PhotoStructure is working on the initial scan of loads and loads of images.
It crashes several times a day, so I have to keep starting it to continue the syncing.
The error message is
ChildService(sync).onStdout(): ChildService(sync).onStdout() Failed to scan system volumes. 16
I have my entire PhotoStructure directory inside my Google Drive directory (which is continually backed up to the cloud), but I’m not sure if that has anything to do with the error.
Sorry about that! What OS are you on, and what build and version of PhotoStructure are you using?
OS: Windows 10
PS: 1.0.0-beta.9
Same issue here. 1.0.0-beta.9 on M1 Macbook.
While a previous release helped resolve one instance of this issue for me, it has since started happening again. In my case the error occurs right after the launcher finishes, leaving no opportunity for the main application to start.
It’s been around two weeks since it was able to successfully launch (though basic measures like restarting my computer would probably help in the short term if I really needed it). Since beta.10 is supposed to contain significant fixes in this area I’ve been patiently awaiting its release, but it seems like it’s taking longer than the last estimate given here on the forum. 
OH MAN. I’m sorry to hear that! I’m really trying to get beta.10 out today. If this build stays green, I can ship:
(again, apologies)
Thanks for the quick update. PhotoStructure updated itself to beta.11 now.
I realised I had the same issue as Zirro, PhotoStructure wouldn’t open at all (or crash after the loading screen, I’m not sure).
I’m trying to open PhotoStructure now, but it’s stuck on the loading screen.
Is it possible to check if the application is still working in the background or if it has crashed?
After opening PhotoStructure beta.11 and the loading screen disappears, I only get a blank window:
«Open in browser» or «Preferences» do not work either.
In any case, the screen shouldn’t be blank.
The easiest way to see what’s going on would be to restart it via a terminal with the --verbose switch. Something like
"C:\Program Files\PhotoStructure\PhotoStructure.exe" --verbose
Thanks. I ran photostructure.exe --verbose. It seems to try to start over and over, but failing every time (so I get only the blank PhotoStructure window).
Log from the terminal window attached:
photostructure-verbose.log (96.1 KB)
Here’s the smoking gun:
2021-07-15T15:20:19.363Z main-2132 warn Deferred(ping http://localhost:1787/ping) .reject() 'TIMEOUT: ping http://localhost:1787/ping after 25012ms'
2021-07-15T15:20:19.363Z main-2132 warn MainService webHealthCheck(): httping error: TIMEOUT: ping http://localhost:1787/ping after 25012ms
2021-07-15T15:20:19.363Z main-2132 info WatchedChild(web:4848) restart() { stopped: false, ended: false }
So the webservice can’t spin up in 25 seconds. Let’s see what the webservice is doing:
$ grep web-4848 /tmp/mozilla_mrm0/photostructure-verbose.log
2021-07-15T15:18:56.823Z web-4848 info Service(web) setup()
2021-07-15T15:18:56.845Z web-4848 info SettingsIO.importFileSettings(C:\Users\bjart\AppData\Roaming\PhotoStructure\settings.toml) loaded { tomlMap:
2021-07-15T15:18:56.917Z web-4848 info SettingsIO _libraryHasSettings { result: true,
2021-07-15T15:18:56.928Z web-4848 info SettingsIO.importFileSettings(D:\Google Drive\PhotoStructure\.photostructure\settings.toml) loaded { tomlMap: { requireMakeModel: true, reportErrors: true, syncIntervalHours: 6 },
2021-07-15T15:18:56.941Z web-4848 warn Sentry Failed to set up sentry { stack:
2021-07-15T15:18:56.947Z web-4848 info Service(web) setup() { version: '1.0.0-beta.11',
2021-07-15T15:18:56.951Z web-4848 info Library(D:\Google Drive\PhotoStructure) new()
2021-07-15T15:19:01.156Z web-4848 info PowerShell Started child process PowerShell:9772
2021-07-15T15:19:01.173Z web-4848 info PowerShell Started child process PowerShell:8324
2021-07-15T15:19:02.643Z web-4848 info Renice Renice pid 9772 to BelowNormal
2021-07-15T15:19:02.666Z web-4848 warn PowerShell execute() { result:
2021-07-15T15:19:02.668Z web-4848 info currentLibraryLockOwner(D:\Google Drive\PhotoStructure\.photostructure) currentLibraryLockOwner { result:
And then nothing: so it’s getting hung up on something. This is pretty early in the startup: we should have seen log entries for database and networking setup.
Is D: a healthy, local disk?
Sorry, I might have thrown you off a bit there. After a few more attempts, I got PS to start again, so the error where PS will not start at all just happened once.
But I keep getting different errors that cause PS to crash after it has been running for some hours.
The latest one is the one below, but I don’t think I have seen that one before. More often I see the error message from the beginning of this thread.
As I mentioned before I have my entire PS directory inside Google Drive (I have now switched to Dropbox, but I don’t think that makes any difference). In addition to that, the PS directory is backed up by a service called JottaCloud.
These sync/backup services complain once in a while that they cannot back up files from PS because the files are in use, so I suspect the reason PS crashes is the opposite, that the backup tools lock the files to upload them to the cloud.
Does that make sense?
Ah: yes, it absolutely matters.
Dropbox (and Google Drive and OneDrive) address trying to do bidirectional synchronization, which is frequently buggy.
I’d exclude your previews directory from synchronization and force-enable “db replica” mode.
More details here:
Thank you, I will try that!
I’m still struggling to keep PhotoStructure running long enough to scan all my images. It crashes at least once a day, so it’s annyoing to keep having to log into my server to start it up again. After running PS for some months now, it still hasn’t been able to completely scan all of my photos.
I’m now on PS stable version 1.1.0 on Windows 10, but I have been having the same issues since the beta versions, which are that after a few hours of scanning, PS crashes with the following error:
ChildService(sync).onStdout(): ChildService(sync).onStdout() Failed to scan system volumes. 16
I have set all backup software to exclude the PhotoStructure directories, as suggested above, and have moved PhotoStructure to another harddrive to rule out harddrive errors.
The PS library keeps getting bigger and bigger, so I’m certain that although PS crashes, it does scan and copy at least some images before each crash.
Thanks for the update, and sorry that you’re still fighting this! After I ship delete, I’ll see how I can make system scans more robust.