[Mac] calibre quits after doing anything. How to recover?

[tomsem]

calibre 6.2.1 running on iMac 27" (2020), macOS 12.5

To make a long story shorter, I added a book that seemed to have some metadata calibre didn't like, and now maybe metadata.db is corrupt. I tried Restore database (it crashed after doing it), but problem persists. I managed to remove the apparently offending book.

Now I cannot do anything after launching without it crashing. Including Restore database, Convert ePub->ePub, edit metadata. I'm not even sure if metadata corruption is the issue any more.

I was getting similar error in Crash Report, but now don't even get those. Poof!

Launching from command line, I'm getting segmentation fault:

Last login: Mon Aug 1 15:51:18 on ttys003
/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre ; exit;
(base) ➜ ~ /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre ; exit;
[1] 1998 segmentation fault /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre

Saving session...completed.

[Process completed]

The Crash Reports from before have similar error.

Is there some command line option to trigger some logging?

[tomsem]

I discovered calibre-debug --gui, but it's not giving any new information, other than I'm getting Crash Report (attached).

[kovidgoyal]

Go to console.app and get the proper crash report for calibre and post that.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Go to console.app and get the proper crash report for calibre and post that.

This is what I did for the post above (had to rename the extension to upload).

Basically it crashes whenever I try to leave a dialog (Cancel or OK).

Things that process in background (copy to device etc.) work.

And the CLI still works.

[kovidgoyal]

I doubt it has anything to do with the database, but you can simply rename metadata.db to check. If its crashing there has to be a crash report somewhere unless your system is experiencing bigger problems.

[tomsem]

This was CR from earlier today.

But since then I'm only getting them when running calibre-debug. Otherwise it just quits instantly without generating one.

I did experiment with moving metadata.db but it didn't help.

I ran First Aid on the SSD volumes and it didn't report any problems.

I tried installing new calibre.app (after renaming original calibre.app), problem is still happening.

Maybe a system file is out of whack? I'll try reinstalling macOS.

[kovidgoyal]

Run it in a terminal as

/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre

and the run

echo $?

to get the exit code and see if anything is printed about why it quit.

[tomsem]

Reinstalling macOS did not help. However, getting CRs again.

Exit code is 139. 'segmentation fault' as always.

(base) ➜ Downloads /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre
[1] 1927 segmentation fault /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre
(base) ➜ Downloads echo $?
139
(base) ➜ Downloads

[kovidgoyal]

I'm going to need a backtrace to be able to say more about the cause. Another thing you can try is renaming ~/Library/Preferences/calibre and ~/Library/Caches/calibre which will cause calibre to start as though on a fresh system

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I'm going to need a backtrace to be able to say more about the cause. Another thing you can try is renaming ~/Library/Preferences/calibre and ~/Library/Caches/calibre which will cause calibre to start as though on a fresh system

Yes, I was wondering how to do that.

Latest CR attached

[JSWolf]

You could also try running Calibre with no plugins active. From a CLI/terminal window use the following command.

Calibre --ignore-plugins

[tomsem]

I renamed Caches and Preferences folders, went through first use, and it crashed immediately. I tried using current db location, and a new one, with the same result. I don't see anything new in the CRs, but am attaching the latest of those.

So, not a database issue.

I tried 6.1.0 and it also crashes, so it seems like a system thing.

I grabbed the list of Open Files and Ports and eliminated everything in calibre.app (attached). I don't know if this gives us any clues about what else might be causing trouble. Deleting the 'saved state' folder didn't help any, but thought it worth a try.

We do have a couple of M1 Macs (one I haven't set up yet). I guess this is as good an excuse to do so, and at least I would have a backup system ready to go (not that I have any reason to think anything's wrong with this one, other than this very strange issue with calibre).

At any rate, CLI still works great. Who needs a GUI?

Thank you!

[tomsem]

And yes all works fine on the M1 MacBook Air against the same metadata.db, more evidence, if any was needed, that it is okay.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You could also try running Calibre with no plugins active. From a CLI/terminal window use the following command.

Calibre --ignore-plugins

No change, still crashes when leaving most dialogs (e.g. Preferences, Metadata) with one of the buttons (Cancel/OK).

However, if I use the system UI close (little red X in upper left) it doesn't crash. But that doesn't let me do anything other than view.

It looks like dialogs with Apply/Cancel instead of OK/Cancel work okay (either OK or Cancel kills).

[kovidgoyal]

It appears to have something to do with the coca handleTSMEvent function, which is from the text input subsystem. DO you have something unusual on this machine related to text input? Perhaps some assistive technology or a third party IME extension?