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My Message App Crashes Mac

 

App crashes are usually accompanied by an error message. If you see one of these, click Reopen to send Apple a report with details about your system configuration and what went wrong, and then. Jul 09, 2020  Meet Messages, Google's official app for texting (SMS, MMS) and chat (RCS). Message anyone from anywhere with the reliability of texting and the richness of chat. Stay in touch with friends and family, send group texts, and share your favorite pictures, GIFs, emoji, stickers, videos and audio messages. Chat features (RCS) On supported carriers, you can send and receive messages over Wi-Fi.

Your Mac is probably pretty much trouble free, at least most of the time. But occasionally you may experience a system, process, or app crash that stops you in your tracks, and prevents you from continuing to work. These crashes are usually fleeting in nature, and resolved by simply relaunching the app or restarting your Mac.

And while an occasional crash can be frustrating, it’s generally not something to worry too much about. Stuff happens, and you can think of it as one of the many reasons you have a good backup system in place. (You do, don’t you?)

When an app crashes on your Mac, it automatically generates a crash report. You’ll see this appear after the crash with a warning dialog saying “ App has quit unexpectedly. ” That crash report is available to read immediately in that window by clicking the “Report ” button. The crash report can also be found in the Console app. How to Fix Mac Mail That Keeps Crashing Solution #1: Launch the Mail App Safely. Sometimes crashes occur because of a problematic email message. When you open. Solution #2: Clean Up Your Mail. The Mail app receives and sends out lots of emails every day. As those messages. Solution #3: Rebuild. Oct 18, 2019  Control-click a message bubble to open a shortcut menu. Choose Tapback from the menu. Click a Tapback to add it to the message bubble. Your Tapback is visible to everyone in the conversation who is using iMessage with macOS Sierra or later or iOS 10 or later. The Messages app hangs or crashes after a Mojave upgrade, making it impossible for the users to read their messages or send a reply. Because of this error, the Messages app freezes, can’t sync, won’t load new messages, gets stuck in updating status, or won’t open at all. This issue is usually accompanied by the following error message. Jan 23, 2019  There are many ways that Messages can break on your Mac. Regardless of the symptoms, the cause is typically the same: a miscommunication between the Messages app and the messaging servers on Apple’s end. With the correct troubleshooting steps, we can straighten this out.

Now, when a crash starts occurring on a more regular basis, or you notice it always happens when x event occurs, it may be time to start delving into the crash and discover what may be causing the problem.

In this Rocket Yard Guide, we’re going to take a look at using the Console app to track down the cause of a system or app crash. With any luck, the Console app will be able to help you resolve the problem that’s causing the crash, or at least give you a good idea of what’s going on.

What is the Console App?
Back in the early years of computing, the console was a terminal that was attached to a computer to monitor the status of the system. If you go back even further, the console may have been a bank of meters, lights, and switches that indicated how well the computer was operating.

(The Console app from macOS High Sierra. The sidebar shows devices reporting to the Console, as well as reports organized by category.)

The Console app included with the Mac is a modern-day version of the old computer console; its primary job is to help you monitor how well your Mac is operating. It can do this because of its ability to display logs, status, and error files your Mac’s operating system and individual apps generate as they’re running.

Log Files
There are a number of different types of files that apps, processes, and the system generate as they work; you can think of them as a journal or diary of what’s going on at any point in time. While there are diagnostic files, crash files, log files, and a few other types, we’re going to refer to them collectively as log files. And for the most part, they can all be read by the Console app.

(OS X Yosemite’s Console app displaying the crash log from when a system preference terminated unexpectedly. Turns out the preference pane is from an old version of an app, and is no longer supported).

The Console app can also look at process messages, and a few other real-time events, but we’re going to concentrate on looking at log files to discover what happened in the past, such as when the system or an app crashed.

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Introduction to Console
Even if you haven’t experienced a recent system or app crash, or an unexpected restart, go ahead and launch the Console app, so you can become familiar with the interface.

