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Level 1

8 points

Compressor 4.1.1 fails to Cancel a batch process

I sent a bacth of 6 files from FCP X 10.1.1 to Compressor using a Custom Setting to transcode Apple ProRes 422 1920 x 1080 to x264 640 x 480. The first file failed showing "FAILED: 3x crash service down" in the status column. I attempted to cancel the entire group of files and today, after nearly 24 hours, the status of the projects remains "Canceling". I've run through the normal troubleshooting, but nothing seems to work. (ie. restarting the computer, restting permissions, etc.)

Grateful for any advise!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Feb 28, 2014 9:55 AM

Best reply

AnonimaKontonWTF

Level 1

100 points

Posted on Feb 28, 2014 9:42 PM

I assume Compressor > Preferences > Advanced > Reset Queue (cancel jobs) isn't working? I have found a couple of ways to canel stubborn batches. Easiest way would be to remove ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor/Storage and ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor/History, then restart.

If you want to preserve your history and settings, like most people, you can delete ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor/Storage, then go into ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor/History and delete the one that is giving you the problem. Most likely the last one. Then you can either restart or kill all Compressor processes (ex: "for pid in `ps -ax | grep -i compressor | awk '{print $1}'`; do kill -9 $pid; done"). If you dont know how to use terminal, just restart. As always YMMV, but either method should work.

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32 replies

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Mar 3, 2014 9:51 AM in response to Hogrider03

Hogrider03 wrote:

So it appears that Apple, in one of their recent OS updates, has determined that Users can't be trusted with access to the ~ /Library folder.

This has been the case since version 10.7 (Lion), which was released in July 2011. The method of accessing the Home library since then has remained the same.

Russ

Mar 3, 2014 10:11 AM in response to Hogrider03

Well, that would explain it. I normally use Terminal for these kinds of things, and when I use Finder I do Command-Shift-G and enter the path like ~/Library/yada/yada. It is annoying that Apple hides the Library folder in Finder, but thats one item on a long list of annoying Finder stuff.

Out of curiosity, you said you had an Apple Qmaster folder...where you talking about the one in /Library or /Users/Shared/Library?

Hogrider03 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 3, 2014 11:08 AM in response to AnonimaKontonWTF

This is where it gets interesting (or should I say confusing)... Once I located the User Library I found an Apple Qmaster folder in both locations - the one in the User Library/Application Support was empty and the one in the shared library had all the files in it. I followed the suggestions above.

Two subsequent tests of simple transcode tasks using a custom setting failed as previously noted (Failed: 3x...) .

In frustartion, I shut everything down. Rebooted and tried again with the same result. Now I'm testing a transcode using the "HD 720p" built-in setting. It uses the H.264 multipass codec.

Back to your question about the Qmaster folder: It's gone in both Library/Application Support locations now.

Hogrider03 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 3, 2014 11:17 AM in response to Hogrider03

So using the built-in setting produced a successful transcode. Has anyone had issues with Custom Settings?

Mar 3, 2014 11:23 AM in response to Hogrider03

What is the failure message? You can find the logs in ~/Library/Logs/Compressor. You can use the Console app to view, and you should be able to see them without doing anything special. The jobcontroller log should have the full message.

Hogrider03...All I use is custom settings and I dont have any problems.

Hogrider03 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 3, 2014 11:38 AM in response to AnonimaKontonWTF

Thank you for hanging in with me on this... This is deeper than I've had to dive into the system so your patience is appreciated.

The Jobcontroller log is fairly lenghty as you might expect. Here are the top (I assume most recent) entries in that log:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

Mar 3, 2014 12:03 PM in response to Hogrider03

I delete the previous info because I misread your log. Are you are using the open source x.264 codec? If you are, try with the normal QuickTime codecs. If the problem is just with x.264, that would be better for another thread.

Hogrider03 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 3, 2014 12:13 PM in response to AnonimaKontonWTF

This MacBook Pro has never been set up to allow other computers to process batches. The Compressor Preferences settings show this option as OFF. Looking at the Shared Computers options lists only "This Computer" and there are no other computers on the network.

Also, I haven't taken the step of reinsatlling Compressor yet. That was a last resort threat if you know what I mean.

