FaceTime crashes with Sierra 10.12.4

Facetime quit unexpectedly

on my MacBook Air (Mid 2011) with Sierra 10.12.4 FaceTime crashes during opening with the "quit unexpectedly" error. FaceTime is version 3.0. My system is completely up to date.

I have tried restarting and shutting down the computer with no effect.

I have ~20GB of free HDD space. FaceTime operates normally on my iPad and iPhone.

Hello johnnybarcelona,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It's my understanding that the FaceTime app won't successfully launch on your MacBook Air. You've done a great job so far. I'm happy to help.

First, I recommend testing this issue in safe mode. Starting up in safe mode will allow your Mac to clear cache, run certain checks, and prevent login items from launching. This can help isolate possible third party issues. Follow the steps in the link below:
Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

If the behavior persists, test the issue in another user account on the Mac. Testing in another user account determine if the issue is user specific or system wide.
How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac

Please keep us posted on your results.

Have a great day!

Hi Chris

Thanks for your help with this.

I started in safe mode and FaceTime still crashed upon startup.

I logged in to another user account and FaceTime seemed to work fine.

Cheers

Might be a corrupt .plist.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Quit the application.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.FaceTime.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application, and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

Thanks for your help Eric

I did the plist work as suggested. After the restart FaceTime was more stable to begin with. I made a call on Face Time to test it and it worked fine. After I hung up the call Face Time crashed as it had before and it is now as unstable as it was before the plist work - so I put the original plist back as you instructed. Still no joy.

Any other ideas?

Cheers.

Try running this program in your normal account, then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy Report” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

Here is the copy of the EtreCheck Report:

EtreCheck version: 3.2.1 (361)

Report generated 2017-04-30 12:33:34

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 1:58

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Clean up] link to delete unused files.

Problem: Apps are crashing

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir4,2

1 1.8 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-2677M) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 329

Video Information: ⓘ

Intel HD Graphics 3000

Color LCD 1440 x 900

System Software: ⓘ

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 (16E195) - Time since boot: about one day

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM256C disk0 : (251 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

Macintosh HD (disk1) / [Startup]: 249.77 GB (17.67 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 250.14 GB Online

USB Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. FaceTime Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Card Reader

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Clean up: ⓘ

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wdc.WDPrivilegedHelper.plist

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.wdc.WDPrivilegedHelper

Executable not found!

com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/MacOS/Updater/Adobe Reader Updater Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Reader Updater Helper

Executable not found!

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist

~/Library/Dropbox/DropboxMacUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/DropboxMacUpdate -check periodic

Executable not found!

3 orphan files found. [Clean up]

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Application Support/Roxio

[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (1.4 - 2014-10-22) [Lookup]

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.microsoft.VirtualPC.Networking (7.0.0 - 2017-03-31) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.microsoft.VirtualPC.OSServices (7.0.0 - 2017-03-31) [Lookup]

/Library/StartupItems/M-Audio FireWire Audio Helper

[not loaded] com.m-audio.driver.firewire (1.2.4 - 2006-10-01) [Lookup]

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.logitech.iokit.quickcam (1.0.7 - 2017-03-31) [Lookup]

Startup Items: ⓘ

M-Audio FireWire Audio Helper: Path: /Library/StartupItems/M-Audio FireWire Audio Helper

PACESupport: Path: /Library/StartupItems/PACESupport

Qmaster: Path: /Library/StartupItems/Qmaster

QuickBackStartupItem: Path: /Library/StartupItems/QuickBackStartupItem

SpeedToolsDTStartupItem: Path: /Library/StartupItems/SpeedToolsDTStartupItem

VirtualPCOSServices: Path: /Library/StartupItems/VirtualPCOSServices

Startup items no longer function in OS X Yosemite or later

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 175 Apple tasks

[running] 100 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 40 Apple tasks

