Info & Activity Panel is Blank

jeknepley · April 10, 2014, 02:24:19 PM

The main portion of this panel is completely blank (light gray). When ingesting new files, status info appears across the top but that's it. As a test I just selected a folder to rescan but none of the activity was shown in this panel during the rescan. No Info & No activity $:-\$

Didn't used to be this way, but I don't recall when it changed.

Never mind - I just removed it and then opened it again via the View menu and it's back to normal. Could this behavior be described as a bug?

Mario · April 10, 2014, 08:25:26 PM

QuoteCould this behavior be described as a bug?

Could be, if you can reproduce it...
Maybe your computer was too busy and IMatch could not allocate sufficient resources to repaint the panel?
Maybe a graphic card glitch.
Repaint problems like this can have many reasons.
If you have steps to reproduce this, let me know.

jeknepley · April 11, 2014, 01:03:00 PM

I can reproduce it - something I discovered since your reply.

1. Exit IM5 while I&A panel displays properly
2. Run IM5 - voila the I&A panel is blank

Interestingly, the F9-I keyboard shortcut will not close the blank panel. Trying to do so just causes the "boing" (error?) sound. So this adds another piece to what now seems to be an actual bug. Maybe this part adds a useful clue.

Closing the blank panel & reopening it solves the problem - not elegant, but it does the trick.

Windows 7 with updates up to date, Dell Studio 17 laptop, IM5 release 150, IM5 DB is on a thumbdrive, files on a NAS as shown in the attachment

[attachment deleted by admin]

Mario · April 11, 2014, 02:04:42 PM

Is the panel docked, auto-close of floating?

jeknepley · April 11, 2014, 03:33:00 PM

Docked as shown here....

[attachment deleted by admin]

Mario · April 11, 2014, 05:12:54 PM

That's my typical mode of operating. I always close and re-open IMatch with an open Activity panel. It was never blank.
I see that the queue is full and IMatch is processing data. Was this also the case when you re-opened IMatch and the empty panel effect happened? Maybe the panel could display nothing because it had to wait for IMatch to start up the background processing and IMatch was real busy?
Can you reproduce this also when IMatch is not processing 80,000 files? That's a massive amount of data to process and your PC will have not much resources to spare...

jeknepley · April 11, 2014, 08:56:12 PM

I'll check that out once I clear up the current problem that's causing the 80,000 file queue (see my other thread in this GD section about multi-hour processing & an unusable PC.

I'm now restoring the IM5 DB to my backup from last evening. At the current rate of progress it will be another 15-20 minutes. If the restore goes well the queue will be back to zero.

The possibly problematic NAS is the backup to my IM3 files storage which runs on a locally connected (USB) dedicated hard drive. I'm going to drag and drop the same files that lead to the 80K queue with 10+ hour predicted processing time from that HD to my current IM5 DB. I'll then try rescanning those files and see if I come even close to the 1 minute you reported on your system for 100K. I've got to get to the bottom of this even if it means new hardware.

jch2103 · April 11, 2014, 09:36:52 PM

The issue of hardware and performance has come up frequently on the IMatch forum. If you dig a bit, you may find some useful insights, such as https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=1881.msg12183#msg12183.

jeknepley · April 12, 2014, 01:41:14 PM

Quote from: Mario on April 11, 2014, 05:12:54 PM
That's my typical mode of operating. I always close and re-open IMatch with an open Activity panel. It was never blank.
I see that the queue is full and IMatch is processing data. Was this also the case when you re-opened IMatch and the empty panel effect happened? Maybe the panel could display nothing because it had to wait for IMatch to start up the background processing and IMatch was real busy?
Can you reproduce this also when IMatch is not processing 80,000 files? That's a massive amount of data to process and your PC will have not much resources to spare...

I can reproduce it 100% of the time as described earlier. And - it has nothing to do with the queue.

I just now started IM5 twice - once with a very large (100K+) DB and once with a very small (2K) DB. Each had been previously closed with nothing active in the queues - idle DB - and the I&A panel displaying normally. In each case (small or large DB), closing an idle DB with a proper (non-blank) I&A panel and then reopening the DB yielded the same result - a blank I&A panel.

I'm going to reinstall IM5 (release 150) and see if that does anything.

Mario · April 12, 2014, 07:57:46 PM

OK. Let us know.
I have no other reports about this and cannot reproduce it either. Try resetting your workspace (Hold down <Ctrl> when starting IMatch). See Advanced Startup Options in the help for details.

jeknepley · April 12, 2014, 11:00:47 PM

Quote from: Mario on April 12, 2014, 07:57:46 PM
OK. Let us know.
I have no other reports about this and cannot reproduce it either. Try resetting your workspace (Hold down <Ctrl> when starting IMatch). See Advanced Startup Options in the help for details.

I tried resetting work space per your suggestion rather than doing acomplete re-install. Your suggestion seems to have done the trick. Thanks.

Mario · April 13, 2014, 09:39:14 AM

Interesting. Maybe something got stuck in the panel persistence settings or something. I know that there are some minor glitches in the third party toolkit I use for the IMatch user interface, and sometimes they mess up their storage for panel properties.

jeknepley · April 13, 2014, 03:10:44 PM

I spoke too soon. The blank panel problem is back. I'll try my original thought of reinstalling 150 later today and see what that does. $:-\$

In the meantime it's no big deal here as I know how to work around it.

jeknepley · April 15, 2014, 12:33:54 AM

Tried repair and also modify. Neither had any effect. I'll wait and see what release 152 brings.

Mario · April 15, 2014, 07:55:45 AM

Unlikely that there will be any change.
Since I cannot repro this here, I cannot fix it. I see no other reports about a similar issue so...

Please attach a screen shot of how the panels comes up "blank" on your system. Maybe this tells me something.

jeknepley · April 15, 2014, 12:47:38 PM

Quote from: Mario on April 15, 2014, 07:55:45 AM
Unlikely that there will be any change.
Since I cannot repro this here, I cannot fix it. I see no other reports about a similar issue so...

Please attach a screen shot of how the panels comes up "blank" on your system. Maybe this tells me something.

Here's the screen shot....

As I mentioned earlier, very low priority here as I have a work around (close and reopen the I&A panel).

[attachment deleted by admin]

jeknepley · April 16, 2014, 06:09:31 PM

Quote from: Mario on April 15, 2014, 07:55:45 AM

Please attach a screen shot of how the panels comes up "blank" on your system. Maybe this tells me something.

Something I just noticed - the I&A panel seems to be blank on opening if it was the top (visible) panel in its group when IM was closed. If another panel, say Filters, was on top at closing then when the I&A panel's tab is clicked upon reopening it is not blank. Maybe another clue?