Thank you so much for this tip!!! Crashing like bloody mad until Contacts unchecked.
Thanks! The workaround works for me.
Yes, this is an Apple bug, one that is listed under the “Known Issues” of El Capitan developer beta 3: 32-bit apps that use the Contacts framework will crash on startup. The release notes also list the temporary workaround provided by kazrak.
From the OS X 10.11 developer beta 3 release.
Before the official release of 10.11, we will release a compatible update, as we always do. Until then, we strongly recommend that users do not use 10.11 as their primary operating system (but we are very grateful for bug reports from those testing on 10.11, of course).
Thanks for the workaround. Awestruck that you knew how to find it.
Apple has fixed this already - please download the supplementary update they released today.
On clean install El Capitan beta in preferences is nothing to uncheck. Scrivener crashed before ask to allow access to Contacts. Supplementary update does not work for me… Sorry for my English.
The supplementary update should definitely fix it - it fixed it for me. Check the App Store for updates again. Also, you need to run Scrivener at least once before it will show up in the Contacts pane in the Preferences, so check the System Preferences again after Scrivener has crashed (Scrivener crashes before asking to access Contacts, though). If it still doesn’t work, please report to Apple that their fix isn’t working with all 32-bit apps for you and continue working on Yosemite until El Capitan is ready for proper use.
Obviously we cannot provide support for OS X betas given that they are intended for testing purposes and will be unstable for a while yet. Scrivener 2.6 is only supported on platforms up to Yosemite, and we do not recommend using it on El Capitan for anything other than testing purposes in order to report bugs to Apple (or to us if bugs seem to be Scrivener-specific, which this one isn’t). We will release an update in the autumn before El Capitan is released that is fully 10.11 compatible.
Thanks for your response.
Yes, Scrivener all time crashes immediately after startup and before asking to access Contacts. So Scrivener does not show in the Contacts pane in the Preferences for me.
On other partition after upgrade to El Capitan beta (not clean install) Scrivener still works fine - apparently because I didn’t let access to the Contacts on Yosemite.
Yes, this is an Apple bug.
It’s still strange that the supplementary update hasn’t fixed it for you - that fixed it straight away for me, and others have reported it fixed it, too.
Strange. I really don’t know. I will try again to make the experiment with clean install 
Maybe some other factors influence.
So. A report on the experiment:
- format partition
- totally clean install - El Capitan Public Beta
- all system preferences: default
- update system - El Capitan Beta Supplemental Update
- restart
- install Scrivener
- launch Scrivener - crashes immediately
- launch Scrivener - crashes immediately
- launch Scrivener - crashes immediately
- launch Scrivener - crashes immediately
- launch Scrivener - crashes immediately
- and so on…
That is all. Downgrade back to Yosemite.
Running 10.11 public beta with the supplementary update and Scrivener is not crashing for me on a 2010 Macbook Pro (my 2012 rMBP is being repaired). Not a clean install either (indeed a messy 10.8->10.9->10.10->10.11). Scrivener is working fine so far, and the whole OS feels much faster than Yosemite (part of that is cheating with animation timers I’m sure, I don’t think Metal is supported on the MBP 330M GT GPU, when I get my rMBP back it should be even faster!!!).
Would love to try a Scrivener 3 alpha build, with all its new fangled internals on El Capitan 8)
Yes. On partition with 10.10->10.11 Scrivener works fine.
I can confirm that even with the supplemental patch on July 10 that Scrivener will crash for at least some users. For me, it was a reformatted hard drive, clean install of Mavericks and then an immediate installation of 10.11. On startup it says “Scrivener quit unexpectedly” and it happens so fast that it does not ask for or show up in contacts under preferences.
I know this is Apple’s issue, but I thought I would chime in so that people know it isn’t just one person with this issue.
I will file feedback to Apple and attach a crash log with it. Incase less tech savvy people wonder where to get the crash log, I happened stumble across it by uninstalling Scrivener through a free app called AppCleaner (not promoting it, it isn’t commercial, and no clue who makes it). When you hit delete it puts all the files associated with the app into the trash, including the crash logs (icon is of a paper with red words on the bottom that says Crash). Just drag that onto the desktop and attach to the feedback.
If it helps, Scrivener does open and works in Safe Mode. Once returned to the normal mode it stops working again (if it wasn’t working before). Checking or unchecking the contacts in preferences doesn’t help (after opened in Safe Mode that option becomes available in the normal mode).
I don’t know if that means anything, but maybe that will help.
Have you reported this to Apple? Can you please post your crash report here? That will tell me whether it is still the Contacts crash or something else.
I have reported it to Apple with the automated log from the error message when opening Scrivener as well as through their feedback app with a copy of the .crash log.
I hope you don’t mind but I PM’d you the cut and past of the log. I assume it is just information about the app itself but because I don’t understand the information in it, I felt more comfortable sending it directly.
Edit:
You might have 2 duplicate PMs from me or you might have zero PMs from me. It keeps showing up in my Outbox but not under the Sent Messages. Computers are not being very kind to me lately. Sorry! 
I also have same issue (Scrivener crashes every time on El Captitan where Scrivener had not been installed/executed before), and I reported the log to both Apple and Literature and Latte.
Many thanks! Okay, so I’ve found the source of the crash thanks to these logs. The reason I wasn’t seeing the crash is that it only happens if you haven’t previously (successfully) launched Scrivener on earlier versions of El Capitan. Because I had run Scrivener before, I wasn’t seeing the problem.
When Scrivener is launched for the first time, it writers a “Scrivener.clr” file to the ~/Library/Colors folder. A .clr file is a colour list file, and the ~/Library/Colors folder is a location on the system intended for storing such files. Scrivener has its own colour list in the colour panel for its highlight colours, and by storing a file for this instead of just storing it in memory, it allows users to edit these colours. This is the source of the problem. It seems that in the latest version of El Capitan, Apple’s “write colour list to file” method crashes 32-bit apps (the method is only called if the colour file doesn’t already exist, which is why I wasn’t seeing the problem - I removed the file for testing and got the crash).
I have reported the issue to Apple. I’m not confident they’ll fix this, because it seems to me exactly the sort of thing they won’t care about, given that it’s a minor feature and only affects 32-bit apps. So, I’ll keep an eye on it - if it gets fixed, great; if not, I’ll just remove the ability for users to edit the custom colour list temporarily, until our 64-bit version is ready.
In the meantime, users affected by this bug should be able to fix it for themselves. Simply download the Scrivener_clr.zip file that I’ve attached to this post, unzip it, and then move the extracted Scrivener.clr file into the ~/Library/Colors folder on El Capitan (hold down Option while the “Go” menu is open in the Finder to access the ~/Library folder). After that, Scrivener should open successfully.
Thanks and all the best,
Keith
Scrivener_clr.zip (371 Bytes)
That explains why some people were having this issue and some were not. Since it is such a minor issue for Apple, I am glad it was found so that everyone can use Scrivener again. That very easy do-it-yourself solution worked great and took mere seconds to get everything up and running. Thanks!