Launch Console, located at /Applications/Utilities.

Console may look a bit different, depending on the version of the Mac operating system you’re using. Most changes from system to system are cosmetic, such as a few name changes here and there, although there was a significant change going from OS X El Capitan to macOS Sierra. The primary change was the removal or relocation of some troubleshooting tools used when looking at real-time events. Since we’re not developers trying to track down bugs, that shouldn’t have much effect on our use of Console to review log files.

With the Console app open, you’ll see a multi-pane interface, with a sidebar used to select either real-time messages or log files for display, a toolbar across the top, and in new versions of Console, a search bar and tab bar just below the toolbar.

Accessing Log Files

Log files you may be interested in reviewing for information about what caused a crash are found in the Console sidebar under the heading:

  • User Reports (User Diagnostic Reports in earlier versions of Console): Crash reports for user processes and applications.
  • System Reports (System Diagnostic Reports in earlier versions of Console): Analytics, diagnostics, and crash reports for system processes.
  • System log: A log of current system events and messages.
  • ~/Library/Logs: Application logs for the current logged in user.
  • /Library/Logs: Application and process event logs for all users.
  • /var/logs: Log files for maintenance scripts used by the system.

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To access a log file, select the category in the sidebar you’re interested in. If the category has a chevron next to its name, expand the chevron by clicking or tapping on it.

A list of log files will be displayed, either within the sidebar or in the main viewing pane, depending on the Console version you’re using.

(The /var/log category contains some interesting logs, including the results of all the automatic maintenance scripts that are run in the background by your Mac.)

Select one of the listed files to view its content.

The log file names usually contain the process or app name that generated the file, the date, the name of the Mac, and finally, the file type, such as crash, diag, or analytics.

For the most part, the crash logs will be the ones you’ll be interested in for troubleshooting system or app crashes, but the diag ones are also interesting to review, since they may contain information about unusual memory usage or high levels of CPU usage.

Understanding Reports
Crash reports are broken into multiple sections, with the first section containing all the information about what process crashed:

  • Process: Lists the name of the process, such as TextEdit.
  • Path: The process location.
  • Identifier: The unique process name, such as com.apple.textedit.
  • Version: The version of the app or process.
  • Code Type: The processor type the code is meant to run under.
  • Parent Process: If the process that crashed was spawned by another process, it will be listed here.
  • Responsible: Usually the app or process name or developer.
  • User ID: The user ID in use by the app or process.

The next section tells you when the app or process crashed:

  • Date/Time: The date and time when the process or app terminated.
  • OS Version: The version of the Mac OS that was running at the time of the crash. An interesting side note: Console still uses OS X as the operating system name, although the version number is correct.
  • Report Version: The version number of the crash report style in use.
  • Anonymous UUID: This is a long string of numbers and letters that are a unique identifier of the process.
  • Time Awake Since Boot: How long the system has been running, displayed as the number of seconds.
  • System Integrity Protection: Shows status of SIP.

And finally, the meat of the problem: what caused the crash.

  • Crashed Thread: Which process thread was running when the crash occurred.
  • Exception Type: This is the actual event that caused the crash.
  • Exception Codes: Additional details about what caused the exception type.
  • Exception Note: Message, if any, generated by the crash.
  • Termination Signal: The name of the signal type used to tell the process to quit.
  • Termination Reason: The category for why the termination signal was initiated.
  • Termination Process: Which process initiated the termination.

The next long section of the report lists what led to the crash in reverse chronological order, starting with the thread listed as the cause. This may seem like a goldmine for discovering what caused your crash, and it is. This section and the next, which is called a backtrace, can be very helpful for the developer to troubleshoot a system or app crash. However, it’s usually not very helpful for most users.

(The anatomy of a crash report as displayed in the Console app.)

What Can I Do With This Information?
One of the best things you can do is contact the developer, open a support ticket, and send in this crash report. Developers need this type of information to troubleshoot and refine their apps or code.

