GetManagerFromContext: pointer to object of manager ‘(null)’ is NULL (table index 5)

UNITY3D FATAL ERROR ON STARTUP WORKAROUND
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This morning starting up Unity 5.1.0 greeted me with the following message and a blank project selection window (I have unity configured to ask me which project to load on startup)
Fatal error!
GetManagerFromContext: pointer to object of manager ‘(null)’ is NULL (table index 5)
Update
Confirmation from Unity that this is a bug in the updater and they have now disabled this server side checking for versions 5.1.0f3 – 5.1.1f1 so hopefully that’s the last we see of it!
Solution
Many thanks to @Rusty_Bolt on twitter who tweeted to suggest switching WiFi/Internet off which lead me to the following steps. Switching WiFi off would indeed allow unity to start, however after quitting and starting again if WiFi was on (usually is!) it would crash again.
  1. Switch your internet connection off
  2. Load Unity and select a project
  3. Switch your internet connection on
  4. Now within Unity load a new project via File->OpenProject
  5. Quit unity
Hopefully now when you start unity everything is back to normal!
Other things I tried
As part of trying to track this down I tried the following, none of which helped.

  • Delete all unity settings from ~/Library/Preferences
  • Delete my Unity license file from Library/Application Support/PACE Anti-Piracy/License Files see link
  • Moved all of my unity projects to a different location to ensure they were not involved
  • Deleted Unity
  • Installed Unity
Source: http://trusteddevelopments.com/2015/06/26/unity3d-fatal-error-on-startup-workaround/