Hello!
First of all, I LOVE Dorico. I can’t even think about going back to Finale anymore. But starting with about v.3.5 and persisting into v.4.3, if I leave Dorico alone for a few hours to a few days (sometimes real life gets in the way of my musical output. boooo), it will crash when I try to start working on the same open file, or it will crash when I try to open another file. Usually I can restart Dorico and start working again, but once in a bit, I have to reboot my laptop completely.
I tried adding the diagnostics zip from this morning’s crash, but it says the file is too big.
We need the diagnostics report, especially the contained Crashes folder. So could you please unzip the diagnostics zip and then zip up the contained 4 folders individually again? With that they should be small enough to get uploaded here.
Thank you very much.
Hi Adam, thanks for the data.
Contained is only one Dorico crash file, but it has a stack trace that we have seen before. It’s not a crash in our code but in the Qt framework where Dorico sits on top, so to speak.
One of our engineers suggests in this case following:
" The qmlcache is stored in the Application Data folder, on the Mac in ~/Library/Caches/Steinberg/Dorico/qmlcache/ and on Windows in C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Steinberg\Dorico\cache\qmlcache, unless overridden with the QML_DISK_CACHE_PATH environment variable.
So a few things to try:
Delete the QML cache in the above location.
Check if the above environment variable is set.
Try disabling the cache altogether by setting QML_DISABLE_DISK_CACHE to 1 in the environment variables.”
I don’t know your IT skills, do you think you know what needs to be done exactly, or do you need assistance? Please speak up if you need help.
It’s late in Europe where Ulf lives. so I’ll take a quick stab to maybe get you going. He said environment variable so it’s not in the registry. Does that mean you are using Windows? You should be able to type: “environment variables”in Window’s search, and it should bring you to the system properties dialog, on the advance tab, with a big button for environment variables. Click that, and If you see the one he mentioned in the list great - else click the add button to enter what he mentioned. Restart, and check again that it is still there after a restart.
This has now happened twice to me (not contiguous crashes).
I leave the program up over night and in the morning, when I try to save an edit, it crashes (infinite spin disk). I’m attaching spindumps and the diagnostic report.
One could always turn the program off before bedtime and then turn it back on while one eats breakfast. I’ve used computers for a long time and would never leave a program on when the computer might go to sleep.
Chances are the Audio Engine is turning off during the night, which would cause problems for the program in the morning.
Your computer hygiene suggestion is noted. But your post isn’t really very helpful. I have left Dorico running for sometimes days at a time without a problem and have had this issue only twice. I think it’s something the team might want to look into. If they don’t, well, that’s fine too. I can live with an occasional crash.
Hi @Derrek, actually no. The Audio Engine is actually the one that keeps your computer alive no matter how long you run it. The reason is, it inherited huge parts of the Cubase Audio Engine, and during a long recording session you don’t want your computer to fall asleep, just because there is no user interaction any more. Therefore the Audio Engine keeps the computer alive as long as it is executing.
I have the same issue on my main computer (M1 Studio Ultra): leaving Dorico alone for a couple of hours / over night freezes Dorico. If I restart Dorico it hangs at the “Wait for Audio engine initialization”. I can get it to load only after restarting the computer.
Now I got a Macbook Pro M2 for mobile work and Dorico doesn’t freeze for days.
I’ll try to investigate what causes the freeze on my studio Mac.
@Saxer, please do Help > Create Diagnostic Report and upload the resulting zip file so we can take a look at it. I imagine the audio engine has either hung or crashed. The diagnostics will give us the start of a clue as to what might be going on so we can investigate further.