What does the white loading bar beneath transport mean?

[Maestro777]

I have 1 project that simply crashes after a few minutes of running any cycled section. Very random problem that I can't narrow down to any set of actions prior to occurring. But what I have noticed about this project is a white and sometimes blue progress indicator that appears to be indicating some loading task happening in the background.

I don't have any frozen VST's or other tracks in this project so trying to figure out what this indicator means as it may help me identify the reason for the periodic random crashes.

Here's a short video showing the bar loading beneath my transport bar. I've seen this go on for up to a minute though it doesn't prohibit me from working. Also getting immediate System Overload messages but I just click ok on them and continue working b/c I've already manipulated every possible setting to alleviate it and have just accepted it as a necessary nuisance. But hopefully understanding what that white bar means may help fix the issues

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Maestro777

[Atlas007]

A blue progression bar manifests itself when Logic is downloading content. I don’t recall such a white one like in your video. Perhaps it’s related to some other loading process as you hinted…

[Maestro777]

TY @Atlas007

Yes, it is definitely doing some background task and if I knew what it was I think I could begin a course of resolve. I have many other projects and this one is the ONLY one that exhibits this behavior. A lot of weirdness going on with this one.

I am considering to import it into a fresh project to see if it will alleviate what I'm seeing but I am too close to a release and don't want to start troubleshooting a critical piece of work in progress at the 11th hour.

[Atlas007]

Just now, Maestro777 said:

I am considering to import it into a fresh project to see if it will alleviate what I'm seeing but I am too close to a release and don't want to start troubleshooting a critical piece of work in progress at the 11th hour.

That would be the wise thing to do before/if the situation worsen… You would at least have then a plan B, if the worse happen at 11h30…

Do you have plugins that aren’t active or only loads when the track is activated?

Are you using Sampler? Perhaps it has to do with its virtual memory setting?

 

[JakobP]

Have you tried clicking the white progress bar ? Iirc, you get a popup of some sort clicking on the blue one. Maybe that could give you some clues...

[David Nahmani]

2 hours ago, Atlas007 said:

A blue progression bar manifests itself when Logic is downloading content. I don’t recall such a white one like in your video. Perhaps it’s related to some other loading process as you hinted…

Same here, normally a blue progress bar is an action in progress (downloading media, creating waveform overviews, indexing the loop browser, etc...) and an orange progress bar is an action that was paused. I've never seen a white line. 

[des99]

Same.

Curious!

[fisherking]

never saw a white line there (only on mirrors, or in small glass containers...) 🤔

[lookatthisguy]

Perhaps the white line is the same as a blue line, if accessibility settings are set to boost contrast or something similar?

[David Nahmani]

Well in any case, as @JakobP pointed out, clicking that progress bar should produce a pop-up that will give more information: 

[Maestro777]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions. Taking @JakobP suggestion I managed to catch it while it was doing the progress thing (it moves pretty fast though it takes so long to complete) and got this popup for one of them:

Searching a bit on that I found a lot of similar woes about it but I don't understand what is so special about this particular project over the others that don't have the issue or behavior?

Is there a way to still this from happening everytime I load the project? I see the checkbox option so it would seem there is a setting somewhere that can turn it off or adjust the behavior.

All my projects are on a very fast SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2 drive so I don't get it. Why the need to create the overview for what appears to be only a few files of the many that it uses.

I'm pretty certain this is contributing to the random system overloads and crashes.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Maestro777

[des99]

Uncheck faster calculation, and it’s given a low priority.

Are there a lot of audio files in the project?

[Maestro777]

@des99 yes there are a lot of audio files in this project. Is there a single place to uncheck the faster calculation option other than on the popup? If not, that would mean catching each popup to uncheck the option. Has to be another way, right?

[JakobP]

46 minutes ago, Maestro777 said:

All my projects are on a very fast SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2 drive so I don't get it.

Just to make sure; you formatted it to APFS, right ?

Edited January 22, 2023 by JakobP

[Maestro777]

Yep, all my drives are APFS

[JakobP]

How is it connected to your mac ?

[Maestro777]

Drive is in a Trebleet T3 Mini Dock with cable direct from that to the iMac Pro

[des99]

1 hour ago, Maestro777 said:

If not, that would mean catching each popup to uncheck the option.

You should only need to do it once, it applies globally.

[fisherking]

1 hour ago, Maestro777 said:

Thanks for the responses and suggestions. Taking @JakobP suggestion I managed to catch it while it was doing the progress thing (it moves pretty fast though it takes so long to complete) and got this popup for one of them:

Searching a bit on that I found a lot of similar woes about it but I don't understand what is so special about this particular project over the others that don't have the issue or behavior?

