QR2 beta 25 on El Capitan 10.11.1.

Today when trying to open an archive from "File - Open Archive ..." dialog, it didn't work (it's been a while since I last opened the archive, so it's no longer on the recent archives list). Double clicking on the archive in Finder did work, but then it can't be closed, either by clicking on the window control button or with the "File - Close" command (or cmd-W, for that matter). Had to quit QR to close it. I've tried it several times with the same result. I even tried it once on another desktop (running the same beta version, but on Yosemite); same result.

The problem is not limited to opening and closing. I can't delete any item on it, nor can I remove any layer, merge layers, compact the archive or combine volumes. (The archive has two volumes of the same source directory after I installed El Capitan, so I want to combine them.) The action would appear to be starting, but would be "waiting for archive" to no end.

After clicking "Stop" to cancel the action, there's an entry in the log that says "Problem encountered while closing archive", so it appeared to be related to the closing problem after all.

Verifications (numerous times) found no error. Regular captures seem to be fine as well. I also successfully compacted it from the Actions window without opening the archive, but the action waited more than 10 min. before really doing anything.

A diag report has been filed.

Forgot to add (though you might have guessed): no other archive has the issue. This archive is not large (some others are much larger), currently taking up 7+GB, but it has the greatest number of layers (135 and counting), if that matters.

Ming-Li Wang wrote:Today when trying to open an archive from "File - Open Archive ..." dialog, it didn't work (it's been a while since I last opened the archive, so it's no longer on the recent archives list). Double clicking on the archive in Finder did work, but then it can't be closed, either by clicking on the window control button or with the "File - Close" command (or cmd-W, for that matter).

What exactly do you mean by "it didn't work"? Looking at the logs, I don't see anything that would indicate a problem opening the archive. Was the window just blank? Was it taking forever to display the layers? ... ?

Had to quit QR to close it. I've tried it several times with the same result.

Looking at the log, I did discover a bug that can occur when closing an archive (either to run a command or to close the window). That bug, inadvertently, left the shared read mode set for the archive, which is I think the cause of your later difficulties.

I even tried it once on another desktop (running the same beta version, but on Yosemite); same result.

Yes, once the archive has a stale lock on it, any QRecall process that tries to access it is going to get stuck.

The problem is not limited to opening and closing. I can't delete any item on it, nor can I remove any layer, merge layers, compact the archive or combine volumes. (The archive has two volumes of the same source directory after I installed El Capitan, so I want to combine them.) The action would appear to be starting, but would be "waiting for archive" to no end.

Be patient. Once an archive acquires an orphaned access lock, it take a while for QRecall to determine that the lock is stale and reset it. It does this automatically, but it takes about 10 minutes for QRecall assure itself that there are no other processes accessing the archive at a the same time.

After clicking "Stop" to cancel the action, there's an entry in the log that says "Problem encountered while closing archive", so it appeared to be related to the closing problem after all.

That's actually a message from the browser, and is related to the bug I mentioned earlier (which I just fixed).

Verifications (numerous times) found no error. Regular captures seem to be fine as well. I also successfully compacted it from the Actions window without opening the archive, but the action waited more than 10 min. before really doing anything.

I suspect all is well now. You waited the magic 10 minutes for QRecall to determine that it was safe to access the archive. Once it had, the access lock for the archive was reset and actions will now proceed normally.

James Bucanek wrote:What exactly do you mean by "it didn't work"? Looking at the logs, I don't see anything that would indicate a problem opening the archive. Was the window just blank? Was it taking forever to display the layers? ... ?

Sorry for not making it clear in the first place: by "it didn't work" I meant nothing happened after I double-clicked the archive in the "Open Archive..." dialog (or clicked the "Open" button after selecting the archive). The dialog would close and that's it. Nothing else happened.

Tried it a few times just now, and made sure to wait more than 15 min. for it. Still nothing. Had to double-click in the Finder to open in able to conduct the next test. If a stale lock is the cause, wouldn't it also prevent the archive from opening right away from Finder?

Be patient. Once an archive acquires an orphaned access lock, it take a while for QRecall to determine that the lock is stale and reset it. It does this automatically, but it takes about 10 minutes for QRecall assure itself that there are no other processes accessing the archive at a the same time.

OK, I tried to delete an item in the archive just now, and have been patiently waiting for it. More than 15 min. time has passed and QR is still "waiting for archive".

A different message did came up (replacing the "waiting for archive" message) for a split second, too short for me to read it as "waiting for archive" reappeared right away.

I suspect all is well now. You waited the magic 10 minutes for QRecall to determine that it was safe to access the archive. Once it had, the access lock for the archive was reset and actions will now proceed normally.

Unfortunately, no. I conducted several tests after the successful compact action last night before reporting. Did the same this morning.

While "waiting for archive" when trying to delete an item, an event-driven capture to the same archive was triggered. That action had to "wait for archive" as well, so I stopped the new (capture) action. That gave me an idea: after canceling the delete job and quitting QR to close everything, I reopened QR and made a manual capture from the Actions window. The capture waited about 5 min. before going into action. The is probably due to the stale lock you mentioned.

The next capture would go swiftly as usual, so the stale lock should have been cleared. Still can't open the archive from the "Open Archive..." dialog.

Ming-Li Wang wrote:Sorry for not making it clear in the first place: by "it didn't work" I meant nothing happened after I double-clicked the archive in the "Open Archive..." dialog (or clicked the "Open" button after selecting the archive). The dialog would close and that's it. Nothing else happened.

Tried it a few times just now, and made sure to wait more than 15 min. for it. Still nothing. Had to double-click in the Finder to open in able to conduct the next test.

Opening a document in QRecall (heck, practically every Cocoa app) via the open command vs. double-clicking a document in the Finder uses almost identical code; there are only tiny differences. So for one to work and the other not is profoundly strange.

If a stale lock is the cause, wouldn't it also prevent the archive from opening right away from Finder?

No, this has nothing to do with stale locks. (If it was a stale lock, you'd see a dialog that the archive was being modified.) What I do suspect is happening is that the archive browser window is failing to display for some reason, but the archive is still being opened. Then, as long as the QRecall app is running, this prevents other actions from modifying the archive—very much an active lock.

That gave me an idea: after canceling the delete job and quitting QR to close everything, I reopened QR and made a manual capture from the Actions window. The capture waited about 5 min. before going into action. The is probably due to the stale lock you mentioned.

That sort of confirms my suspicions that the failed attempt to open the archive earlier was keeping the archive locked for modifications. By quoting the QRecall app, the lock on the archive was abandoned, allowing the other actions to (eventually) break the lock and proceed.

Quick update: I think I found the problem with the archive window not opening. It's definitely a display problem and (as I suspected) occurs after the archive has been opened, but before the window is displayed.

Still trying to determine the underlaying cause, but at least I have a bead on it.

This should be fixed in 2.0.0b26 (just released).

James Bucanek wrote:This should be fixed in 2.0.0b26 (just released).

Indeed. Many thanks!