CTivo hanging on start

[clclementsj]

I force quit cTivo after a freeze on my Intel Mac Mini running cTivo v3.5. Now, every time I start the app it just beachballs at updating TiVos with no content in the upper panel.

I’ve performed the following, with no resolution:

• Deleted and reinstalled v3.5

• Dragged to the trash, emptied trash, and reinstalled v3.5

• Deleted, purged all files in /Library and ~/Library containing “ctivo” and reinstalled v3.5

• Deleted, purged all files in /Library and ~/Library containing “ctivo” and reinstalled older v3.4

• Performed each of the steps above, but with a reboot after the deinstallation, before reinstallation

Any ideas as to how to resolve this or start again with an actual clean deinstall / reinstall?

[mackworth]

To be precise, by beach-balling, do you mean the rainbow-colored, "spinning wheel of death" cursor, or the grey spinning circle indicating that it's not finding any TiVos?

If the latter, have you tried rebooting the TiVo, and/or using DNS Discovery to find out if your Mac can "see" your TiVo? (actually those two steps would be good anyways)

And I take it that it worked previously? (3.4 and/or 3.5?)

[clclementsj]

LOL It’s the former; the rainbow colored spinning wheel of death. The menus all display that icon and there’s no way to stop the app other than Force Quit. I did allow it to run for a long time, at which time the OS complained that all memory had been exhausted. I installed cTivo on two other Macs and it’s running fine there, accessing the same TiVo Bolt as the problem child, and downloading/encoding content on both. So, the TiVo itself seems to be fine. Yes, it’s been working perfectly up until now, which is the frustrating part. I just wish I could find out what’s being left behind after the uninstall.

…

-- Charles Clements

On Mar 29, 2022, 2:10 PM -0400, Hugh Mackworth ***@***.***>, wrote: To be precise, by beach-balling, do you mean the rainbow-colored, "spinning wheel of death" cursor, or the grey spinning circle indicating that it's not finding any TiVos? If the latter, have you tried rebooting the TiVo, and/or using DNS Discovery to find out if your Mac can "see" your TiVo? (actually those two steps would be good anyways) And I take it that it worked previously? (3.4 and/or 3.5?) — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mackworth]

So, there's nothing else.
AFAIK, cTiVo has
the app itself
wherever you store your videos (e.g. ~/Movies/TiVoShows)
temp downloads in your temp directory (see AdvPrefs, but default is /var/folders/... )
and support folders in ~/Library:
/Preferences/com.CtiVo.cTiVo.plist (Main one to check)
/Caches/com.CtiVo.cTiVo (images and info downloaded from TiVo and theTVDB)
/Logs/ctivo
/Application Support/com.CtiVo.cTiVo (crash reporting)

You might also have these:
/Application Scripts/com.CtiVo.cTiVo (only if you have a post-download script)
/Containers/...ctivo (used by the older sandboxed version)
I also see a HTTPStorages/com.cTiVo.cTiVo folder, whichI guess is used for http caching

The key one would be the preferences, which if trashed can do just about anything. It's problematic due to the caching the system does, but you already did the "delete and reboot" that ensures that it doesn't reuse the same folder.

if you want to launch it with Control-Option key held down, it will generate maximum logging. Unfortunately with a infinite loop, some logging may not happen, but it might give me a call what's going on.

Have you tried launching it from a guest user account to confirm that there's something left in your System folder that's causing the problem?

[mackworth]

Any luck?

[clclementsj]

Hello there, My apologies for the late reply; I'm in the midst of packing to move to another state and it's been pretty crazy in my home. Good news! After trashing the app, manually purging all of the directories you listed below (I had them all except for /Application Support/com.CtiVo.cTiVo), and reinstalling the app it's working now. One thing I immediately noticed this round that didn't happen before was that the first launch of the app prompted for the Media Access Key. After entering that, it scanned for and found my two Bolts and showed the content from each. I'm eternally grateful!

…

-- Charles Clements

On Mar 29, 2022, 5:39 PM -0400, Hugh Mackworth ***@***.***>, wrote: So, there's nothing else. AFAIK, cTiVo has the app itself wherever you store your videos (e.g. ~/Movies/TiVoShows) temp downloads in your temp directory (see AdvPrefs, but default is /var/folders/... ) and support folders in ~/Library: /Preferences/com.CtiVo.cTiVo.plist (Main one to check) /Caches/com.CtiVo.cTiVo (images and info downloaded from TiVo and theTVDB) /Logs/ctivo /Application Support/com.CtiVo.cTiVo (crash reporting) You might also have these: /Application Scripts/com.CtiVo.cTiVo (only if you have a post-download script) /Containers/...ctivo (used by the older sandboxed version) I also see a HTTPStorages/com.cTiVo.cTiVo folder, whichI guess is used for http caching The key one would be the preferences, which if trashed can do just about anything. It's problematic due to the caching the system does, but you already did the "delete and reboot" that ensures that it doesn't reuse the same folder. if you want to launch it with Control-Option key held down, it will generate maximum logging. Unfortunately with a infinite loop, some logging may not happen, but it might give me a call what's going on. Have you tried launching it from a guest user account to confirm that there's something left in your System folder that's causing the problem? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mackworth]

No problem; glad it worked!

So that's a sign that the Preferences file was never "really" gone. (That's where the MAK is stored.) Not surprising, as MacOS tries really hard to keep it around through caching. For anyone reading the thread in the future, one trick is to type "defaults delete com.ctivo.ctivo" in Terminal, which should erase all preferences. Alternatively one can confirm deletion with "defaults read com.ctivo.ctivo", which will show all the keys available.