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[Maeghaus]

Starting with MC 30, my Mac Mini M1 has wanted to run Media Center while writing a large disk cache at the same time. I haven't investigated it much; my Windows PC is the media server. But tonight I decided to run Activity Monitor with MC 31 open and wait. At almost 14 minutes, I got a memory warning on screen. I chose to "Force Quit" Media Center and run a System Diagnostic. It generated several logs, including one specific to MC 31. It hints at something happening at approximately 837 seconds (13.95 minutes) after opening the program. The Mac wants to use all the available memory when I run Media Center but I don't know why. Previous monitoring for a few minutes showed nothing unusual. The duration varies quite a bit. Once I was able to keep Media Center open for 2 hours.

I have the log(s) but I do not know how to interpret them. I'm technically savvy but I'm not when it comes to programming language. Also, I haven't watched Activity Monitor long enough to view it at the critical moment because of the wide time variations. This Mac is reacting to Media Center from another process. When I first noticed this issue, after upgrading from v.29, I thought the forum would be full of similar issues. It seems to be unique.

I can supply the entire log folder or specific parts.

The device technical information is posted below:

• Model: Mac Mini M1 (Late 2020) - MGNT3LL/A
• Internal Disk Capacity: 500GB
• System Memory: 16GB
• Average disk storage: 70-90GB available
• OS: Mac Ventura 13.5.1
• Media Center Version: 31.0.43 (stable)

-- Tom

[bob]

Where is your media stored?
Try turning off auto-import and see if that makes a difference.

[Maeghaus]

Hi Bob. A week passed before I remembered to check for replies. My library resides on an external WD Black 5TB 3.0/3.1 drive. As a comparison, the Apple Music app doesn't have any issues processing from the same drive.

-- Tom

[blgentry]

In the first post you say that you are using a Windows PC as a "media server".  Does that mean it is an MC server and you are using the Mac as a client?

Does it mean that the Mac is an MC server and is using windows file sharing to read the files from the Windows PC?

Or something else?

Brian.

[Maeghaus]

Hi sorry for the delay once again. I'm running MC 31 Mac and listening from the same computer. It's not set up to be the media server. My Windows computer does that. I wondered if the problem lies with Mac OS Ventura. My MC 30 topic history might reveal something. I'll take a look. Tomorrow it might not matter, as Mac OS Sonoma is due. I'm not one to upgrade the first day, however.

Here's a list of my setup related to MC 31 Mac:
-- MC 31.0.43 (not updated in a few weeks)
-- Mac Mini, Late 2020 -- Model Number:Z12P000KDLL/A -- Chip: Apple M1
-- Mac OS Ventura 13.5.2 (22G91) (most recent)
-- Storage device 1: Device Name: APPLE SSD AP0512Q -- Media Name: AppleAPFSMedia -- Free: 46.38 GB (46,380,326,912 bytes) -- Capacity: 494.38 GB (494,384,795,648 bytes) -- Mount Point: / -- File System: APFS
-- Storage Device 2: Device Name: Game Drive -- File System: Journaled HFS+ -- Media Name: WD Game Drive Media -- Connection: USB-C 3.1 -- Speed: Up to 5 Gb/s -- Medium Type: SSD -- Free: 3.86 TB (3,857,410,990,080 bytes) -- Capacity: 5 TB (5,000,810,987,520 bytes) -- Mount Point:   /Volumes/Media Library

I put in bold the connection specs of the external drive containing MC 31 music, etc. files ('Media Library'). Ideally, I'd put the library on the internal SSD but it is very small (500GB). I've never been certain the external's connection speed is adequate. USB3 was OK in the past on both Windows and Mac. Does the present setup need a storage device with better performance? That may be the problem related to the memory issue. I can think of several ways it could be.

Let me know what you think. I may need to upgrade. -- Tom

[Maeghaus]

Update: I'm installing MC 31.0.54. I see v.57 pulled. That's rare.

The external media drive connects to a USB 3.0 hub. I'm looking at the drive's maximum speed capability. A USB-C 3.2 hub connected directly to the Mac may help.

I turned on "notify" for Reply #4. That should alert me to any new messages I get, instead of remembering every ten days. -- Tom

[bob]

I've discovered an issue with memory leaking on import.
Working on it...

[Maeghaus]

Hey Bob, is the Import the command under Tools or referring to something else? The performance issue isn't action-specific; I get big disk writes whether I'm playing anything or not. It's curious. I am interested to hear the results.

