crash "preference system" Monterey 12.7.4

The same error occurred in "Safe Mode" on the same account. I created a new user, and logged in there "sysadminctl -addUser "newuser" -fullName "new user" -password "password" -hint "password" -admin " and System Preferences is working fine. So I logged in there, and copied the contents from /Users/newuser/Library/Preferences and placed it in the equivalent folder on the problematic account (back up the existing contents first). Did a reboot. Now System Preferences isn't starting at all, just opening and closing immediately without a crash. I then ran "CleanMyMac X" ->System Junk cleanup and cleared up everything it raised (including some broken preferences). Now it's up and running again so it looks like the OS upgrade borked the System Preferences on the local user profile. I did restore/put back the original contents of the folder, and it seems fine, although I had to reset my dock.

The hint that led to to think that it was a user profile issue was seeing this in the stack trace:

 Thread 4 crashed with X86 Thread State (64-bit):
  rax: 0x0000000000000000  rbx: 0x00007fae9675a920  rcx: 0x00000000fffcffff  rdx: 0x0000000000000000
  rdi: 0x00007ff81c5eb624  rsi: 0x00007fae9b18c4d1  rbp: 0x000070000dbadad0  rsp: 0x000070000dbada60
   r8: 0x0000000000000000   r9: 0x0000000000000002  r10: 0x000070000dbad9d8  r11: 0x0000000000000019
  r12: 0x00007fae96759ee0  r13: 0x0000000000000000  r14: 0x00007ff81b58f200  r15: 0x00007ff85cc8e6d0
  rip: 0x00007ff81e486709  rfl: 0x0000000000010246  cr2: 0x0000000000000010
  
Logical CPU:     6
Error Code:      0x00000004 (no mapping for user data read)
Trap Number:     14

Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.

Select a volume.

Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.

The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Does the problem occur in Safe Mode? 

Restart normally.

Start with this if IntelMac...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Same or Similar after upgrading to Monterey 12.7.4. Without access to System Preferences updates aren't possible.

Process: System Preferences [772]

Path: /System/Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System Preferences

Identifier: com.apple.systempreferences

Version: 15.0 (15.0)

Build Info: SystemPrefsApp-519003000000000~282

Code Type: X86-64 (Native)

Parent Process: launchd [1]

User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2024-04-08 08:25:51.2852 -0500

OS Version: macOS 12.7.4 (21H1123)

Report Version: 12

Anonymous UUID: 0C6A75C3-4381-5CB3-C01B-FE2885B908A1

Time Awake Since Boot: 1000 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 1 Dispatch queue: PreferencePanesCenter init queue

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)

Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000010

Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000010

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 11 Segmentation fault: 11

Terminating Process: exc handler [772]

VM Region Info: 0x10 is not in any region. Bytes before following region: 140737486954480

REGION TYPE START - END [ VSIZE] PRT/MAX SHRMOD REGION DETAIL

UNUSED SPACE AT START

--->

VM_ALLOCATE 7fffffeaa000-7fffffeab000 [ 4K] r-x/r-x SM=ALI

This issue occurs in safe mode as well. This happened immediately after a Monterey update.

I'd try a reinstall of the OS.

Great work. :)