Depending on the version of Console you’re using, you can either:

Use the Save As command under the File menu to save a copy of the crash report, which you can then send to the developer. Or, if you’re using a later version of Console, you can use the Share button in the toolbar to attach the crash report to an email.

You can also right-click on the crash report name and select Reveal in Finder from the popup menu. You can then use the Finder to make a copy to send along to the developer.

(An app crash will display a message indicating a crash occurred. You can select the Report button to display the crash report without having to wade through the Console app to find it.)

If you’re trying to resolve the crash on your own, pay attention to the exact time the crash occurred, then check the diagnostic logs and analytics logs for unusual events that may have occurred at or near the same time. You’re looking for excessive memory or CPU usage, as an example. You may find, for example, that WebKit, a core component of Safari, was using a great deal of RAM when the crash occurred, something you may be able to correct by adding more RAM. Or, perhaps CPU usage was so high that on a hot summer day, your Mac couldn’t cope with the high temperatures.

Another thing to look at is the app version that was crashing. Many times an app crash can be caused by an out-of-date version. Check with the app developer to see what the current version is, and which version, if any, is recommended to run on your version of the Mac OS.

For more information about using the Console app, you can find details on advanced usage at Apple’s support site for Console Help.

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As Mac OS X users, we have something to be happy about when it comes to app crashes and freezes: rarity. Typically you can work on your Mac for hours at a time without a single issue. However, a crashing app certainly can happen, leading to lost productivity, time and, worst of all, lost work. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to recover from a crashed app, as well as prevent the issue in the first place.

How to fix a crashing app after the macOS upgrade

App crashes after the the macOS update is more than a common problem. Some apps freeze or malfunction, some won’t launch, some show no signs of life whatsoever. Why it happens? The most probable reason is that the app is simply not ready for the latest macOS Catalina. Something in its depth turned out to be incompatible with the new macOS.

Now, what can you do to fix an app crashing? Three things.

  1. First, see if you have the latest version of the app by clicking on its name it the top menu and choosing Check for updates.
  2. Second, visit developer’s website (or App Store page) and see if they’ve issued a statement about Catalina compatibility.
  3. Finally, some crashed apps on macOS Catalina can be fixed by running maintenance scripts. Download CleanMyMac X, launch it, find Maintenance tab and run the scripts.

What happens when an app craches: under the hood

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Now let's go deeper into the nature of crashed apps, but first, let’s identify the difference between a crashed macOS app and a frozen one. While these terms are often used interchangeably, there is a notable difference.

Crash

A crash happens when a piece of software stops working altogether, and then closes on its own. In other words, the app quits when you did not tell it to. When this happens, you'll typically see a message noting that the application has 'unexpectedly quit” just as its windows disappears. It’s pretty frustrating — especially if you end up losing all your work.

Freeze

A freeze is when software stops functioning, but continues to run. You can still see its windows, and its Dock icon still indicates that it’s running. However, no amount of clicking or tabbing around will do anything. A frozen app doesn’t quit like a crashed app does, it simply becomes unresponsive. Often no error messages accompany the freeze. Again, it’s a frustrating experience (if you want to know how to deal with it, check out this post on how to fix frozen apps).

When software freezes, you force it to quit, so that you can re-launch and hopefully get on with your work. With crashes, meanwhile, the problem is the app quitting on its own. In this article, I’ll discuss recovering from app crashes, as well as steps that help prevent them in the first place. Let’s get started.

What to do when a Mac OS X app crashes

The good news here is that a crashed app rarely brings down your entire Mac, as the trouble is restricted to that particular piece of software. That means we have a chance to recover. Let’s start with the simplest solutions.