-- Tom

[bob]

This is only related to heic/heif media files.
In my case I was building thumbnails and the memory used by MC kept growing and growing until it used up 30GB of swap (which is cached to disk).
We found the problem and it will be fixed in the next build.
If you don't have a lot of these image files this is not your issue.

[Maeghaus]

I do have many HEIC files. Could be why I'm getting the memory issue. Not 100% sure. It's a clue and that's encouraging. I mentioned my internal SSD for my Mac Mini M1 is 500GB and I keep about 60-75GB free. That's about as much as I can do. The free space disappears fast once the writing starts. I can experiment and get logs to see what happens next. Or I could wait for the next update; I should.

Side note: My MC Windows history goes back to 2013 and MC 17. That means about ten years with JRiver. Nice to know.

-- Tom

[bob]

I do have many HEIC files. Could be why I'm getting the memory issue. Not 100% sure. It's a clue and that's encouraging. I mentioned my internal SSD for my Mac Mini M1 is 500GB and I keep about 60-75GB free. That's about as much as I can do. The free space disappears fast once the writing starts. I can experiment and get logs to see what happens next. Or I could wait for the next update; I should.

Side note: My MC Windows history goes back to 2013 and MC 17. That means about ten years with JRiver. Nice to know.

-- Tom

Sounds like that may be the issue for you. Try build 31.0.59, it's fixed in there.

[Maeghaus]

Hello Bob. I ran Mac v.59 last night. Unfortunately, when I checked my Finder info 10 minutes later, my internal drive was down to 2.06GB. Normal free space was 62GB, where it's back to now. I guess the HEIC images weren't an issue. Whatever is eating up the drive free space, it only does it if MC Mac is open. I may need to go through the programs I usually have open and test them.

I wondered about external drive performance. I haven't tested for faster transfer speeds.

Do you have any suggestions for my troubleshooting tests?

-- Tom

[bob]

Hello Bob. I ran Mac v.59 last night. Unfortunately, when I checked my Finder info 10 minutes later, my internal drive was down to 2.06GB. Normal free space was 62GB, where it's back to now. I guess the HEIC images weren't an issue. Whatever is eating up the drive free space, it only does it if MC Mac is open. I may need to go through the programs I usually have open and test them.

I wondered about external drive performance. I haven't tested for faster transfer speeds.

Do you have any suggestions for my troubleshooting tests?

-- Tom

Sounds like it wasn't the heif/heic.

You might try "disable filesystem support for auto-import" in MC's settings. That uses a lot of system resources if you have a very large library. I don't know if it would lead to disk caching or not.

Can you post a complete list of file types in your library?

[Maeghaus]

Thanks, Bob, I'll try your suggestion and also make a list of my file types.

-- Tom

[Maeghaus]

I'm back. I attached a screenshot of the file types presently in the MC31 library. I have others, but not imported into Media Center. I am going to do a system analysis when I have time.

-- Tom

[blgentry]

Hi sorry for the delay once again. I'm running MC 31 Mac and listening from the same computer. It's not set up to be the media server. My Windows computer does that.

I still don't know what you mean.  Is the Window computer involved in your MC31 setup in some way?  If you turn off the Windows machine, will MC31 on your Mac still work as you expect?  I'm trying to identify the variables and this Windows machine is still an unknown for me.

Thanks,
Brian.

[Maeghaus]

I'll clear up the confusion: My Mac is having issues running MC 31. For reasons unknown, the Mac is writing to the disk cache and filling up the hard drive when MC 31 Mac is open.

The Windows PC is the media server that I connect to my Mac. Bob wanted to know if I was using it when the memory issue happens. I haven't used the DLNA since the issue began in MC 30 Mac. This problem applies to playing from a local external disc. There's no server involved.

I can't keep MC 31 Mac open for more than 15 minutes. My Mac runs out of memory after first using up my RAM and then the disk cache. The cause isn't MC. It's a process or action of something else. Bob and others went through a few possibilities. Most of the time I open MC 31 Mac and don't do anything with it but I run out of memory. It is a unique mystery. I would like to run through some ideas when I have time. Tonight I may be able to.

I revised my setup summary for my Mac to show what it connects to.

-- Tom

[JimH]

Is Media Server running?

Check what MC is doing under Services / Reporter.

[blgentry]

I would recommend collecting an MC log and then emailing it to the devs.  Here is some information on collecting an MC log:

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

Brian.

