba45000 + 171766
20 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010ba6ebd6 0x10ba45000 + 170966
21 com.apple.WebKit 0x00007fff8908926b CallFrameLoadDelegate(objc_object* (*)(objc_object*, objc_selector*, ...), WebView*, objc_selector, objc_object*) + 75
22 com.apple.WebKit 0x00007fff89026b41 WebFrameLoaderClient::dispatchDidFinishLoad() + 81
23 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8b79132b WebCore::FrameLoader::checkLoadCompleteForThisFrame() + 843
24 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8b80e952 WebCore::FrameLoader::checkLoadComplete() + 146
25 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8b7d0f80 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::didFinishLoading(double) + 208
26 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8b7ca7c3 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::continueAfterContentPolicy(WebCore::PolicyAction, WebCore::ResourceResponse const&) + 1139
27 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8b7ca319 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::continueAfterContentPolicy(WebCore::PolicyAction) + 73
28 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8b7c9dd9 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::didReceiveResponse(WebCore::ResourceResponse const&) + 921
29 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff8ba37c42 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::handleDataLoadNow(WebCore::RunLoopTimer<WebCore::MainResourceLoader>*) + 706
30 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ebe6da4 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_TIMER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 20
31 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ebe68bd __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 557
32 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ebcc099 __CFRunLoopRun + 1513
33 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ebcb6b2 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 290
34 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff87ca60a4 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 209
35 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff87ca5e42 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 356
36 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff87ca5cd3 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 62
37 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff894ef613 _DPSNextEvent + 685
38 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff894eeed2 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
39 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff894e6283 -[NSApplication run] + 517
40 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff8948acb6 NSApplicationMain + 869
41 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff855cf7e1 start + 1

[relativist]

to add to the oddity, i just got a message from a friend because she said she saw i was on ichat. when i went to respond, my Messages app was still not open. So somehow it's somewhere running invisibly or something else. it doesn't show up as running in activity monitor either.

[acme.mail.order]

had the same problem - it's a permissions error on one of the folders. Skim through the crash report for the appropriate line.

[relativist]

oh sweet! can you tell me what kind of error i'm looking for? or more specifically, what it would read?

[relativist]

Here's what i found but not sure how to address it or what i need to do

Thread 17 Crashed:: com.apple.coremedia.mediavalidator
0 com.apple.VideoToolbox 0x00007fff85155e6b 0x7fff85132000 + 147051
1 com.apple.MediaToolbox 0x00007fff910f0fd5 0x7fff90fd3000 + 1171413
2 com.apple.MediaToolbox 0x00007fff910f0688 0x7fff90fd3000 + 1169032
3 com.apple.MediaToolbox 0x00007fff910f4db8 0x7fff90fd3000 + 1187256
4 com.apple.CoreMedia 0x00007fff913ed4c9 figThreadMain + 382
5 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff90059742 _pthread_start + 327
6 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff90046181 thread_start + 13

Thread 17 crashed with X86 Thread State (64-bit):
rax: 0x00000000000000ef rbx: 0x0000000061766331 rcx: 0x0000000000000000 rdx: 0x0000000000000000
rdi: 0x0000000061766331 rsi: 0x0000000000000000 rbp: 0x0000000115fe1b90 rsp: 0x0000000115fe1a98
r8: 0x0000000000000004 r9: 0x0000000000000001 r10: 0x0000000000000601 r11: 0x00007fe31f31e631
r12: 0x0000000061766331 r13: 0x00007fe31b85cd40 r14: 0x0000000000000000 r15: 0x0000000000000000
rip: 0x00007fff85155e6b rfl: 0x0000000000010202 cr2: 0x00000000000000ef
Logical CPU: 0

[relativist]

ran repair permissions in both disk utility and through command R and still not working.

[DeltaMac]

A Disk Utility Permissions repair does not descend into your user folder, which means that is useless to fix a permissions error in your user folder.

