Xcode 4 crashes on startup or accessing repositories with ASSERTION FAILURE even after reinstall

Question

Xcode started crashing on startup. I've tried all sorts of things, but I still get the same error.

Things I've tried:

I have removed it using /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools
I have deleted ~/Library/Developer and the cache files, etc
I have completely removed all svn code from my mac
If I delete the ~/.subversion folder I can get it to at least startup, but if I go to the Repositories in Organizer it crashes. So I've tried deleting the repositories from Organizer by Continuing after a crash. Sometimes lets me, but crashes again next time.
I have deleted all my projects.

When it first started happening, I got the usual crash error and it beachballed, so I couldn't even get to a stacktrace. I now get a stacktrace, and can navigate around the app, but if I touch anything to do with repositories, or source control - including trying to create a new project or open an existing one, it crashes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here's the latest crash stacktrace:

ASSERTION FAILURE in /SourceCache/IDEFoundation/IDEFoundation-937/Framework/Classes/Model/SourceControl/IDESourceControlTree.m:119
Details:  Invalid location for source tree.  Initialization failed.
Object:   <IDESourceControlRepository: 0x402516720>
Method:   -initWithDictionary:sourceControlExtension:sourceControlManager:
Thread:   <NSThread: 0x40010a260>{name = (null), num = 1}
Hints:   
  0: Replacement view is installing: <RVRepositoryViewController: 0x402519b60 representing: <DVTExtension 0x400d16020: Repositories (Xcode.OrganizerSource.Repositories) v0.1>>
Backtrace:
  0  0x00000001062bd466 -[IDEAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:fileName:lineNumber:messageFormat:arguments:] (in IDEKit)
  1  0x000000010592d794 _DVTAssertionFailureHandler (in DVTFoundation)
  2  0x0000000105e71f3f -[IDESourceControlTree initWithDictionary:sourceControlExtension:sourceControlManager:] (in IDEFoundation)
  3  0x0000000105e716f0 -[IDESourceControlRepository initWithDictionary:sourceControlExtension:sourceControlManager:] (in IDEFoundation)
  4  0x0000000105e70e9c -[IDESourceControlManager loadRepositories] (in IDEFoundation)
  5  0x0000000105e6ba8b -[IDESourceControlManager init] (in IDEFoundation)
  6  0x0000000105e6b8c2 __53+[IDESourceControlManager sharedSourceControlManager]_block_invoke_0 (in IDEFoundation)
  7  0x00007fff8b5a1224 dispatch_once_f (in libdispatch.dylib)
  8  0x0000000105e6b891 +[IDESourceControlManager sharedSourceControlManager] (in IDEFoundation)
  9  0x000000010620076b -[IDENavigableItemCoordinator rootNavigableItemInDomain:forWorkspace:] (in IDEKit)
 10  0x000000010b93671d -[RVRepositoryViewController sourceControlManagerNavigableItem] (in IDERepositoryViewer)
 11  0x00007fff904da434 _NSGetUsingKeyValueGetter (in Foundation)
 12  0x00007fff904da3e9 -[NSObject(NSKeyValueCoding) valueForKey:] (in Foundation)
 13  0x00007fff904f9c54 -[NSKeyValueNestedProperty object:didAddObservance:recurse:] (in Foundation)
 14  0x00007fff904c60ca -[NSKeyValueUnnestedProperty object:didAddObservance:recurse:] (in Foundation)
 15  0x00007fff904c4843 -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverRegistration) _addObserver:forProperty:options:context:] (in Foundation)
 16  0x00007fff904c31e4 -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverRegistration) addObserver:forKeyPath:options:context:] (in Foundation)
 17  0x0000000105ae8720 -[DVTBindingHelper bind:toObject:withKeyPath:options:] (in DVTKit)
 18  0x0000000105ae81e5 -[DVTObjectBindingUtilities dvtGeneric_bind:toObject:withKeyPath:options:] (in DVTKit)
 19  0x000000010b9364d7 -[RVRepositoryViewController loadView] (in IDERepositoryViewer)
 20  0x00007fff8d337a8a -[NSViewController view] (in AppKit)
 21  0x0000000105ae640b -[DVTViewController view] (in DVTKit)
 22  0x0000000105ae95a0 __42-[DVTReplacementView _setupViewController]_block_invoke_0 (in DVTKit)
 23  0x00000001058f151e DVTInvokeWithFailureHint (in DVTFoundation)
 24  0x0000000105ae9473 -[DVTReplacementView _setupViewController] (in DVTKit)
 25  0x0000000105ae9345 -[DVTReplacementView installedViewController] (in DVTKit)
 26  0x0000000105af443c -[DVTReplacementView layoutTopDown] (in DVTKit)
 27  0x0000000105ae41c3 __84+[DVTAutoLayoutView _recursivelyLayoutSubviewsOfView:populatingSetWithLaidOutViews:]_block_invoke_0 (in DVTKit)
 28  0x0000000105ae4037 +[DVTAutoLayoutView _recursivelyLayoutSubviewsOfView:populatingSetWithLaidOutViews:] (in DVTKit)
 29  0x0000000105af4028 -[DVTDelayedValidator doValidation:] (in DVTKit)
 30  0x00007fff90534e18 __NSFirePerformWithOrder (in Foundation)
 31  0x00007fff9217ff37 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ (in CoreFoundation)
 32  0x00007fff9217fe96 __CFRunLoopDoObservers (in CoreFoundation)
 33  0x00007fff92155159 __CFRunLoopRun (in CoreFoundation)
 34  0x00007fff92154ae6 CFRunLoopRunSpecific (in CoreFoundation)
 35  0x00007fff8cbc53d3 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode (in HIToolbox)
 36  0x00007fff8cbcc58f ReceiveNextEventCommon (in HIToolbox)
 37  0x00007fff8cbcc4ca BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode (in HIToolbox)
 38  0x00007fff8d2093f1 _DPSNextEvent (in AppKit)
 39  0x00007fff8d208cf5 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] (in AppKit)
 40  0x00007fff8d20562d -[NSApplication run] (in AppKit)
 41  0x00007fff8d48480c NSApplicationMain (in AppKit)
 42  0x00000001058c0eec (in Xcode)

