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FaceTime refusing to relaunch after first semi-successful use

Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 6, 2002
6,253
30
Orlando
I've been having problems with Facetime since just after my first successful call. Whenever the app is present in the Applications folder, I get repeated crash reports popping up stating that "imagent" has crashed. This happens whether the app is open or not. imagent is contained within the Facetime.app bundle, so if I move Facetime into the trash, the messages stop. I've tried reinstalling several times, but the same problem continues, even when I haven't attempted to launch Facetime after a complete reboot of the computer. Thus, it must have a component installed elsewhere which is attempting to launch the imagent framework in the background (I presume this is to listen for incoming calls when Facetime isn't open). But when I open the installer package in Pacifist, the only files it says are installed are completely contained within the Facetime.app package.

Read further down to skip the original discussion and get to the newer problems.

jW
 
Last edited:
AppZapper shows 4 files:

FaceTime.app
~/Library/preferences/com.apple.FaceTime.plist
~/Library/preferences/com.apple.imservice.FaceTime.plist
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.FaceTime

That last one may not be important.
 
Thanks!

By logical deduction, I looked and found one more, possibly critical, that AppZapper didn't catch: ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.imagent. Considering that's what's crashing, I'm hopeful it'll help. I'll post back if deleting those gets it working.

EDIT: Spotlight revealed two more: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imagent.plist and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.imagent.plist. Those are very likely related to the problem as well.

jW
 
Good find! Apparently AppZapper doesn't report all the files installed. Hopefully this helps others, too. I'm removing FaceTime to reinstall it as well, so I'll keep an eye out for more files that need removing.
 
No good. :( Facetime launches and shows me myself on the camera now (it was just saying Camera Off), but I get crash reports for imagent every 10-15 seconds. Since they pop up on top of everything on the screen, I'm going to have to delete Facetime again until I can figure this out or Apple releases a new beta version. Just while typing this post the crash report interrupted me a good 10-12 times at least.

jW
 
So I finally got around to doing an Archive and Install of Snow Leopard, no dice. I'd rather not do a full, from-scratch reinstall if I don't have to, so anyone have any other thoughts on how to get FaceTime working again?

If not, I guess I'm stuck without it until Apple releases another beta or the full version, which would hopefully solve the issue.

jW
 
How about installing Snow Leopard on a separate partition and install FaceTime on that to see what happens on that?
 
So I finally got around to trying to actually fix this issue. Facetime works fine on a separate partition on this Mac, also running 10.6.6, so my best guess is that it's interacting with another app I run. I can't find the evidence in the logs, though. I'm including them here.

Code: 
Feb 23 18:40:24 Serenity com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[194] (com.apple.apsd-ft): Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:1685 (24498):0
Feb 23 18:40:24 Serenity com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[194] (com.apple.imagent.monaco): Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:1685 (24498):22
Feb 23 18:40:24 Serenity com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[194] (com.apple.marcoagent): Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:1685 (24498):0
Feb 23 18:40:25 Serenity imagent[592]: -[NSCFNumber isEqualToString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1002078b0
Feb 23 18:40:25 Serenity imagent[592]: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[NSCFNumber isEqualToString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1002078b0'\n*** Call stack at first throw:\n(\n	0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83db47b4 __exceptionPreprocess + 180\n	1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff88b1b0f3 objc_exception_throw + 45\n	2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83e0e110 +[NSObject(NSObject) doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 0\n	3   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83d8691f ___forwarding___ + 751\n	4   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83d82a68 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 232\n	5   IMDaemonCore                        0x0000000100059cd7 -[IMDAccount status] + 68\n	6   IMDaemonCore                        0x0000000100059aac -[IMDAccount changeStatus:] + 1182\n	7   IMDaemonCore                        0x0000000100058e85 -[IMDAccountController load] + 3135\n	8   imagent                             0x0000000100005add start + 15597\n	9   imagent                             0x0000000100006fa1 start + 20913\n	10  imagent                             0x0000000100005975 start + 15237\n	11  imagent                             0x0000000100007b7a start + 23946\n	12  imagent                             0x000000010000a9ec main + 260\n	13  imagent                             0x0000000100001e24 start + 52\n)
Feb 23 18:40:25 Serenity com.apple.imagent.monaco[592]: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'NSException'
Feb 23 18:40:26 Serenity /Applications/FaceTime.app/Contents/MacOS/FaceTime[588]: MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/e6/e6cRio4lHZGngdG5fnxcDE+++TI/-Caches-//mds
Feb 23 18:40:28: --- last message repeated 6 times ---
Feb 23 18:40:28 Serenity com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[194] (com.apple.imagent.monaco[592]): Job appears to have crashed: Abort trap
Feb 23 18:40:28 Serenity com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[194] (com.apple.imagent.monaco): Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds
Feb 23 18:40:28 Serenity ReportCrash[595]: Saved crash report for imagent[592] version ??? (???) to /Users/jonathan/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/imagent_2011-02-23-184028_Serenity.crash

And the CrashReporter log from the incident:
Code: 
Process:         imagent [592]
Path:            /Applications/FaceTime.app/Contents/PrivateFrameworks/IMCore.framework/imagent.app/Contents/MacOS/imagent
Identifier:      imagent
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [194]

