Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[alphabrackets]

Many times my Media Center stops working.   It just hangs "Not Responding".  So I have to reinstall it, maybe fish though an earlier library/database backup,  and I just give it the license code, because it demands one. (which I paid for, by the way.). Every time I do that, I get an email saying I used a restore and I get docked one less.  So today, I lost two. One for my Media Server, one for my client, and this is for getting MC30 up and running for the first time.   I don't understand this.  All did was reinstall the binary, fiddle with the database information, and give it the license code. 

I guess I shouldn't worry because I have 7 left. But every time I reboot my system I worry that this will happen again.  There has to be a better way.

I have to say, I have had MC since version 28 and they all are flaky.  I end up fixing the problems as they arise, but why should it break so easily?   

[JimH]

You may have a hardware problem.  Are you using an external drive?

Reinstalling doesn't require a license restore unless your major version changes.

[alphabrackets]

Thanks,

I have Apple Silicon Mac Minis.  So the ~/Library/Application\ Support files are there on the system disk, as are the Library Backups.  The audio files are on external SSD storage.  Not the fastest as far as SSDs go, but around 375 MB/s for read and 425 MB/s for write.


Anyway, is there any kind of debug mode / log files which can see what the MC has done  / is doing when it gets in the "Not Respnding" state?

[JimH]

External drives sometimes have power issues when plugged into USB ports.  Also check that it's a USB 3.0 port for speed reasons.

[blgentry]

Many times my Media Center stops working.   It just hangs "Not Responding".  So I have to reinstall it, maybe fish though an earlier library/database backup,  and I just give it the license code, because it demands one.

Are you unable to run MC at all after it goes to not responding?  Have you rebooted in between to see if that clears it?  The normal prescription for a malfunctioning install of MC is to restore the database to the last one in the backups area.  But if you can't launch MC at all, you can't really restore the database (as far as I know).

(which I paid for, by the way.). Every time I do that, I get an email saying I used a restore and I get docked one less. 

Don't worry too much about your restore count. In almost every case, all you have to do is ask nicely here, explaining what happened, and the JRiver staff will set. your restores back to 10.  You won't end up with no restores.  You're covered on that front.

I have to say, I have had MC since version 28 and they all are flaky.  I end up fixing the problems as they arise, but why should it break so easily?

I suspect something is unusual about your setup. I say that because I have owned MC for 11 versions.  I've had to do a restore of a broken database once or twice that I can think of.  I've never had to remove and reinstall. 

What is the exact path to your database?  I ask because I've seen cases where someone confused the idea of the database (which JRiver calls Library) with the music files.  In those cases I've seen the two mixed together and weird things happen.

Do you run anything that monitors your system or makes it recoverable instantly or anything that's not a standard Mac system utility?  Since you have M1 or M2 minis, your OS should be fairly recent.  I'm trying to think of things that would cause the odd behavior you have seen.  In my experience these issues are very rare.

Brian.

[blgentry]

Anyway, is there any kind of debug mode / log files which can see what the MC has done  / is doing when it gets in the "Not Respnding" state?

Yes.  MC includes a logging facility.  It requires that you are able to run MC *after* it does something weird though.  After you turn on logging, you wait for it to act weird.  Then you go to the logging section and tell it to make a zip file of the logs.  Details here:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Logging

But if you can't ever run MC again after it breaks, then this probably won't work well. 

Brian.

[alphabrackets]

Thanks for all the responses.   This has happened quite a few times before and it always was a matter of using Time Machine to go back in time or something to make an earlier database active.  Rebooting never helped.  Watching the Activity Monitor, you could clearly see the MC process go into "not responding" and stay there.  Whether it would have eventually cleared, who knows, but I know I let it go on for over 1/2 hour at least once.

My problems mainly were with versions before 30.  I had downloaded and installed 30 at the time it came out but had put off migrating my big library.  But this last time the issue happened, I decided to not fix 29 but migrate to 30 with my last known good database/library backup.  So far so good, it seems to be running happier.  Maybe the M2 chip has something to do with that.  Maybe 30 will work better for me.  With the information on logging, should it happen again, I think I now have a better handle on how make diagnoses.

[blgentry]

Are you aware of MC's automatic library backups?  They are generally in your Documents/J River/ folder.  Go look and you should see some backups there.  MC makes them every few days.

If your library is corrupted (and that really shouldn't happen very often) you can restore it from one of these backups.  You do not need to use Time Machine.  You can, but it's really not necessary.  MC has a built in facility for going back to earlier database (Library) versions.

I'm hopeful that MC30 is nice and stable for you like all the releases have been for me.

Brian.