[loaded] 175 Apple tasks

[running] 104 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist ✔︎ (2017-01-17) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist ✔︎ (2017-03-28) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (2017-01-27) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[failed] PACESupport.plist ✔︎ (2017-03-22)

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist ✔︎ (2017-01-17) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist ✔︎ (2017-01-17) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2017-04-17) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.bombich.ccchelper.plist ✔︎ (2017-04-21) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist ✔︎ (2017-04-17) [Lookup]

[running] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist ✔︎ (2017-04-11) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2011-03-10) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist § (2016-12-13) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.wdc.WDPrivilegedHelper.plist (2017-04-24) [Lookup] - /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.wdc.WDPrivilegedHelper: Executable not found!

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[failed] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2012-10-08) [Lookup] - /Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/MacOS/Updater/Adobe Reader Updater Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Reader Updater Helper: Executable not found!

[loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (2017-04-26) [Lookup] - ~/Library/Dropbox/DropboxMacUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/DropboxMacUpdate: Executable not found!

User Login Items: ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application (2017-03-31)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

WDDriveUtilityHelper Application

(/Applications/WD Drive Utilities.app/Contents/WDDriveUtilityHelper.app)

WDSecurityHelper Application

(/Applications/WD Security.app/Contents/WDSecurityHelper.app)

Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector EX Application - Hidden

(/Applications/Canon Utilities/IJ Network Scanner Selector EX/Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector EX.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-12-11) [Lookup]

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: 3.0.0.126 - SDK 10.8 (2013-02-22) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.009.20044 - SDK 10.11 (2017-04-13) [Lookup]

FlashPlayer-10.6: 25.0.0.163 - SDK 10.9 (2017-04-21) [Lookup]

Silverlight: 5.1.41212.0 - SDK 10.6 (2016-04-03) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2017-03-31)

Flash Player: 25.0.0.163 - SDK 10.9 (2017-04-21) [Lookup]

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-12-11) [Lookup]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.2 - SDK 10.6 (2017-03-15) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewer: 17.009.20044 - SDK 10.11 (2017-04-13) [Lookup]

GarminGpsControl: 4.2.0.0 - SDK 10.8 (2014-03-31) [Lookup]

EPPEX Plugin: 4.1.0.0 (2011-07-26) [Lookup]

eMusic: Unknown (2006-04-01) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 121 build 13 (2017-01-27) Check version

User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

WebEx64: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 (2014-10-10) [Lookup]

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (2015-09-26)

ClickToFlash - Marc Hoyois - https://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/ (2015-07-30)

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Déjà Vu (2005-12-21) [Lookup]

Flash Player (2017-04-17) [Lookup]

Flip4Mac WMV (2012-09-14) [Lookup]

Java (2017-01-27) [Lookup]

PreferencesPane (2006-10-01) [Lookup]

Microsoft Mouse (2005-02-15) [Lookup]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: ON

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 249.77 GB Disk used: 232.10 GB

Destinations:

John MacBook Air Backup [Local]

Total size: 320.07 GB

Total number of backups: 37

Oldest backup: 2017-02-11, 2:43 PM

Last backup: 2017-04-21, 3:40 PM

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 320.07 GB < (Disk used 232.10 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

6% WindowServer

2% fontd

1% kernel_task

0% Dropbox

0% NotificationCenter

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

472 MB kernel_task

434 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(3)

229 MB Safari

135 MB Dropbox

119 MB mdworker(12)

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

1010 MB Available RAM

64 MB Free RAM

3.01 GB Used RAM

946 MB Cached files

256 MB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

2017-04-30 07:48:48 /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2017-04-30-074848_[redacted].cpu_r esource.diag [Details]

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Windo wServer

2017-04-30 07:47:38 ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/FaceTime_2017-04-30-074738_[redacted].crash

com.apple.FaceTime - /Applications/FaceTime.app/Contents/MacOS/FaceTime

Application Specific Information:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[NSKnownKeysMappingStrategy1 valueForProperty:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x6000004406f0'