XLD freezing & sending drive offline when converting from FLAC to Apple Lossless on OSX 10.6.8 MacPro 2008

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Convert a group of FLAC files to Apple Lossless.

How about the reproducibility (always, sometimes, rarely, ...)?
About once every 4 or 5 occasions under the conditions suggested below. I've 
been doing a lot of identical conversions over the past 4 weeks. This frequency 
of this happening is considerably high.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I've been using XLD for 4 years. Only since the last XLD update have I been 
having this issue. Perhaps once every 4 occasions I am converting a group of 
FLAC files on my computer to Apple Lossless, XLD converts about half of them 
and then freezes. The drive the FLAC files are on then goes offline. Which of 
course requires me to totally power-off to get the drive up again. At first I 
had thought the issue might be the drive despite no problems when checking with 
Disk Utility, DiskWarrior or Drive Genius. I only just realised it does not 
matter which drive the files are on after it sent a different drive offline 
where the FLAC files were located on this occasion. I sense the problem is with 
the XLD FLAC to Apple Lossless conversion which XLD seems to occasionally have 
an issue with. (I convert to Apple Lossless so I can play in iTunes.)

I've been doing a lot of identical conversions over the past 4 weeks. The 
frequency of this happening is considerably high.

When this problem occurs, always at least some of the files are converted, and 
a few are sitting at 99.9%, and another 2 or 3 waiting.
I always drag & drop the files onto the XLD Dock icon. Output set to same as 
input. Maximum threads set to 4. Priority normal. Correct "30" samples moved 
-offset" problem. Apple Lossless set to same as original Bit-depth & 
sample-rate.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
XLD 20130720 (144.0)
MacPro 2008 2 x 3.2 GHz Quad Core
OSX 10.6.8
4 x 1 TB drives
16 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeoForece 8800 GT (512 MB VRAM, 32-bit Color))

Please provide any additional information below.
Only seems to have started happening with the last XLD update. I have not seen 
this happening when converting FLAC to LAME mp3. I have not done any other 
file-type conversions since the last XLD update.
I suspect the files stuck at 99.9% converted suggests something about problems 
with the validating & rechecking process, but that's for you people to discover 
if you can. :)

Original issue reported on code.google.com by lordking...@gmail.com on 18 Sep 2013 at 11:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Previous versions are available at http://code.google.com/p/xld/downloads/list ;
Could you check if it really only occurs with the latest version?

There was a person who reported the same issue, but he claimed re-installing 
the program fixed the issue.
http://code.google.com/p/xld/issues/detail?id=169

Original comment by tmkkmac on 18 Sep 2013 at 4:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I went back to Version 20130407 (143.0) and no problems at all. What's more, 
the conversions were quite noticeably a lot faster.

I converted 14 albums (all rare live) which would have been equivalent to about 
30 red book CD's.

The very first time XLD had the problem 3-4 weeks ago, I think out of about 18 
files, at least half were stuck at 99.9% which took my notice, that was just 
before it froze and took the drive offline. I guess other people might not 
notice this problem because they only have a system drive which cannot go 
offline (but can crash.)

So I suspect the issue is with a later version if not the last version released.

I said earlier I had only been converting FLAC to m4a or mp3. I forgot I did 
convert a shorten album to m4a also but without problem.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 18 Sep 2013 at 7:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

That's strange. I've tested with the version 20130407, but the conversion speed 
is almost the same with the latest version.
The last version I made an important change to the ALAC encoder is the version 
20130127.
http://code.google.com/p/xld/source/list?path=/trunk/XLDAlacOutput/XLDAlacOutput
Task.m&start=230

How about downloading and installing the latest version again?
How about using XLD with other user accounts or different machines?

Anyway, I cannot reproduce the problem at all. Are there any way to reproduce 
the issue? Does it happen only with the specific group of the FLAC files?

Original comment by tmkkmac on 19 Sep 2013 at 4:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I upgraded to most recent XLD as I originally had above. Used an alternative 
account for testing. Same result as originally. I realised XLD does not 
actually freeze, it simply gave that impression because several FLAC's stop at 
99.0 or 99.8% and another somewhere between zero & 100% stuck. I was about to 
take a snapshot of that when the drive dismounted (went offline). I was in 
process of expanding the size of the XLD window to show them. I had been 
processing about 20 or more FLAC's at the time and between 6-8 were in the 
frozen state, however only 5 showed the error in the end, most likely due to 
the drive dismounting. When this happens there's always some files not 100% 
converted which need to be trashed. (I cannot check this on this occasion until 
I power down the computer.)
XLD was set to default settings at the time, with 8 threads & no Correct "30" 
samples moved -offset".
Snapshot included (colors reduced to reduce file-size.)

Perhaps the problem is only my specific set-up, I don't know.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2013 at 10:40

Attachments:

• Screen-shot-2013-09-20-at-7.47B.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

BTW I run XLD from a partition set up for 3rd party apps, not from the OSX 
Applications folder. The OSX system drive is not partitioned. The drives that 
have dismounted are different drives to the partition or system drive.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2013 at 10:48

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The only other apps I had open: Safari, FireFox, Transmission (a torrent app), 
TextEdit, Tex-Edit Plus. Transmission, FireFox & Tex-Edit Plus run off a 
partition. Only other document open on the drive that went offline was a text 
file open in TextEdit.
3 drives are not partitioned (2 of these are the ones I usually do the flac 
conversions on). The one that is, has one for iTunes music, one for 3rd party 
apps, one for mostly static files, and one for an alternative start-up drive 
(previously used this for Windows but changed to a VM instead due to the 
unreliability of it.)

