Differences

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--- stacker:support:knownissues [2017/02/13 21:20]
rjlittlefield [index] orphaned projects moved to FAQs
+++ stacker:support:knownissues [2020/06/23 17:17]
rjlittlefield [Macintosh OS X, accessing external drives may be awkward]
@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ====== Zerene Stacker Known Issues ======
-Known Issues is a list of unusual problems that have been reported typically one to three times, but may be seen by other people too.
+Known Issues is a list of unusual problems that can be quite challenging to diagnose and solve from scratch.  We keep this list mainly for our own use in providing support, but we're making it publicly available in case it may be useful to other people also.
 If you encounter difficulties that are not on this list, or if the suggested workarounds do not work for you, then please contact **[[support@zerenesystems.com]]**.  We try hard to fix problems, but we have to know about them first!
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Here is an index to the known issues:
-    * [[#using_capture_one_raw_converter_must_turn_off_option_to_embed_camera_profile|Using Capture One raw converter, must turn off option to "Embed Camera Profile".]]
     * [[#license_keys_that_contain_accented_or_non-english_characters_may_get_corrupted_in_email_transmission|License keys that contain accented or non-English characters may get corrupted in email transmission.]]
     * [[#settings_are_retained_across_uninstall_reinstall|Settings are retained across uninstall / reinstall.]]
     * [[#license_key_must_be_installed_for_each_user_account|License key must be installed for each user account.]]
     * [[#bit_tiff_files_should_be_uncompressed|16-bit TIFF files should be uncompressed]]
-    * [[#external_tiff_reader_cannot_handle_commas_in_file_or_directory_names|External TIFF reader cannot handle commas in file or directory names.]]
     * [[#certain_grayscale_images_may_cause_incompatible_colormodel|Certain grayscale images may cause "incompatible ColorModel".]]
     * [[#zonealarm_toolbar_may_significantly_reduce_available_memory|ZoneAlarm Toolbar may significantly reduce available memory.]]
@@ Line 24: / Line 22: @@
     * [[#windows_manually_edited_program_files_persist_across_re-installation|Windows, manually edited program files persist across re-installation]]
     * [[#macintosh_os_x_could_not_establish_communications_with_stackshot_controller|Macintosh OS X, "Could not establish communications with StackShot controller"]]
+    * [[#macintosh_os_x_zerene_stacker_will_work_on_only_one_stack_at_a_time|Macintosh OS X, Zerene Stacker will work on only one stack at a time]]
     * [[#macintosh_os_x_mountain_lion_reports_installation_bundle_is_damaged_move_to_trash|Macintosh OS X (Mountain Lion) reports installation bundle is "damaged, move to trash"]]
     * [[#macintosh_os_x_how_to_recover_from_excessive_memory_allocation|Macintosh OS X, how to recover from excessive memory allocation.]]
-    * [[#macintosh_os_x_the_downloaded_bundle_runs_once_but_not_again|Macintosh OS X, the downloaded bundle runs once but not again.]]
     * [[#macintosh_os_x_tiff_files_may_be_very_slow_to_read|Macintosh OS X, TIFF files may be very slow to read.]]
     * [[#macintosh_os_x_accessing_external_drives_may_be_awkward|Macintosh OS X, accessing external drives may be awkward.]]
@@ Line 32: / Line 30: @@
     * [[#macintosh_os_x_jpeg_files_with_color_profile_nikon_srgb_4003001_will_be_dark_and_muddy|Macintosh OS X, JPEG files with color profile "Nikon sRGB 4.0.0.3001" will be dark and muddy.]]
     * [[#linux_use_of_native_look_feel_with_ubuntu_studio_theme_fails|Linux, use of native Look & Feel with Ubuntu Studio theme fails.]]
+Solved issues, retained here for historical reasons.
     * [[#very_large_tiff_files_may_require_use_external_tiff_reader|Very large TIFF files may require "Use External TIFF Reader".]]
     * [[#red_rasterformatexception_occurs_during_retouching|Red "RasterFormatException" occurs during retouching.]]
     * [[#graphics_acceleration_sometimes_makes_the_retouching_brush_very_slow_and_jerky|Graphics "acceleration" sometimes makes the retouching brush very slow and jerky.]]
     * [[#retouching_brush_disappears|Retouching brush disappears]]
+    * [[#external_tiff_reader_cannot_handle_commas_in_file_or_directory_names|External TIFF reader cannot handle commas in file or directory names.]]
