Fixing Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite App Crashes

Update: ‘Fixing Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite App Crashes’ also applies to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan and macOS 10.12 Sierra!
Fixing Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite app crashes works in the same way as it does for Notes app crashes and Exchange mail syncing bugs: The Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite app crashes (e.g. “Mail quit unexpectedly“) are fixed by deleting cashes of the dedicated app library containers. For example, the App Store app and Dropbox app reportedly crashes after upgrading to Yosemite (Kudos to Apolonious!). Mail app and Skype crashes are resolved as well.

Easy Fix for resolving Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite app crashes

If the app crash still persist you may need to do the following workaround:

Advanced fix for resolving Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite app crashes

Caution: First of all make a full backup of your Mac. Best practice is using Time Machine. Following this fix is at your own risk!

Note: For Notes app crashes and Exchange Mail syncing bugs follow the separate fix mentioned here!

Containers:

• Mail: [com.apple.mail] and [com.apple.MailServiceAgent]
• Contacts: [com.apple.AddressBook], [com.apple.AddressBook.FaceTimeService] and [com.apple.AddressBook.InternetAccountsBridge]
• Calendars: [com.apple.CalendarAgent], [com.apple.CalendarAgent.CalNCService] and [com.apple.CalendarFileHandler]
• iCal: [com.apple.iCal] and [com.apple.iCal.CalendarNC]
• Notes: [com.apple.Notes]
• Reminders: [com.apple.reminders] and [com.apple.RemindersNC]
• App Store: [com.apple.appstore] and [com.apple.appstore.PluginXPCService]
• iBooks: [com.apple.iBooksX]
• Facetime: [com.apple.FaceTime]
• Garageband: [com.apple.garageband10]
• iMovie: [com.apple.iMovieApp]
• iPhoto: [com.apple.iPhoto]
• TextEdit: [com.apple.TextEdit]
• Evernote: [com.evernote.Evernote and [com.evernote.EvernoteHelper]
• Skitch: [com.skitch.skitch]
• PhotoSync: [com.touchbyte.mac.PhotoSync] and [com.touchbyte.PhotoSyncHelper]

Notes:

• If your crashed app is not listed, go to ‘Macintosh HD ▸ Users ▸ Your Username ▸ Library ▸ Containers’ and search for your app’s container(s) and move them to the trash.
• Apps like Dropbox, iTunes or Safari do not have any containers. If these apps are crashing, the reason is often another app. Look for it to resolve the problem.

Technical Background:

Apps are sandboxed applications in OS X, meaning its resources are isolated from other processes for security and stability reasons. As part of this setup, OS X will create virtual containers in which the programs (“apps”) access the system resources needed, and do so by accessing parts of the OS X filesystem through a special directory tree in your account’s library. This directory tree primarily contains aliases, but also contains files specifically for apps, such as its preference and cache files.

If you remove the container for an app, OS X will simply rebuild it and have Mail re-create the files it needs. However, doing so will clear out settings contained in these files, requiring you to set these up in the app again. For Mail app as an example, these can include mail accounts, signatures, smart mailboxes, and mail filters, so if you remove and rebuilt Mail’s container, expect to set these up again.

Cleaning caches and apps container resolves Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite app crashes. Could you fix it, too? Let us know which app crashed and post your experience!

Stay tuned! 😉