Calibre crashes when opening ebooks with external viewer

[Chemist1]

Hi,
I couldn't find an answer to this anywhere, so maybe this community can help.

My problem is:
I unticked in properties --> behavior the PDF checkbox in order to view my ebooks via an external viewer (Adobe Acrobat Reader DC). However, this results in a fatal error when trying to open a pdf: A blank window titled "ERROR: Unhandled exception" appears and calibre crashes.
When I try it with the internal viewer, it works, as well as opening the file manually via the explorer or if I choose Edge as default pdf viewer.

Has anyone ideas how I could make it work with Acrobat Reader?

Thanks in advance!

[theducks]

4.11.2 has no issue opening PDF with Reader DC (My default Calibre setting for PDF)

[BetterRed]

@Chemist1 - what do you have as the Windows default program for opening PDFs, which is what calibre is trying to use?

Might be an idea to reset it.

This has worked for me a couple of times when a Windows default has gone awry. Set to something else - e.g. Edge, restart (yes I know its a PITA), and then set it back to what you want - e.g. Acrobat.

BR

[Chemist1]

@BetterRed - Thank you for the suggestion, but unfortunately, that didn't work.
I checked the standard program for pdfs, and it was Acrobat Reader.
Calibre opens the ebooks correctly if Edge is the standard viewer, but Acrobat Reader doesn't work.
A restart didn't change this behavior.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Chemist1

@BetterRed - Thank you for the suggestion, but unfortunately, that didn't work.
I checked the standard program for pdfs, and it was Acrobat Reader.
Calibre opens the ebooks correctly if Edge is the standard viewer, but Acrobat Reader doesn't work.
A restart didn't change this behavior.

Can you post a screen shot of the error message you get when you try to use Acrobat from calibre- or if its a calibre diagnostic use the button to copy the message to the clipboard and post contents here.

I don't have Acrobat, I prefer PDF eXchange, which is my default PDF reader, when I open a PDF in calibre that's what I get, and theducks has posted Acrobat works from calibre at his place.

- try adding Acrobat to calibre's Open With feature to see if it works there:



Another thing you could try: uninstall Acrobat completely, run a lightweight registry cleaner, download a fresh Acrobat installer and use it to create a vanilla Acrobat install.

BR

[Chemist1]

Thank you for mentioning the Open With feature, I didn't know that before. I tried to select Acrobat Reader via the suggested readers and via manually browsing as well (it seems to differentiate there, since the logos are different), but neither of them did work.

I reinstalled Acrobat Reader and cleaned the Registry, but that didn't help either (Although I'm not sure if that worked correctly, since it showed the last used files...). Afterwards, I tried selecting it via Open With again as mentioned above, without success.

Interesting is that it does work when I click Open With --> Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, but not by doubleclicking the book like I always tried before.

The error message I always recieve is this (hope this works). It just stays blank, and after a short time, Calibre won't react anymore.

Another thing that might help diagnosing the problem: I recieved once an error message that said something about "module propsys" or similar, but I can't replicate it currently, and it also just appeared for a very short time before closing itself.

[kovidgoyal]

Run calibre in debug mode (right click the preferences button) and post the log after recreating the error.

[Chemist1]

Thank you for the suggestion!

This is the log it created:

calibre Debug log
calibre 4.11.2 [64bit]  embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-10-10.0.18362-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.18362')
Python 2.7.16+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.18362', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: 
calibre 4.11.2 [64bit]  embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-10-10.0.18362-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.18362')
Python 2.7.16+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.18362', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: 
Turning on automatic hidpi scaling
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 92.0150943396 x 91.44
Using calibre Qt style: False
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Initializing db...
[0.01] db initialized
[0.01] Constructing main UI...
[1.95] main UI initialized...
[1.95] Started up in 1.95 seconds with 117 books
calibre 4.11.2 [64bit]  embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-10-10.0.18362-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.18362')
Python 2.7.16+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.18362', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "boot_com_servers.py", line 44, in <module>
  File "os_integration\windows\shell_extension.pyc", line 33, in <module>
ImportError: No module named propsys

It crashed as expected and did show the same blank window as before.

Also, I somehow managed to recreate the 2nd error message, and although I couldn't take a screenshot or copy it, it indeed matched the log (it read ImportError: No module named propsys, like the error at the end of the log).

[kovidgoyal]

You have some shell extension installed for windows explorer that is causing the issue.

[Chemist1]

Thank you @kovidgoyal!

If anyone is interested, the responsible shell extension I had was called Spider property set provider (IPropertySetStorage) and is part of SpiderOakONE.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Chemist1

Thank you @kovidgoyal!

If anyone is interested, the responsible shell extension I had was called Spider property set provider (IPropertySetStorage) and is part of SpiderOakONE.

I remember that name (Spider Oak) coming up a while back. I just do not remember the context

[kovidgoyal]

@theducks it's in the calibre FAQ: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...s-occasionally

[theducks]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@theducks it's in the calibre FAQ: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...s-occasionally

See I read the FAQ, I just did not remember that was the place for that.

FOLK
Remember the FAQ is not static. Kovid does update it all the time.
Visit (and re-read), especially when you are having issues

[JSWolf]

Spider Oak is a poorly written program.