Chrome keeps crashing on my Mac
June 23, 2018 3:09 PM Subscribe
Since yesterday I have not been able to open Chrome on my Mac. It starts to open but then closes and I get a message that Google Chrome closed unexpectedly (duh). I don't know of anything that happened between Thursday and Friday that would have caused any issues. Any suggestions for fixing this? Things I have tried inside.
I have a mid 2011 Mac running 10.12.6. It has 4 GB of RAM and tends to run slow but I have never had this kind of problem before. So far I have: restarted my computer multiple times, installed all updates, deleted Chrome and reinstalled it, run MalwareBytes and Avast virus scans. Internet suggestions include deleting extensions (although I don't have many) but it doesn't stay open long enough for me to do that, and updating to the latest version, which I assume I have since I deleted and reinstalled. Nothing has made any difference. Any ideas for what could be going on or how to solve it? I do have backups on an external hard drive so I could conceivably restore from an older version, but I'd like to use that as a last resort.
I have a mid 2011 Mac running 10.12.6. It has 4 GB of RAM and tends to run slow but I have never had this kind of problem before. So far I have: restarted my computer multiple times, installed all updates, deleted Chrome and reinstalled it, run MalwareBytes and Avast virus scans. Internet suggestions include deleting extensions (although I don't have many) but it doesn't stay open long enough for me to do that, and updating to the latest version, which I assume I have since I deleted and reinstalled. Nothing has made any difference. Any ideas for what could be going on or how to solve it? I do have backups on an external hard drive so I could conceivably restore from an older version, but I'd like to use that as a last resort.
Generally when I've seen Chrome behave this way it's been because something's gone wrong inside a Chrome user profile. Try renaming your user account's Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome folder to Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome-renamed, then launch Chrome again and let it build a clean new profile.
posted by flabdablet at 10:26 PM on June 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 10:26 PM on June 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sorry, this is a Mac, so the cache folder is probably not inside the Chrome user data folder. Before renaming Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome, you might want to try renaming Library/Caches/Google/Chrome first; that way, if the fault is due to something bad in the cache specifically, rather than elsewhere in your profile, you'll fix it without needing to rebuild all your bookmarks, history, saved passwords and so forth.
Caches in general can be completely scrapped without costing anything but the time required to rebuild them.
posted by flabdablet at 10:33 PM on June 23, 2018
Caches in general can be completely scrapped without costing anything but the time required to rebuild them.
posted by flabdablet at 10:33 PM on June 23, 2018
There have been issues with permissions on a folder that Chrome needs. See:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7494016
or if you are comfortable using terminal, you can do:
sudo chown 'your username' ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/
posted by nightwood at 11:39 PM on July 9, 2018
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7494016
or if you are comfortable using terminal, you can do:
sudo chown 'your username' ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/
posted by nightwood at 11:39 PM on July 9, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
If it is, this implies that there is something wrong with Chrome’s settings in your user account's Application Support folder, Caches folder, or Preferences folder.
posted by bcwinters at 3:27 PM on June 23, 2018 [1 favorite]