IMatch Freeze Ups

[Darius1968]

I've just now updated to the latest version (5.1.6), and am experiencing the same problem I found earlier today with the prior version.  More often than not, when I first open up my database, and then go to Media & Folders, then click on a folder that has maybe just 97 files, then IMatch will halt with the spinning circle for about 45 sec. or so.  What could this be?  Hierarchical mode is off. 

[Mario]

Why don't you include a log file (in Debug mode, enable under Help > Support) so I can see what takes 45 seconds? Otherwise I can only guess. I don't even know if your database has 20,000 or 300,000 files...

The typical scenario is that you have many data-driven categories or a large database, and IMatch needs to re-calculate a data-driven category in order to display a panel or the file window. Or maybe IMatch is still calculating collections in the background in order to display the file window contents. But this all depends on "where" in IMatch you start, how your file window is configured, which panels you have open etc. Without a bit more info (screen shot, log file, etc.) I cannot deduce anything.

If IMatch is much faster when you close and re-open it, the problem is that the disk cannot deliver the data fast enough. The second time IMatch will have much of the required data in the in-memory file system cache and if IMatch is much faster then, the bottleneck is the disk.

How to report bugs

[Darius1968]

Well, at the moment, IMatch is not presenting the problem of hanging just because of clicking on a folder with 97 files.  When it happens again, I'll attach to this post a log file in debug mode.  Should I enable this debug mode now, or just wait until the problem manifests again. 
Also, I know what you mean about IMatch taking a longer time to load a database for the first time just after Windows operating system has rebooted, but subsequent openings of the same database being much shorter in time because it is in RAM. 

[Darius1968]

Here, I'm attaching a log file.  It represents IMatch flashing a message that it had to close unexpectedly.  It's really hard to pin point when it happened.  I was just copying and pasting files, and renaming folders when it happened. 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mario]

When IMatch crashes, it is usually able to handle that and present you with a dialog box showing the locations of the generated log file and DUMP file.
If you see a "Needs to close" message, IMatch was forcefully closed by Windows for whatever reason. This usually happens only when the crash is outside of IMatch (e.g. a WIC codec, video or audio codec installed on the system etc.).

From the log file I can see that your database has about 190,000 files and that IMatch was importing files in the background. The log file ends after IMatch has received another message from the file system about changed folder contents. What where you doing when this happened?

[Darius1968]

I can't be 100% sure of exactly what I was doing at the precise moment, but I can say that I had created a Formula category for the folder "c:\users\user\downloads", and I was saving from other programs files into this folder (outside of IMatch), then I would from within IMatch cut & paste files from this folder (via the formula category) into other folders that I would access also from within IMatch via the M&F view.  I think that I noticed that IMatch wasn't keeping up with keeping the "c:\users\user\downloads" up to date, so I had to keep it up to date by forcing a rescan of that folder myself.  Somewhere in this process I think is where IMatch hanged. 

[Mario]

Maybe IMatch was just busy? When IMatch is very busy it may not be able to respond within five seconds to user interaction and then Windows brings up the "Application is not responding dialog". When this happens and you were typing or you accidentally click close, Windows will close IMatch without IMatch having any change to prevent it.

This does not look like a crash, just IMatch being blocked for a short time (e.g. waiting for a file system routine to return) and then it was killed by Windows...