Environment
-
Core Shell 5.2 (Build 4954), Setapp edition
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macOS 27.0.1 (26A434)
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Apple Silicon (ARM64)
Problem
Since updating Core Shell through Setapp to version 5.2, the application frequently hangs during startup and becomes "Not Responding". It never reaches a usable state and must be force-quit.
coreshell-hang.txt (226.6 KB)
This issue also occurs again after restarting macOS.
Analysis
I captured a process sample while Core Shell was hanging. The main thread is blocked during application initialization:
AppDelegate.applicationDidFinishLaunching
→ NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore.synchronize
→ SYDClientToDaemonConnection.changeToken
→ NSXPCConnection
→ __NSXPCCONNECTION_IS_WAITING_FOR_A_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLY__
→ mach_msg2_trap
All 4,336 samples show the same blocking call.
This suggests that Core Shell is synchronously waiting for the macOS iCloud Key-Value Store synchronization service during startup.
Temporary workaround
Terminating the affected user's syncdefaultsd process:
pkill -u "$(id -un)" -x syncdefaultsd
allowed Core Shell to launch successfully.
However, the issue returned after rebooting macOS.
Expected behavior
Core Shell should launch even if the iCloud synchronization service is unresponsive. Ideally, synchronization should not block application startup indefinitely.
Additional information
The release notes for version 5.2 explicitly mention a fix for Core Shell failing to start when iCloud is unavailable. Unfortunately, the problem still appears to exist, at least when syncdefaultsd becomes unresponsive.
I can provide the full sample report for further investigation.