Is there a way to still this from happening everytime I load the project? I see the checkbox option so it would seem there is a setting somewhere that can turn it off or adjust the behavior.

All my projects are on a very fast SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2 drive so I don't get it. Why the need to create the overview for what appears to be only a few files of the many that it uses.

I'm pretty certain this is contributing to the random system overloads and crashes. 

did you import files at a different bit rate from the project rate? (ie 48k into 44)? or did you use a lot of flex editing?

[Maestro777]

12 minutes ago, fisherking said:

did you import files at a different bit rate from the project rate? (ie 48k into 44)? or did you use a lot of flex editing?

 

This project was created from audio files from a Cubase project but on importing the files I designated that the Project adapt the tempo of the imported audio and also that the Project be changed to match the import which is 44KHz.

A track or 2 with flex editing but has since been bounced and flex off b/c I use Melodyne as well and can’t have both ARA and flex used at the same time so I always bounce flex edits and turn it off to avoid those types of issues.

So I’m getting impression that there is no way to control that creating overview feature?

 

[des99]

Can’t you just let it finish, then it should not happen anymore?

Or are you saying that you let it finish, but next time you reload the project it happens again?

[Maestro777]

7 minutes ago, des99 said:

Can’t you just let it finish, then it should not happen anymore?

Or are you saying that you let it finish, but next time you reload the project it happens again?

 

Every time I load this project it repeats creating those overviews, then at some point it crashes for no apparent reason (e.g. a click on an automation point, moving of a region or any type of action). Causing me to reload from a crashed session, opt for the auto-saved version and then the Creating Overviews stuff all over again.

Like rinse and repeat 😅

 

[des99]

Ok, then it sounds like your project is corrupted, if it's that fragile.

The overviews should only need to be made once, then they are saved with the audio files, and shouldn't need to be done again. Try loading the project, let it build the overviews - don't do anything else. When the activity stops, save the project and quit.

Don't let any other app or system utility modify the audio files, just in case you have something on your system or some process doing something.

Now reload Logic, and the same project - do the overviews get updated again? If they do, that suggests they aren't being saved, which leads me to permissions, or project corruption possibly.

[Maestro777]

51 minutes ago, des99 said:

Ok, then it sounds like your project is corrupted, if it's that fragile.

The overviews should only need to be made once, then they are saved with the audio files, and shouldn't need to be done again. ....do the overviews get updated again? If they do, that suggests they aren't being saved, which leads me to permissions, or project corruption possibly.

Ok, I'll do as you have suggested. But regarding the latter part of your response, if it is a permissions issues; how would you suggested that be fixed? IDK how that would even happen though

[des99]

9 minutes ago, Maestro777 said:

if it is a permissions issues; how would you suggested that be fixed?

That would depend on what the permissions issue is...

You should first check all the obvious stuff, like making sure Logic has full disk access in Security, and check the folders and file permissions in Finder and making sure the system, and your user account, has read/write permissions on all necessary items.

10 minutes ago, Maestro777 said:

IDK how that would even happen though

What happens on other people's computers is not something I can guess about on, really. I can spend two pages speculating on things that could *potentially* happen, but I'd rather spend the effort finding and fixing the problem, rather than documenting all the things that could have happened on someone's computer...

[Maestro777]

Update @des99. I saved the project and followed through as suggested and the issue persists. Still get the overviews being created. I'll do some digging on my own for examining the security access settings and etc. to see if I can't find the "dirty little rat" in my system causing me woes; but at least I've got a better idea where to start.

Still I think it extremely odd that this one project out of so many on the same drive has issues with access. Worse case, I will import this project into another after I've completed bouncing the final audio out.

Speaking of which, I noted an "add" folder added into this project. I wonder if importing one project into a new blank project would trigger this to happen?

Thanks

[des99]

All things worth trying to eliminate the possibilities, for sure. It could well be a corruption issue with this project, if you only see it there, rather than a system issue, so chasing the system down might be a red herring...

[Dynamic_Notes]

Mine has always been blue when I download something from Apple but today I saw that white line very briefly when I dragged an mp3 directly into the Project file browser. It definitely wasn't blue.

[Atlas007]

You mentioned shout Melodyne. Which version?

Have you tried removing it from your project?

[Maestro777]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:34 AM, des99 said:

You should only need to do it once, it applies globally.

Thanks, I did figure that out.