Big Sur - Messages not starting

Messages won't start anymore, it tries to start (icon jumping) for long time and after that it just freezes and comes unresponsive. Is there workaround to kick it up alive again?
  • Broke for me after the update to Big Sur 11.4. Tried every fix in this thread to no avail, about to jump on Apple Support. My message icon shows an incoming text, but when I try and open Messages on my Macbook Pro it ***** out with "Messages Quit Unexpectedly."

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It seems that same time Spotlight is not doing any search. Search toolbar will pop up but it don't do anything. Messages is able to receive messages (number on icon of unread messages) and will also notify about new messages on notification center. Actual Messages window is unresponsive and won't open up.
After a few days of running Big Sur, Messages insta-crashed on launch for me reliably and this failure continues after installing Update 2. Have stopped using Big Sur because I need Messages to work.

Underlying error is a divide-by-zero failure.
Hello, I have the same problem on big on beta 2 and I can't find any solutions
I was experiencing this today. I used "Applejack" to remove all caches and rebooted. I then sent myself a message from my iPhone, and after that, Messages on my Big Sur instance started to work again.
I am having the same issue as mpeltomaa on Big Sur 11.0.1. Both messages and Spotlight are not working properly. Messages fails to launch and immediately becomes unresponsive. Spotlight pulls up a search bar, but doesn't do anything after typing.
This is still an issue as of 11/23/20... Come on Apple!
Just have the same issue for the first time on MacOS 11.1 Beta
I'm having this issue as well. Would love to see a fix soon.
This just happened to me. I opened a terminal window. Then in Finder, I went to Application>Messages, right click and select "Show Package Contents". Then Contents>MacOS, from there I dragged Messages executable on to Terminal window and hit Enter. The Messages app opened immediately. Closing Terminal window closed Messages app but after this it opened normally. I don't know why it worked and I don't know if it'll work for you, give it a shot.
  • This worked for me - happened randomly to me today. Only thing that's changed in the system was installing an MDM profile for my work. Many thanks!

  • worked for me as well - never would have remotely considered it - thanks! only difference I should make is, after it is running having launched via terminal, close the Messages app, then close terminal. reopening via icon or spotlight then works fine, as you said. Thanks again for posting!

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I had the same issue on an M1 MacBook Air--Messages refused to launch and Spotlight showed no results. Running CleanMyMac and rebooting fixed the issue for me.
14/12/20
Same problem on Big Sur 11.1
Unable to even launch the app.
iMessage not even launch, immediately crashes.
Funny I still can recieve pop up notifications
This started happening today for me for the first time.

Found a work around on the web that recommended starting Mac Calendar before Messages. Gave it a go and it seems to be working. Obvs not an ideal solution but at least a work around for now.
  • brilliant Netsmith, thank you for this, the quickest noob-friendly-ish insta-solution. May you have such luck as you just gave me. 😃

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Still an issue, didn't have a problem until after the 12/15/20 update. Incredibly frustrating as it messes with my entire work flow.
I just upgraded to Big Sur 11.1 on WED 16-dec-2020 .. and was facing this issue as well. When I launched iMessage and FaceTime from the dock, they just wouldn't start and had to be killed via "Force Quit Applications". I even tried to launch iMessage via Terminal (as mentioned by someone else on this thread), but that also did not work.

Then I fixed it : I clicked on : (apple) > System Preferences > Internet Accounts > and then click on each account listed there.

Turns out, when my MBA rebooted after the upgrade, it also logged out of my Google account. For some strange reason, that was impacting the launching of iMessage and FaceTime. After I re-logged into my Google account (via 2FA in my case), then it all started working fine again.
  • This worked for me thank you!

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I have same problem since updating to macOS 11.1... Message need apple id and password... i enter them then app logged in successfully then it automatically quit and again need apple id and password