Check out this post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7752471/xcode-4-2-crashes-on-snow-leopard — Windy, Oct 31 '11 at 21:16
Thanks, I've tried that. Currently Organizer/Repositories crashes the moment I try and open it. Instant splat. If I delete the ~/.subversion folder then I can get into it, and it has rubbish entries. If I delete them, it makes no difference & still crashes next time I open it. — ragman, Nov 01 '11 at 21:02

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 09 '15 at 01:53

defaults write com.apple.dt.xcode DVTSourceControlAccountDefaultsKey {}
defaults write com.apple.dt.xcode IDESourceControlProjects {}
defaults write com.apple.dt.xcode IDESourceControlRecentsFavoritesRepositoriesUserDefaultsKey {}
defaults write com.apple.dt.xcode IDESourceControlRepositoryDefaultsKey {}

^ In a terminal seems to clear out the offending issue for me in the Xcode 7 beta 3 (where I ran into a similar problem myself recently).

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

I had this happen when first setting up a new machine at work and I found the SVN URL in /Users/*user*//Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist I tried manually removing and editing it out, but xcode somehow kept adding it back (or some OS daemon anyway).

My ultimate solution was to disable source control in xcode's preferences, restart (no crash), and then re-enable source control.

Also relevant: Xcode 5 crashes with SVN version 1.7 - self signed certificate

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '11 at 21:46

Ok, fixed it.

I completely removed xcode again (4th time) using /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all then deleted all references I could find to files in the user directory.

eg: ~/Library/Developer & in ~/Library/Cache com.apple.dt* com.apple.xcode*.

I also removed all traces of every subversion file on my machine. Oh, and rebooted after deleting xcode, then again after deleting the other files, then installed xcode, then reboot. Working nicely today.

There was obviously a file somewhere that had references to whatever was causing xcode to crash in it's subversion handling code.

Xcode 4 crashes on startup or accessing repositories with ASSERTION FAILURE even after reinstall

3 Answers3