+    * [[#macintosh_os_x_the_downloaded_bundle_runs_once_but_not_again|Macintosh OS X, the downloaded bundle runs once but not again.]]
+    * [[#using_capture_one_raw_converter_must_turn_off_option_to_embed_camera_profile|Using Capture One raw converter, must turn off option to "Embed Camera Profile".]]
-===== Using Capture One raw converter, must turn off option to "Embed Camera Profile" =====
-When using the Capture One™ raw converter from Phase One, sometimes a red "Uh-oh" popup error will occur, with a detailed diagnostic that says this:
-        java.awt.color.CMMException: LCMS error 13: couldn't link the profiles
-To solve this problem, go into Capture One and change its settings so as to select a color profile other than "Embed Camera Profile", before generating TIFF or JPEG files to be loaded into Zerene Stacker.  The "Embed Camera Profile" option apparently causes Capture One to produce an output file that contains multiple color profiles, linked together in some way that cannot be handled by the image I/O libraries used inside Zerene Stacker.  With "Embed Camera Profile" not selected, Capture One will include only the image's own color profile, which is fully supported by Zerene Stacker.
-This problem is also solved in the current beta release of Zerene Stacker.
 ===== License keys that contain accented or non-English characters may get corrupted in email transmission =====
 If the username in the license key looks odd, and the Enter button stays gray when you paste in your license key, try just retyping the name to match what you entered when you purchased the license.  Further details are provided in **[[:stacker:docs:howtoinstallalicensekey|How To Install a License Key]]**.
@@ Line 64: / Line 57: @@
 {{:stacker:support:knownissues:zerenestackerfolder.png}}
+On Windows 10, usually it is not possible to open the Start > Run dialog.  Instead, you can open a File Explorer window, then in that window's address bar, type in %APPDATA% and hit the Enter key. On some systems, it is also necessary to set the folder view options to "Show hidden files, folders, and drives".  See for example [[http://www.windows10themes.net/guides/how-to-view-the-appdata-folder-in-windows-10/]]
 On **Macintosh OS X**, dragging the application bundle to the trash leaves behind some state information in other files and folders, so that reinstalling the program will not restore the program to a factory-fresh condition.  To get back to a factory-fresh condition, you must manually remove one folder and the files it contains, before reinstalling.  The folder you need to remove is ~/Library/Preferences/ZereneStacker, where ~ denotes your account's home directory.  Note that the ~/Library folder is normally hidden.  To open it, hold down your keyboard's Option (Alt) key while selecting Go > Library in a Finder window.  Be careful that you do not remove other folders in ~/Library/Preferences, as these contain settings for other programs.
@@ Line 86: / Line 81: @@
             at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.tiff.TIFFDeflateDecompressor.decodeRaw(Unknown Source)
-On Windows and Mac, this problem can be worked around by selecting Options > Preferences > Preprocessing > Use External TIFF Reader.  (If you do not explicitly select this option, then the current version of Zerene Stacker should automatically fall back to using this approach anyway.)
+This problem can be worked around by selecting Options > Preferences > Preprocessing > Use External TIFF Reader.  (If you do not explicitly select this option, then the current version of Zerene Stacker should automatically fall back to using this approach anyway.)
 However, it is usually more efficient to set the file format in Photoshop or Lightroom to "None" or "LZW" so that the file can be read directly, then in Zerene Stacker de-select the option to Use External TIFF Reader.
-===== External TIFF reader cannot handle commas in file or directory names =====
-(This problem is believed to be fixed.  Please let us know if it reappears.)
-The external TIFF reader erroneously truncates the file name or path at the first comma.  This error results in a generic "Uh-oh -- something went wrong" popup, with diagnostic details in the console log that go something like this:
-            Trying to read /Users/zstest/ImageFiles/stuff, etc./TIFF/IMG_2575.tif
-            ...
-            From external converter error stream: TIFFOpen: /Users/zstest/ImageFiles/stuff: Cannot open.
-            com.zerenesystems.stacker.a.o: Tried but failed to read /Users/zstest/ImageFiles/stuff, etc./TIFF/IMG_2575.tif using external converter.
-Notice the truncation of "ImageFiles/stuff, etc./TIFF/IMG_2575.tif" to be just "ImageFiles/stuff" in the error message.
