Persistent "R session aborted" error

[jdenavascues]

Hi there,

This is my first post here - I have tried to follow sensible guidelines but please do let me know if I can improve the post.

General description of the problem

After an RStudio update, any command ⁽¹⁾ I run ⁽²⁾ crashes the session:

[bomb pic] R session aborted:
R encountered a fatal error.
The session was terminated.
[Start New Session Button]

Note (1): i.e. getwd() or a <- 20
Note (2): when I run it in an R/Rmd file or from the Console. If I run it from the embedded Terminal, it's fine.

At this point, I can start a new session clicking the button, but this one will crash all the same. If I try to exit from RStudio, the GUI shows the "Quitting R Session..." message with a timer and it will stay there indefinitely, so I end up force-quitting with Cmd-Alt-Esc.

RStudio.Version() and other system details

• Version 2024.09.1+394 (2024.09.1+394) [this is with the GUI's "about Rstudio", as I cannot run any command]
• I think the previous RStudio version I was running was 2024.4.x
• R version is (and was, before the problem started) 4.5.1 (2025-06-13) -- "Great Square Root"
• My platform x86_64-apple-darwin20 (MacOS 12.7.6 Monterrey, the highest my 2013 Mac Pro allows)

Error messages

R session aborted: R encountered a fatal error. The session was terminated. [Start New Session]

Log files

rdesktop.log was empty

rsession-Joaquin.log says

---

2025-10-14T11:54:42.102977Z [rsession-Joaquin] WARNING Failed to migrate all user state from /Users/JQ/.rstudio-desktop to /Users/JQ/.local/share/rstudio; could not move verify; LOGGED FROM: Error rstudio::core::r_util::migrateUserStateIfNecessary(SessionType) src/cpp/core/r_util/RUserData.cpp:175

---

Crash Reports

I looked in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and it was empty of any files.

I tried to produce a Crash Report following these instructions but the /cores directory was empty (however, note that the crash is not total - the GUI holds, but gets frozen when I try to quit the app, so I force-quit it; maybe this interferes with the crash report).

Attempted steps taken to fix

• I have tried re-installing RStudio (the latest 2024.09 and 2024.04), R (4.5.1) and restarting the computer right after, also deleting an .RData file in my root directory (where R seemed to be at the start). This was following a comment in this SO question.
• I have tried uninstalling and re-installing dplyr as suggested in this SO answer.
• I have tried "Resetting RStudio Desktop's State" by:
  • renaming ~/.local/share/rstudio;
  • backing up and deleting com.rstudio.desktop;
  • re-directing the default_project_location in ~/.config/rstudio/rstudio-prefs.json from the directory where I was working last when the problem started, to ~ (so there was no .RData there to "contaminate" the start of the session; I have also tried deleting any .RData files in the directory I was working on but there was none);

Have you successfully launched RStudio in the past?

Yes, I have used it for years.

[jdenavascues]

I have ended downgrading:

• RStudio to Version 2023.12.1+402
• R to 4.4.3

And now it works. I will try to get to more recent versions to see how far can I go, but it seems that Rstudio versions around 2024.09.1+394 (I tried +398 and +38x) do not work well with R v4.5.1...

This does not really solve the matter, these versions are (I think) supposed to be stable.

[GaryR]

With older versions of macOS you will be limited to running an older version of RStudio, and each version of RStudio has a maximum version of R that it was tested against (and using a newer R than supported can lead to crashes or other problems).

For Monterey, per RStudio IDE / Workbench - Supported Versions – Posit Docs, you should be able to use RStudio 2024.09.1+394 (or older) and R 4.4.1 (or older).

[jdenavascues]

OK, that makes sense, thanks.