Date/Time:       2011-02-23 18:40:25.076 -0500
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567)
Report Version:  6

Exception Type:  EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Application Specific Information:
abort() called
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[NSCFNumber isEqualToString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1002078b0'
*** Call stack at first throw:
(
	0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83db47b4 __exceptionPreprocess + 180
	1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff88b1b0f3 objc_exception_throw + 45
	2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83e0e110 +[NSObject(NSObject) doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 0
	3   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83d8691f ___forwarding___ + 751
	4   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff83d82a68 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 232
	5   IMDaemonCore                        0x0000000100059cd7 -[IMDAccount status] + 68
	6   IMDaemonCore                        0x0000000100059aac -[IMDAccount changeStatus:] + 1182
	7   IMDaemonCore                        0x0000000100058e85 -[IMDAccountController load] + 3135
	8   imagent                             0x0000000100005add start + 15597
	9   imagent                             0x0000000100006fa1 start + 20913
	10  imagent                             0x0000000100005975 start + 15237
	11  imagent                             0x0000000100007b7a start + 23946
	12  imagent                             0x000000010000a9ec main + 260
	13  imagent                             0x0000000100001e24 start + 52
)
 

Thread 0 Crashed:  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886e6616 __kill + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff88786cca abort + 83
2   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00007fff8119c5d2 __tcf_0 + 0
3   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00007fff88b1ed29 _objc_terminate + 100
4   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00007fff8119aae1 __cxxabiv1::__terminate(void (*)()) + 11
5   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00007fff8119ab16 __cxxabiv1::__unexpected(void (*)()) + 0
6   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00007fff8119abfc __gxx_exception_cleanup(_Unwind_Reason_Code, _Unwind_Exception*) + 0
7   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00007fff88b1b192 object_getIvar + 0
8   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x00007fff83e0e110 +[NSObject(NSObject) doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 0
9   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x00007fff83d8691f ___forwarding___ + 751
10  com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x00007fff83d82a68 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 232
11  com.apple.imdaemoncore        	0x0000000100059cd7 -[IMDAccount status] + 68
12  com.apple.imdaemoncore        	0x0000000100059aac -[IMDAccount changeStatus:] + 1182
13  com.apple.imdaemoncore        	0x0000000100058e85 -[IMDAccountController load] + 3135
14  com.apple.imagent             	0x0000000100005add start + 15597
15  com.apple.imagent             	0x0000000100006fa1 start + 20913
16  com.apple.imagent             	0x0000000100005975 start + 15237
17  com.apple.imagent             	0x0000000100007b7a start + 23946
18  com.apple.imagent             	0x000000010000a9ec main + 260
19  com.apple.imagent             	0x0000000100001e24 start + 52

Thread 1:
0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b1f8a __workq_kernreturn + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b239c _pthread_wqthread + 917
2   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b2005 start_wqthread + 13

Thread 2:
0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b1f8a __workq_kernreturn + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b239c _pthread_wqthread + 917
2   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b2005 start_wqthread + 13

Thread 3:  Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager
0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b116a kevent + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b303d _dispatch_mgr_invoke + 154
2   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b2d14 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 185
3   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b283e _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 252
4   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b2168 _pthread_wqthread + 353
5   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00007fff886b2005 start_wqthread + 13

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (64-bit):
  rax: 0x0000000000000000  rbx: 0x00007fff710192d8  rcx: 0x00007fff5fbff048  rdx: 0x0000000000000000
  rdi: 0x0000000000000250  rsi: 0x0000000000000006  rbp: 0x00007fff5fbff060  rsp: 0x00007fff5fbff048
   r8: 0x00007fff7101ca40   r9: 0x0000000000000063  r10: 0x00007fff886e2656  r11: 0x0000000000000202
  r12: 0x00007fff83e39b09  r13: 0x0000000000000000  r14: 0x0000000000000000  r15: 0x00000001002078b0
  rip: 0x00007fff886e6616  rfl: 0x0000000000000202  cr2: 0x00007fff702b6fd0

Anyone have any ideas on where to start?

jW
 
So tried the new FaceTime 1.0 from the App Store today. Still seems to suffer from the same issue (and I did a thorough uninstall manually first).

Now, I get this box:

Screen%20shot%202011-02-24%20at%209.24.18%20AM.PNG


instead of the constant crash reports (which is nice, I don't have to uninstall just to use my computer properly), but of course FaceTime also doesn't work.

jW
 
Well, after spending some time on the phone with some very helpful Apple support techs, I found that the problem was being caused by an entry in the com.apple.iChatAgent.plist file in my user preferences folder. Once I removed this entry:

Code: 
	<key>iTunesMessageFormat</key>
	<integer>0</integer>

FaceTime now launches perfectly. Anyone else having trouble can just try deleting that file and seeing if FaceTime works for them.

Of note, I have a more specific timeline of the issue as well. When I first installed FaceTime 1.0, it asked me to login, which I did successfully, and it then asked me to choose the email address I wanted me to use to call me. At that point, no matter what I entered, it simply ignored my attempts to click the button to continue. After getting frustrated for a while, I simply quit and relaunched FaceTime, and from then on got the message in my last post. If I deleted all the plists I could find that included FaceTime, imagent, or imservice, I would start the process over again, and the above events would repeat exactly the same way.

jW
 
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