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[MrC]

I started playback of a few tracks, and hit Cmd-Q.  MC gets the spinning beach ball of joy, fails to quit, so must be force quit.  But then gets into a problematic state and won't launch again:

Code: [Select]

$ ps -ej| egrep 'STAT|Media Center'  
USER              PID  PPID  PGID   SESS JOBC STAT   TT       TIME COMMAND
mrc              8348   163  8348      0    1 ?E     ??    0:00.00 (Media Center 19)
The only way to get MC to run again is to reboot.

[Peter_T]

I started playback of a few tracks, and hit Cmd-Q.  MC gets the spinning beach ball of joy, fails to quit, so must be force quit.  But then gets into a problematic state and won't launch again:

The only way to get MC to run again is to reboot.

Yup me too.

[MrC]

A bump to call some more attention to:

    http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=85768.msg587453#msg587453

This is causing headaches such that I don't want to use MC on the Mac here.  It is too disruptive to have to keep rebooting.

[JohnT]

A bump to call some more attention to:

    http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=85768.msg587453#msg587453

This is causing headaches such that I don't want to use MC on the Mac here.  It is too disruptive to have to keep rebooting.

Hopefully next build.

[MrC]

Hopefully next build.

[JohnT]

I guess I was overly optimistic on this one - I thought it would be easy to repro. Not so.

Looks like a frozen process is being left around following the application termination.  I've seen this happen here once or twice in the past, where MC would open the database in read-only mode because of the stuck process.  I couldn't figure out a way to get rid of the process other than rebooting, and wasn't able to reproduce the issue or glean anything from logs, etc.

Need to collect more information.
1. Send a log file after MC gets into a "problematic state".
2. There are different messaging routes for program termination, so see if terminating with the close box or the menu gets rid of the problem. (longshot I know)
3. If you have Media Network enabled and don't always need it, try disabling it and see if the problem goes away.  I'm suspicious that there's something about a network connection left hanging.

[MrC]

I do have Media Network enabled, and I have a hunch this was the suspect issue.  In fact, I don't recall seeing this issue *until* I enabled Media Network recently.

I just tried to quit MC using the close button (previously I always used Cmd-Q).  It is not stuck, but I have not yet tried Force Quit.

There is a log in my dropbox folder for you.

[JohnT]

Thanks.  The log looks pretty standard, no smoking guns there.

I'll do multiple trials of leaving our Mac Mini playing in network mode for a while and then terminating with Cmd-Q to see if I can repro.

[MrC]

I'm running MC under lddb right now, just in case I catch anything.  So far, all Quits have been good, even with Media Network enabled.  I'm wondering if there is a relation with the Mac going to sleep and then waking.

[JohnT]

Yes, I'll test the sleep/wake scenario as well.

[JohnT]

OK, I was able to reproduce the exact same problem once - can't do it again.

I had Media Network running, playing a track through a USB DAC, then selected "Sleep" from the Apple menu.  Brought it out of sleep, did Cmd-Q, and it beach-balled.  I force quit.  Then when restarting it said the library would be opened in read-only mode and playback was flaky.  I had the same dead [Media Center] entry in the process list as MrC posted above.  Had to reboot to make it work again.  Since rebooting I've tried the same process about a dozen times and can't get it to happen again.

[MrC]

Maybe there's a difference with Sleep vs. Deep Sleep?

[JohnT]

Possibly, although although it seems like it would have been at the same sleep level each time since I didn't change peripherals or running software or time elapsed in sleep.

[bplexico]

Hmmm, if you are running Mavericks, perhaps enabling "Prevent App Nap" for MC might resolve the problem? I have my Mac Mini set to never sleep as I run it headless and use it soley for music, so I have not seen this issue though I do have Media Network enabled.

I realize while that may alleviate the issue, it won't get to the root cause of the beach ball.

p.s. I don't have "Prevent App Nap" enabled.

[johnjen]

Just to throw my 2¢ in on this.

It seems to be something that takes a while to instigate.
IOW several albums worth of music with stopping, pausing and un-pausing, restarting, track skipping, etc., seem to be needed to trip this 'beachball freeze on quitting' problem.

I don't know if its these operations (stopping, restarting etc.) or something related, but 'flexing' the programs muscles (fussing with various operational controls) seems to 'help' trigger these sorts of behaviors.

JJ

[MrC]

Last night before bed I did a test.  I launched MC w/Media Network enabled.  And then let the Mac go through its normal sleep.  When I got up in the morning, I tried to ⌘Q MC and it spins.

So no playback, or doing anything with MC is required.

Also note, I had not allowed the Mac to sleep all day yesterday, and never experienced the problem with dozens of quits and heavy usage.  Tonight I'll disable Media Network, and do the same test.

[JohnT]

Last night before bed I did a test.  I launched MC w/Media Network enabled.  And then let the Mac go through its normal sleep.  When I got up in the morning, I tried to ⌘Q MC and it spins.

So no playback, or doing anything with MC is required.

Also note, I had not allowed the Mac to sleep all day yesterday, and never experienced the problem with dozens of quits and heavy usage.  Tonight I'll disable Media Network, and do the same test.

Good info, thanks.  I'll be interested to hear the results tomorrow.

[MrC]

With Media Network disabled, MC quit immediately with ⌘Q after wake-up of the Mac's night slumber.  It seems safe to assume Media Network and Sleep is the area of focus.