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2013 at 11:06

[GoogleCodeExporter]

You can see XLDAlacOutput.bundle and XLDFlacDecoder.bundle in 
XLD.app/Contents/PlugIns directory. You can replace the plugins in the 
directory.
How about
 - using the old XLDAlacOutput.bundle with the latest XLD
 - using the old XLDFlacDecoder.bundle with the latest XLD
?

Original comment by tmkkmac on 20 Sep 2013 at 4:34

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Must be something wrong with my eyesight. I didn't see you mention the other 
person with similar issue. I still have not down-powered the computer to get 
the drive back up (just about to), but replaced only the alacoutput module & 
all seems fine.

I guess I should really do a clean install & remove settings for the new 
version to see if the problem persists.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2013 at 7:01

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A fresh install did not work. For me at least seems I will need to revert to 
the older alacOutput module.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2013 at 7:27

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Here is XLDAlacOutput from XLD version 20130602

Does this work with the latest version?

Original comment by tmkkmac on 20 Sep 2013 at 7:58

Attachments:

• XLDAlacOutput.bundle.zip

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I did the equivalent of 31 red book cd's and no problem. So maybe the last 
release of the alac might have an issue? Seems that way for me at least.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2013 at 8:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

BTW I think these have all been 16 bit flac's not 24-bit but might be wrong.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2013 at 8:48

[GoogleCodeExporter]

How about these?
r207: reverted to the previous version and recompiled
r246: then updated to the latest version and recompiled

Original comment by tmkkmac on 20 Sep 2013 at 9:26

Attachments:

• XLDAlacOutput-r207.zip
• XLDAlacOutput-r246.zip

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Both those versions seem to be fine. Again tested 31 equivalent CD's.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2013 at 10:12

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hmm, then I cannot understand what is the problem. Anyway the next update will 
include the equivalent of XLDAlacOutput-r246.zip - so the problem will be away.

Original comment by tmkkmac on 20 Sep 2013 at 10:18

[GoogleCodeExporter]

How about this?

Original comment by tmkkmac on 20 Sep 2013 at 5:09

Attachments:

• XLDAlacOutput-r246-2.zip

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sorry for slow reply. This version also seems to work fine.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 23 Sep 2013 at 7:33

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hmm, the version in post #16 is exactly identical to the one included in the 
XLD version 20130720.
I'm very confused.

Original comment by tmkkmac on 23 Sep 2013 at 7:42

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It crossed my mind you might have been double-checking. I had no problems with 
it with the equivalent of about 20 cd's in a row I converted. And after seeing 
your reply checked about another 12 equivalent CD's without problem.

I don't care as long as the problem stops. I'm not that keen on rebooting my 
mac very often.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 23 Sep 2013 at 12:18

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Rebooting means closing down everything i"m doing which can be highly 
inconvenient. But then, a drive going offline can also be highly inconvenient 
if I'm working files on same drive. ;)

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 23 Sep 2013 at 12:20

[GoogleCodeExporter]

>It crossed my mind you might have been double-checking.

%md5 XLDAlacOutput.bundle/Contents/MacOS/XLDAlacOutput 
/Applications/XLD.app/Contents/PlugIns/XLDAlacOutput.bundle/Contents/MacOS/XLDAl
acOutput
MD5 (XLDAlacOutput.bundle/Contents/MacOS/XLDAlacOutput) = 
778a0d48190e24bf0b7edc863775c241
MD5 
(/Applications/XLD.app/Contents/PlugIns/XLDAlacOutput.bundle/Contents/MacOS/XLDA
lacOutput) = 778a0d48190e24bf0b7edc863775c241

Both MD5 checksums are the same. You can check it by yourself.

Original comment by tmkkmac on 23 Sep 2013 at 12:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Any comments? I'm going to release the new version with the plugin in #16.

Original comment by tmkkmac on 1 Nov 2013 at 10:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A week or two back was having same issue. I'm wondering if it's due to large 
queuing of files to convert. Converting a bunch of smallish or just 2-3 large 
ones & no issues. I'd rather do this than have my drive go offline. (I only use 
my system drive for the system, an approach I've used for dozen years or so.)

Not sure I should open a new ticket (I searched Shorten & this post was all 
that showed) but do have a different query.
XLD is able to convert 'some' shorten (SHN) files but not all. Works for some 
'unofficial live' albums but not others. Would you have any idea why?
Are there different Shorten variations about?
Attachment shows the error message I receive.
Note: If I choose the open as raw PCM it converts but is only distortion 
(white/pink noise) on playback.

Original comment by lordking...@gmail.com on 10 Feb 2014 at 12:34

Attachments:

• [Screen shot 2014-02-09 Shorten open issue.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/xld/issue-202/comment-23/Screen shot 2014-02-09 Shorten open issue.png)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 285 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by tmkkmac on 18 Oct 2014 at 3:58