You should also look in your Console for messages relevant to your issue. The system.log, in the Console, is listed by date and time, so you can have that log open while you attempt to open your Messages app.

[relativist]

yes, i do have the error log but i'm not quite sure what i'm looking for. as posted above, i posted the part that said there was a crashed thread. but i'm not sure what to do with that info or where to make changes.

[DeltaMac]

No, not an "error log", but the system.log
Go to your console, and you will see that as a separate log. System.log keeps a record of all system messages, which may or may not be "errors". The important thing to note, is that the system.log lists those messages by time and date.
So - you can try to launch Messages (which will apparently fail), and the system.log should show something relevant from that particular time. THAT'S where you should look.

[relativist]

yes, sorry i wasn't clear. i actually did that. i kept the console open, launched messages, then the noted the system log for that particular crash. it produces a crash log. i can't paste the entire thing because of the character limit on this forum, but here is the first part and then I tacked onto the end of that, the crash instance for the specific thread.

I've done this several times and it seems to crash at different threads each time.



Process: Messages [2952]
Path: /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages
Identifier: com.apple.iChat
Version: 7.0.1 (3314)
Build Info: iChat-3312000000000000~7
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [136]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2013-03-18 15:53:21.222 -0400
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
Report Version: 10

Crashed Thread: 24 com.apple.coremedia.mediavalidator

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000000000ef

VM Regions Near 0xef:
-->
__TEXT 0000000105921000-0000000105bbf000 [ 2680K] r-x/rwx SM=COW /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages

Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff95ff10fa __psynch_cvwait + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff97aabf89 _pthread_cond_wait + 869
2 com.apple.CoreMedia 0x00007fff98e3aff8 FigSemaphoreWaitRelative + 273
3 com.apple.QTKit 0x00007fff922834c2 +[QTMovie_FigMedia validationAttibutesForURL:fileTypes:withAttributes:error:] + 649
4 com.apple.QTKit 0x00007fff92258cd6 +[QTMovie mediaHelperClassForAttributes:error:additionalAttributes:] + 567
5 com.apple.QTKit 0x00007fff9225884c -[QTMovie initWithAttributes:error:] + 749
6 com.apple.iChat.SocialUI 0x00007fff95f9c0ad -[NSURL(SocialUIAdditions) newMoviePreview] + 262
7 com.apple.iChat 0x00000001059783cb 0x105921000 + 357323
8 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010596836a 0x105921000 + 291690
9 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff9456110c -[SuperToWebKitParserContext parser:foundAttributes:inRange:fileTransferGUID:filename:bookmark:width:height:] + 795
10 com.apple.imfoundation 0x00007fff956cf2e7 0x7fff956ca000 + 21223
11 com.apple.imfoundation 0x00007fff956e7274 0x7fff956ca000 + 119412
12 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff94563c03 -[MessageBodyFragmentProvider fragmentForChatItem:] + 326
13 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff94568c01 -[TranscriptFragmentProvider appendFragmentForChatItem:toNode:] + 22
14 com.apple.iChat.Styles.Balloons 0x000000010bc1d70a 0x10bc1a000 + 14090
15 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff94568c01 -[TranscriptFragmentProvider appendFragmentForChatItem:toNode:] + 22
16 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff94577564 -[ChatItemFragmentProvider appendFragmentForChatItem:toNode:] + 357
17 com.apple.iChat.IMRenderingFoundation 0x00007fff94569be2 -[TranscriptStyleController appendChatItem:] + 310
18 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010594c200 0x105921000 + 176640
19 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010594aef6 0x105921000 + 171766
20 com.apple.iChat 0x000000010594abd6 0x105921000 + 170966
21 com.apple.WebKit 0x00007fff90ad726b CallFrameLoadDelegate(objc_object* (*)(objc_object*, objc_selector*, ...), WebView*, objc_selector, objc_object*) + 75
22 com.apple.WebKit 0x00007fff90a74b41 WebFrameLoaderClient::dispatchDidFinishLoad() + 81
23 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff931df32b WebCore::FrameLoader::checkLoadCompleteForThisFrame() + 843
24 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff9325c952 WebCore::FrameLoader::checkLoadComplete() + 146
25 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff9321ef80 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::didFinishLoading(double) + 208
26 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff932187c3 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::continueAfterContentPolicy(WebCore::PolicyAction, WebCore::ResourceResponse const&) + 1139
27 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff93218319 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::continueAfterContentPolicy(WebCore::PolicyAction) + 73
28 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff93217dd9 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::didReceiveResponse(WebCore::ResourceResponse const&) + 921
29 com.apple.WebCore 0x00007fff93485c42 WebCore::MainResourceLoader::handleDataLoadNow(WebCore::RunLoopTimer<WebCore::MainResourceLoader>*) + 706
30 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff96634da4 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_TIMER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 20
31 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff966348bd __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 557
32 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff9661a099 __CFRunLoopRun + 1513
33 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff966196b2 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 290
34 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff8f6f40a4 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 209
35 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff8f6f3e42 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 356
36 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff8f6f3cd3 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 62
37 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff90f3d613 _DPSNextEvent + 685
38 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff90f3ced2 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
39 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff90f34283 -[NSApplication run] + 517
40 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff90ed8cb6 NSApplicationMain + 869
41 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff8d01d7e1 start + 1

