Mac Messages app now silently quitting in the background

The upgrade to 15.5 resolved this for me.

Thanks - this pulled me down a rabbit hole. I asked ChatGPT for assistance and it told me the following:

Got it, David — this actually lines up with what others have been experiencing in Sonoma and Sequoia (macOS 14 & 15) — particularly on M1 Macs. You’re not alone, and the fact that it only happens when Messages is tucked away in a background desktop (especially on multi-display setups) is a key clue. Let’s unpack what might be happening and how to tackle it.

Likely Cause

macOS has a system-level behavior called automatic termination and App Nap, both designed to conserve system resources. When an app is:

-not in focus

-not playing media,

-not being actively interacted with

-on a background desktop or screen…

…it can be flagged for automatic termination, especially if memory pressure increases.

Messages is normally persistent, but in Sequoia, some background termination bugs have surfaced. In particular:

-The app silently quits, doesn’t show crash logs

-No user-facing errors appear

-The relaunch only happens when you return to its Space or try to send a message.

Apple’s automatic termination system doesn’t treat Messages as sacred anymore in some cases — especially with multiple monitors/desktops — and your config (two displays, multiple desktops, M1) matches that pattern.

ChatGPT (4o) recommendation was to disable app sleep for that application:

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat NSAppSleepDisabled -bool YES

Hope this helps others having this issue. I'll post an update here if it actually works.

Welp, it sort of worked. After adding this setting in the terminal, Messages didn't quit for the remainder of the day, which was unlike the past few weeks. However when I woke up my Mac this morning Messages had quit in the background without error again. This happens with no other application.

Hoping Apple is able to figure this out.

Mine - the individual one. Did you have any luck with disabling automatic termination in general? (Your command)

Even with that command, Messages continues to quit multiple times throughout the day without notice.