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[Domi62]

Hello Team, the issue had appeared as from MC 27 but it has gotten only worse and now culminates since MC29: trying to grab the MC window to move it, clicking on an album, clicking on a menu, hitting play,... any action results in first about 5 seconds of spinning rainbow wheel. I run MC 29 latest on an iMac late 2014 (core i7, 32GB memory, Big Sur 11.6.5). I tried switching off Retina mode and erasing the plist, it did not help.
MC is now so sluggish I am considering fully migrating my listening habits to Roon, which is perfectly responding. Apple Music and Audirvana (I installed a trial version) also work swiftly. Note I have a very large music library (301k files, all on hard disks directly linked to the Mac, not on network or NAS).

Help much appreciated!

I copy the performance test, system info and a log:
=== Tests de performance en cours (ne pas interrompre) ===

Test 'Math' en cours...
    Calcul entier monotâche... 3.711 secondes
    Calcul à virgule flottante monotâche... 2.250 secondes
    Calcul entier multitâche... 1.048 secondes
    Calcul mixte multitâche... 0.694 secondes
Score: 2467

Test 'Image' en cours...
    Création / destruction d'image... 1.190 secondes
    Remplissage... 0.377 secondes
    Copie directe... 0.547 secondes
    Petits rendus... 0.883 secondes
    Analyse bilinéaire... 0.681 secondes
    Analyse bicubique... 1.302 secondes
Score: 4417

Test 'Base de données' en cours...
    Créer une base de données... 0.217 secondes
    Peupler la base de données... 1.009 secondes
    Enregistrer la base de données... 0.162 secondes
    Recharger la base de données... 0.060 secondes
    Rechercher dans la base de données... 1.416 secondes
    Trier la base de données... 0.709 secondes
    Rassembler la base de données... 0.710 secondes
Score: 5021

JRMark (version 29.0.25 64 bit): 3968

System info:
Médiathèque
    Nombre total de fichiers: 302,694
    Fichiers audio: 301,702
    Fichiers image: 94
    Fichiers vidéo: 0
    Autres fichiers: 898
    Artistes: 13,533
    Albums: 9,501
    Genres: 32
    Année: 77
    Listes de lecture: 118
    Most Played Tracks: Science Fiction;The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip Explicit;Star Treatment;One Point Perspective;Four Out Of Five
    Most Played Albums: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino;No Limits!;As If;Thr!!!Er;Singles Nov 2019
Exécution
    Construction des vignettes: 100% (302694 of 302694)
    Audio analyzed (audio files): 100% (301702 of 301702)
    Audio analyzed (video files): 0% (0 of 0)
Processus en arrière-plan
    Aucun processus actuellement en cours
Alimentation
    Aucune entrée affectant l'état du système
Drive Info
    Time for 256 MB file on library / rip drive () to make / read: 0.359 / 0.036 seconds
Media Center
    Version: 29.0.25 registered
    Chemin d'installation: /Applications/Media Center 29.app/Contents/MacOS/
    Modules d'interface:
    JRMark: 3968 (version 29.0.25)
    Program run time: 2.5 heures
    Mémoire utilisée:
    Traitements utilisées:
    Screen coordinates: Native
Informations avancées du système
    Memory & CPU
        CPU features: MMX, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1
        Total Logical Cores: 8
    Operating System
        Mac OS X 11.6 Big Sur (Intel)

[Juke]

I can concur with the spinning beach ball issue.  It happens all too frequently when I am double clicking different tracks to play.  I can go about 4 or 5 tracks with no problem, but then MC29 hangs for 10 seconds or more - sometimes exhibiting the spinning beach ball.  Usually it will eventually start playing the selected track, but occasionally MC needs to be forcibly killed.  I have MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports), Processor 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Memory 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 and running Media Center 29.0.23 (Intel) on macOS Monterey Version 12.2.1

[bob]

The only thing I can see in the log that looks interesting is scanning for new files to import.
Try turning off auto-import (remove the auto-import folders) and see if that changes things.

[Domi62]

Hello Bob, Thanks for responding. I took half the step you suggested by removing the auto-import folders for my ALAC and mp3 collections (which are mirrors of my source FLAC collection). I only left the FLAC library in the auto-import list, which is about 115000 tracks. This has considerably improved the responsiveness of MC. It still hangs and has to be killed and re-started once or twice a day, like Juke experiences, and the dreaded spinning wheel also appears once in a while, but much less than before. Still, MC, for an expensive paid program, feels way too sluggish: it is now "kind of useable" but certainly not "swift and fun to use". I would encourage the development team to keep working on making MC faster and less prone to freezing on Intel Macs.