The Log data is nearly incomprehensible to me as I don't know what most of it means. This entry at the very bottom of the log seems to apply to the last test which did produce a successful transcode:

Mar 3, 2014 12:22 PM in response to Hogrider03

Yeha, my bad. I updated my post when I reread the log, but I guess you already saw it.

Hogrider03 wrote:

This MacBook Pro has never been set up to allow other computers to process batches. The Compressor Preferences settings show this option as OFF. Looking at the Shared Computers options lists only "This Computer" and there are no other computers on the network.

Also, I haven't taken the step of reinsatlling Compressor yet. That was a last resort threat if you know what I mean.

The Log data is nearly incomprehensible to me as I don't know what most of it means. This entry at the very bottom of the log seems to apply to the last test which did produce a successful transcode:

<log tms="415563853.993" tmt="03/03/2014 12:24:13.993" pid="359" lvl="2" msg="Handling exception: batch = Cara Leigh Ingram R1.mov, job = Cara Leigh Ingram R1.mov, target = Cara Leigh Ingram R1-640 x 360 TC.mov, segment = Cara Leigh Ingram R1-640 x 360 TC.mov, host = Rod'sMBP.local, exception = service down, fail count = 3. There are 0 hosts which haven't failed this request yet."/>

<log tms="415563853.995" tmt="03/03/2014 12:24:13.995" pid="359" msg="Stopping the failed request."/>

That is actually failure. You can look at the completed times in Compressor's Completed tab and match the timestamps. Its not 12:24 yet on the Pacific coast, so its probably for an earlier batch.

Hogrider03 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 3, 2014 12:43 PM in response to AnonimaKontonWTF

We're on Central Time (Dallas) here so currently 14:36.

My most recent test using one of my Custom Settings also failed. So far, I'm learning a lot more about Compressor than I thought I needed to know (problems that never appeared before the 4.1.1 update by the way). But most recent log entries show basically the same info and I'm still not able to produce a simple transcode using my custom settings which are pretty basic.

I'm simply trying to produce a copy of a Master movie that is 1920 x 1080p in ProRes 422 transcoded to 640 x 360 with a Timecode burn using either H.264 or x.264 codec.

Mar 3, 2014 1:04 PM in response to Hogrider03

Lets put a pin in x264 for now. Do you get the error using the built-in settings? Like say Video Sharing Services > Small, or duplicate a setting and make some changes. Can you describe how you created your H.264 setting? And if it fails again, post the log again. Just trying to see if its a universal issue or specific to a particular type of setting.

Hogrider03 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 3, 2014 1:38 PM in response to AnonimaKontonWTF

Yes, I understand. The built-in setting workd as expected.

Abandoning the existing Custom Settings I've been using, I tried creating a new setting using the + "Add New Setting" at the lower left of the dispaly following the standard procedure:

1. Select "Format > Quicktime Movie"

2. Name the new setting

3. Describe new setting

4. Click OK

Choose setting from Custom List (if necessary) and configure using the setting inspector options.

Having done this, the transcodes seem to be working and pretty quickly by comparrison.

I'm going to delete and recreate my custom settings. These existing ones were carried foward from the earlier versions of Compressor (FCP Studio Pro) and must be incompatible with Compressor 4.1.1

AnonimaKontonWTF your advise and patience are grately appreciated!!

May 12, 2014 11:17 PM in response to Warwick Teale

Shei shei @Warwick, you saved the day.

The issue for me was no write permission on /Users/Shared/Library/Application\ Support. This is what got the batch stalled in the first place. Fixed with sudo chmod 777 .

Thanks also for the tip on /var/spool. Removing /var/spool/qmaster contents got rid of the stalled batch.

Works great now...

Eric

RemekTek

Level 1

8 points

May 28, 2014 8:10 PM in response to EricNelson

I am a beginner, soforgive me for stupid question, but I was wondering if you guys have been able to use Compressor in Batch using more than one Mac? I have Compressor 4.1.1 and Mavericks 10.9.3 installed on two Macs on my desk. I followed the instructions and have defined a Group and enabled sharing, etc. but the job never gets picked up on the remote Mac.

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.

Jun 6, 2014 7:22 AM in response to Warwick Teale

@Warwick thank you... this solved my problem exactly. The root cause was a permissions issue, so now I don't get the "fails to cancel" behavior unless Compressor crashes.

Compressor 4.1.1 fails to Cancel a batch process