[JimH]

Turn off auto-hide for the task bar in Mac options.

[Maeghaus]

Brian, thanks for the logging suggestion. Jim, I have the Mac Dock auto-hide off (I think that's what you meant). I'm starting a log this afternoon (10/12/2023).

-- Tom

[Maeghaus]

I created a Media Center 31 Mac log. I made additional ones, but they didn't reveal any major disk cache writing. Maybe it was the HEIC/HEIF files. I updated the Mac to Ventura 13.5.2 around the same time as MC Mac 31.0.59.

I reported that the last time I ran Media Center 31 on my Mac, the cache writing wasn't using up disk space as before. I see several reasons for that, but don't know which one corrected the problem. I'm inclined to think v.59 and restarting the Mac fixed it. I updated to MC Mac 31 v.71 this morning before running the tests. So far, I've run Media Center 31 for 90 minutes and the system is fine. I played music during the first log and opened Adobe Illustrator in the second, as a stress test along with memory hogs like Google Chrome Browser. I'm pleased the Mac is operating better.

The logs don't reproduce the problem, but I include them here for analysis. I did not upgrade to Mac OS Sonoma yet; I'm reviewing compatibility with programs I have.

-- Tom

[Maeghaus]

Update on MC 31.0.71 Mac status: Left the program open after today's log tests. No issues and running fine after more than 9 hours. It seems Bob's HEIC/HEIF file analysis and the resulting bug fix solved my problems. I reported at first that it didn't work but that was before I restarted the computer.

I have an iPhone (14 Pro), and a few iOS versions ago Apple changed the preferred photo/video format to High Efficiency HEIC/HEIF, with JPG as backup. I thought I did not import HEIC/HEIF files into Media Center Mac but have all my Photos library under my MC Mac Images tab. When I did this, I don't recall but that's likely what started the disk cache writing issue in MC Mac 30 from the first build (30.0.18) back in October 2022.

I'm glad the team found out the solution. I wouldn't have realized that media formats would cause a memory write issue. That was good investigating!

-- Tom

EDIT: I just noticed that with this post I am now a World Citizen. I was a Junior Woodchuck for ten years (I only post when I have something definite to say). Going back to old threads might make me cringe but they are interesting. Learning how to edit an XML Playlist still helps. That's as close as I've gotten to programming. I leave that to you folks. -- T

[bob]

Update on MC 31.0.71 Mac status: Left the program open after today's log tests. No issues and running fine after more than 9 hours. It seems Bob's HEIC/HEIF file analysis and the resulting bug fix solved my problems. I reported at first that it didn't work but that was before I restarted the computer.

I have an iPhone (14 Pro), and a few iOS versions ago Apple changed the preferred photo/video format to High Efficiency HEIC/HEIF, with JPG as backup. I thought I did not import HEIC/HEIF files into Media Center Mac but have all my Photos library under my MC Mac Images tab. When I did this, I don't recall but that's likely what started the disk cache writing issue in MC Mac 30 from the first build (30.0.18) back in October 2022.

I'm glad the team found out the solution. I wouldn't have realized that media formats would cause a memory write issue. That was good investigating!

-- Tom

EDIT: I just noticed that with this post I am now a World Citizen. I was a Junior Woodchuck for ten years (I only post when I have something definite to say). Going back to old threads might make me cringe but they are interesting. Learning how to edit an XML Playlist still helps. That's as close as I've gotten to programming. I leave that to you folks. -- T

It's really because it ran out of system memory and was writing to swap which is on disk.

[Maeghaus]

Bob, that's true. But I would like to hear the solution from your view. I am unfamiliar with what an image format and excessive memory usage have in common to cause what happened. I am always interested to learn. You mentioned a few target fixes.

-- Tom

[bob]

Bob, that's true. But I would like to hear the solution from your view. I am unfamiliar with what an image format and excessive memory usage have in common to cause what happened. I am always interested to learn. You mentioned a few target fixes.

-- Tom

The solution is to not have memory leaks. Especially for media files since they are accessed every time auto-import runs which is why it was important to get that heic/heif leak fixed.

[Maeghaus]

I think I get it; too much memory caused by repeated scans for images. Now I see what you've been saying about Import settings. I didn't understand how that had anything to do with a memory leak but I do. Thanks for fixing the bug. The personal level of support is one of the things I like about this company. I appreciate all of it.

-- Tom