Error on import

[MikeyTsi]

When attempting to import books I'm now getting the following error:

calibre, version 2.66.0
ERROR: Critical failure: The read metadata worker process crashed while processing some files. Adding of books is aborted. Click "Show details" to see which files caused the problem.

It doesn't seem to matter what book I'm trying to import.

Any ideas?

[kovidgoyal]

Worker process crashes are usually caused by overly aggressive antivirus software. Try turning it off and see if it fixes the crash.

Another thing to check is disable any third party plugins like the DRM removal plugin if you have it installed in calibre.

[MikeyTsi]

The only user plugin I have installed is ComicVine, the rest of them are provided packages and the ones that list DRM appear to be ones that provide DRM-Free ebooks.

My AV is AVG and has never given any problems before; I disabled all of the protection settings though and I'm still having the same error.

I'll do some more testing and see if I can figure anything out.

[MikeyTsi]

Also seeing this error:

calibre, version 2.66.0
ERROR: Cannot add books: Failed to add some books, click "Show details" for more information.

Worker process crashed while executing job
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\pool.py", line 103, in recv
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\__init__.py", line 21, in eintr_retry_call
EOFError

[kovidgoyal]

That's the same thing. A worker process is being killed.

[MikeyTsi]

Okay, that doesn't really tell me what's going on though; I've been using the same AV solution for years, and haven't changed my Calibre config in a meaningful way in quite a long time either.

Is there a debugging mode or something that might give more useful information?

[eschwartz]

`calibre-debug.exe -g` runs calibre in debug mode (or the Preferences dropdown has an option to restart in debug mode).

But that won't tell you what other programs are doing.

[MikeyTsi]

Well, that was no help:

calibre 2.66 [64bit] embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-8-6.2.9200 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '8', '6.2.9200')
Python 2.7.9
Windows: ('8', '6.2.9200', '', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Fantastic Fiction Adults (1, 0, 4) && Goodreads (1, 1, 11) && Comicvine (0, 10, 6) && Fantastic Fiction (1, 1, 6) && FictionDB (1, 0, 10) && Barnes & Noble (1, 2, 13)
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 144.0 x 144.0
physicalDpi: 216.0 x 216.426035503
Starting up...
Started up in 15.05 seconds with 66348 books

Doesn't list anything for the error.

So far I have:
Updated to 2.66 (from 2.55)
Ran a library check/scan
Disabled AVG services
Disconnected from the internet, uninstalled AVG.
Redirected to a different folder to create a new library.
Tried importing from a clean source.

I could do a process and/or service dump, but I'm not sure how much use that would be.

[eschwartz]

I did say it wouldn't be useful in this case.

A process dump might help diagnose the issue (they have a lot more information), you could also try Windows Safe Mode and selectively enable services/startup programs until you find what is causing it.

[MikeyTsi]

It's odd, I haven't installed any new apps on this system since that last time it worked; it's literally been just updates to existing apps, AVG, and the OS.

I'll grab a process dump soon.

[BetterRed]

@MikeyTsi - if not already done try the following,

• install the portable version of calibre and do a simple test on its default library,
• revert back to 2.55, you'll need to uninstall 2.66 via the CP, but you wont lose libraries or config data, old versions are here ==>>Previous calibre releases
• create a dedicated folder for calibre's temporary files - e.g. C:\!CalTemp, and point the CALIBRE_TEMP_DIR environment variable at that folder, see Environment variables

BR

[MikeyTsi]

Well, the portable install works fine.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MikeyTsi

Well, the portable install works fine.

That suggests it may be something in the calibre configuration directory - but I can't imagine what.

Try renaming your configuration folder to something like calibreold and then run the installed version of calibre, it will run the welcome wizard and you may have to tell it where your library is located

See if you can import books

To locate the config folder ==> in main GUI program (library manager) go to Preferences->Miscellaneous and click Open configuration directory

I'm going offline for a couple of hours

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

That suggests it may be something in the calibre configuration directory - but I can't imagine what.

Much more likely, it means that whatever is nuking worker processes does not like 64bit worker processes but is fine with 32bit ones.

[MikeyTsi]

Renaming config directory doesn't fix anything.

What's my next step here? Is there something that'll generate a useful log for you to find out why the processes are crashing?