[EnglishTiger]

When AutoImport is switched on MC is checking to see if there are any New Files/Tracks, in the folders being monitored, to be Imported at Startup and thence once every 120 mins. 
If you are not constantly adding new files/tracks then switching the thing off will help improve the Startup Times.

[bob]

I'm wondering if the filesystem support for monitoring file changes is causing issues with your large library.
Would you download this build:
https://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/test/MediaCenter290028-Universal.dmg
Install and run this build then go to Tools->Options->Library & Folders->Auto Import
and check "Disable filesystem support for auto-import"
This will revert to the fallback which is to scan once every 2 hours and avoid using system resources for instant file change detection.

Also note that MC will always scan auto-import directories if that's enabled when you first start MC.
If your media is on spinning drive storage or a network share this could take a while.

[Domi62]

Hello Bob, Thanks a lot for the follow up and the custom build, I installed it today and checked the "Disable filesystem support for auto-import" box.
I will monitor and report!

PS: maybe I should start another topic on this one, but I noted that the box that used to display the album cover when a track is played (lower left corner, above the Action window) is now only displaying the MC Icon, never the cover art any more.

[bob]

...
PS: maybe I should start another topic on this one, but I noted that the box that used to display the album cover when a track is played (lower left corner, above the Action window) is now only displaying the MC Icon, never the cover art any more.

I just checked and something seems wrong with the cover art display in the test build. I'll check into that.

[Domi62]

HelloBo. Feedback on my experimentation with the test build so far: when I check the "Disable filesystem support for auto-import" box, in the Activity Monitor, MC gets to the top and uses more than 100% of processor capacity. Also the fans of my iMac, normally barely audible, become very noisy. It all returns to normal when I uncheck the box and click OK. Note MC remains one the most hungry applications , always running between 3 to 45% of processor capacity.

PS: thanks for looking into the cover art, note the issue is not only in the test build but ever since I moved to MC 29 builds.

[bob]

HelloBo. Feedback on my experimentation with the test build so far: when I check the "Disable filesystem support for auto-import" box, in the Activity Monitor, MC gets to the top and uses more than 100% of processor capacity. Also the fans of my iMac, normally barely audible, become very noisy. It all returns to normal when I uncheck the box and click OK. Note MC remains one the most hungry applications , always running between 3 to 45% of processor capacity.

PS: thanks for looking into the cover art, note the issue is not only in the test build but ever since I moved to MC 29 builds.

When you check/uncheck that box it will scan the import directory for changes when exiting options so that's not unexpected.
It should be low priority thread using only one core. That will take a while with the number of files you have.

You could grab a log from when it's using a lot of cpu. It should be obvious as to what it's doing.

I'm seeing weird behavior with the cover art thumbs. I had mine set to a trackinfo, not cover art. When I switched to cover art it was fine. When I switched back to trackinfo it was again fine.
I think it may have something to do with the internal mac browser and caching.

[Domi62]

Hello Bob, here is a log with the the "Disable filesystem support for auto-import" box checked and higher CPU usage.

[bob]

You log shows a scan of the import directory, hundreds of entries.
If this is on an external spinning drive it will use a lot of cpu.
You might just turn off auto and just manually run the import when you add files (it's easy to add a custom button to MC's main screen to run auto-import).

[Domi62]

Hello Bob,

Just did that, seems to help considerably with response time of MC. Everything is swifter (not ultra swift, but much better) and makes that program useable again.
Many thanks for your suggestions, follow-up and help.

[Juke]

Just wanted to add for the record that I used MC ver 29 on a plane ride for a couple hours and the system never hung or showed the spinning beach ball when selecting a track to play.  And I jumped around quite a bit, sampling track openings, and skipping to different tracks.

I'm now home, and back on the Internet and the second track I selected to play gave me a spinning beach ball for a few seconds before it started playing.  Is there a thread going out to the Internet that the main thread waits for?  That would explain it.

[bob]

Just wanted to add for the record that I used MC ver 29 on a plane ride for a couple hours and the system never hung or showed the spinning beach ball when selecting a track to play.  And I jumped around quite a bit, sampling track openings, and skipping to different tracks.

I'm now home, and back on the Internet and the second track I selected to play gave me a spinning beach ball for a few seconds before it started playing.  Is there a thread going out to the Internet that the main thread waits for?  That would explain it.

Only if you have it trying to retrieve lyrics on playback.