and then:

Thread 24 crashed with X86 Thread State (64-bit):
rax: 0x00000000000000ef rbx: 0x0000000061766331 rcx: 0x0000000000000000 rdx: 0x0000000000000000
rdi: 0x0000000061766331 rsi: 0x0000000000000000 rbp: 0x000000010d5b4b90 rsp: 0x000000010d5b4a98
r8: 0x0000000000000004 r9: 0x0000000000000001 r10: 0x0000000000000601 r11: 0x00007fa10e0bd071
r12: 0x0000000061766331 r13: 0x00007fa10e89af90 r14: 0x0000000000000000 r15: 0x0000000000000000
rip: 0x00007fff8cba3e6b rfl: 0x0000000000010a86 cr2: 0x00000000000000ef
Logical CPU: 1

[DeltaMac]

Can you post a few lines from "system.log", and not the crash log?

A few lines from prior to crash time, and a few after the crash time would probably only be about 15 or 20 lines max.

But first - try updating to 10.8.3 (which, by updating many system components, may fix your issue with Messages.)
Best bet for that fix would be to update through the combined updater, and not using software update through the App Store. You can get that updater here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1640

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by relativist i can't paste the entire thing because of the character limit on this forum

You could add the crash log (as a plain text file - not MS Word !) as an attachment using the buttons at the bottom when you reply.

[relativist]

well, the update seems to have fixed it! but, i did go through my system.log this time (sorry, didn't realize there were several to look at) and found this from the earlier crash.

Mar 18 15:53:22 ykmbp.local iTunes[1764]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff7e4b7180): Unexpected connection closure...
Mar 18 15:53:22 ykmbp.local ath[1771]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff7e4b7180): Unexpected connection closure...
Mar 18 15:53:22 ykmbp com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[136] ([0x0-0x31a31a].com.apple.iChat[2952]): Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault: 11
Mar 18 15:53:22 ykmbp.local WindowServer[93]: CGXDeferSurfaces : Invalid source window 1344
Mar 18 15:53:23 ykmbp.local ReportCrash[2956]: Saved crash report for Messages[2952] version 7.0.1 (3314) to /Users/ykhong/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Messages_2013-03-18-155323_ykmbp.crash
Mar 18 15:53:23 ykmbp.local ReportCrash[2956]: Removing excessive log: file://localhost/Users/ykhong/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Messages_2013-03-13-191258_ykmbp.crash