First, just relaunch the app. When an app crashes, you’ll typically see a dialog box that says the software “unexpectedly quit” and you’ll have several options to deal with it, including “Relaunch”. Give that a click and cross your fingers that the crash doesn’t happen again. Oftentimes, you’re good from there. If not…

Try restarting your Mac. “Turn if off and back on again” is almost a punchline at this point, but it usually works. Shut down, restart and try again. Very often this simple task will set things right. If not, it’s time to try something just a little more involved.

Reinstall the app. Deleting the misbehaving app and grabbing a new copy gives you a fresh version to work with. That is, if you delete all of the app’s related files.

See, when you drag an app to the Trash, you aren’t deleting everything. Some leftover parts remain, and if the troublemaker is among them, your problem could persist. It’s a waste of time to delete an app via drag-and-drop, reinstall and then have it crash again. To make things right, you need to get rid of the app’s bits and pieces before you reinstall it, and this is where software like CleanMyMac X comes in handy.

An app that’s simply dragged to the Trash leaves behind a pile of associated files that you don’t see, like caches, preferences (often the culprit in crash-y apps), saved states, and more. You might not even know they’re there, but CleanMyMac X does. It’s smart enough to find the whole lot, safely remove them, and ensure that a newly installed app is just that: a complete fresh start.

In fact, you don’t even have to launch CleanMyMac X to thoroughly and safely delete an app. Simply right-click (or Control-click) the app’s icon and select “Uninstall with CleanMyMac” from Services in the resulting contextual menu. Easy!

Another wise move is to make sure there are no conflicts between the app and the Mac OS. When Apple pushes an update of its operating system to your Mac, that might interfere with your app’s performance, if the app or its add-ons are incompatible with this particular OS X version.

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CleanMyMac can help you out here, too. Download it for free, go to its Uninstaller module and find the misbehaving app in the list. If you see a note that this app is incompatible with your system, it means you need to update the app, because your current version doesn’t work on the latest OS X.

How can you stay on top of aging apps? Apple makes it easy with software purchased through the Mac App Store. Simply launch the App Store app, go to the Updates tab, and you’ll see all available app updates. Find the one you need in the list, click the Update button, and you’ll get the latest version to your Mac. It’s a bit different with software acquired outside the App Store: you’ll have to visit the vendor’s website to see if there’s a new version available.

If nothing indicates that the troublemaker app is incompatible with your system, the problem could be with its add-ons or preferences. What you can do in this case is reset the app to its initial state. Again, go to the Uninstaller module in CleanMyMac X, select your app, and click Application Reset. CleanMyMac will make that app just the way it was when you first installed it.

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What to do when an app crashes at launch

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So far I’ve addressed what to do when an app crashes as you’re using it. But what about the frustrating scenario of an app going down as soon as you launch it? No warning, no dialog box, just a bounce or two in the Dock and that’s it. Blackmagic software free download for mac. In this case, it’s time to repair disk permissions.

What’s does fixing permissions actually mean? Think of your Mac’s hard drive as a tree with many branches. The top level of your drive is the tree’s trunk, and the branches represent information about files and folders. These branches, or “nodes,” store information like the location of data and permission rules, among other things. Normal computer use changes this information, and can lead to a conflict or other issue that generates crashes and the inability to use your system. This is what a permission fix addresses.

To repair disk permissions (for OS X prior to El Captian), go to the Utilities in your Mac’s Applications folder and launch Disk Utility. Next, click First Aid. It’ll ask for confirmation and get to work, comparing existing permission files with defaults to find any conflicts.

Or, if you want a slightly simpler way, you can fix the permissions with CleanMyMac X Maintenance Scripts. Just open the Maintenance tab, hit Choose Tasks and then Repair Disk Permissions. This helps resolve improper app behavior like crashing and keeps all of your disk’s files and folders in proper order. And that’s just one of the maintenance tasks available in CleanMyMac X, just try it.

A crashing app is no fun. Fortunately, a little understanding and proactive behavior can keep them to a minimum. CleanMyMac X makes it easy to do just that. Happy computing, and may your apps never crash again!

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