-There are two different ways to avoid this problem:
-. Rename the files or folders to remove the commas, or
-. Go to Options > Preferences > Preprocessing and remove the checkmark on "Use External TIFF Reader".  This will cause Zerene Stacker to use its internal TIFF reader, which is a completely different piece of software that handles commas correctly.
 ===== Certain grayscale images may cause "incompatible ColorModel" =====
@@ Line 158: / Line 135: @@
 {{:stacker:support:knownissues:outofmemorypopupdiagnostic.png}}
-The cure for this problem is to allocate more memory using Options > Preferences > Memory Usage.  Pressing the Set Automatically button works for most people, but if your images are very large then you may need to manually enter a larger value.  The recommended allocation is 100 megabytes per 1 megapixel, so for example 3600 megabytes for 36 megapixel images coming from a Nikon D800.
+The cure for this problem is to allocate more memory using Options > Preferences > Memory Usage.  Pressing the Set Automatically button works for most people, but if your images are very large then you may need to manually enter a larger value.  The recommended allocation is 100 to 200 megabytes per 1 megapixel, so for example 3600 to 7200 megabytes for 36 megapixel images coming from a Nikon D800.
 Images larger than 21 megapixels will probably require using the 64-bit version of Zerene Stacker, on a 64-bit operating system.
@@ Line 164: / Line 141: @@
 ===== Must use double-click, not the Open button, to navigate into a folder when using File > Open Project =====
-When you have done File > Open Project and you want to look inside a folder to find your project, it does not work to select the folder and click the Open button.  Instead of doing what you want, clicking the Open button will attempt to open the folder as if it were a project.  This produces a cryptic and misleading error message: "Cannot open project because .zsj project description file is missing".  To get the desired result of opening the folder to look inside it, you must double-click the folder name instead of clicking the Open button.
+When the look-and-feel option to use JFileChooser is selected, and you have done File > Open Project and you want to look inside a folder to find your project, it does not work to select the folder and click the Open button.  Instead of doing what you want, clicking the Open button will attempt to open the folder as if it were a project.  This produces a cryptic and misleading error message: "Cannot open project because .zsj project description file is missing".  To get the desired result of opening the folder to look inside it, you must double-click the folder name instead of clicking the Open button.
 Alternatively, you may prefer to use your operating system's file browser to locate and select the project, then drag-and-drop it onto the Input Files panel of Zerene Stacker.  This is equivalent to File > Open Project.  When doing this, you can select either the .zsj project description file or the folder that encloses it.  Again, these are equivalent when opening a project.
@@ Line 174: / Line 151: @@
             java.io.FileNotFoundException:  C:\Users\Me\Pictures\unnamedZSproj20111103154858382\previewimages\-Unaligned-117.jpg (Access is denied)
             at java.io.RandomAccessFile.open(Native Method)
 There are several possible workarounds for the problem:
   - Turn off or pause the backup or indexing facility while ZS is running.
@@ Line 188: / Line 165: @@
   - Run your stack.
   - Back in the Services panel, click on "Start the service".
+A similar problem can be caused during file saving, when Zerene Stacker attempts to copy Exif metadata from a source image file into the just-saved output image file.
 ===== Windows, "My Documents" and "My Pictures" may not be writable =====
@@ Line 259: / Line 238: @@
 Interestingly, in most cases just going through the above steps to collect the required information also makes the problem disappear.  That probably has to do with the reboot and order of operations.
+===== Macintosh OS X, Zerene Stacker will work on only one stack at a time =====
+Solution: open a Terminal window and launch additional copies of Zerene Stacker using the command
+<code>
+open -n /Applications/ZereneStacker.app
+</code>
+If you put the ZereneStacker icon (the ZereneStacker.app application bundle) someplace besides in /Applications, then just edit the command line accordingly.
+The explanation here is that by design, Zerene Stacker is programmed using the "single document" model.  This means that each instance of Zerene Stacker can only work with one stack at a time.  The normal process of launching Zerene Stacker by clicking its icon will not launch a second instance.  Instead, clicking the icon just makes the current instance foreground, apparently in the expectation that all programs are multi-document.  Unfortunately there seems to be no way to just tell MacOS that Zerene Stacker is single document and it should launch another instance when the launch icon is clicked.  The "-n" argument on the open command says to create a new instance regardless of whether there's already one running.
 ===== Macintosh OS X (Mountain Lion) reports installation bundle is "damaged, move to trash" =====
@@ Line 283: / Line 274: @@
 In very rare cases, the re-launch may fail because the computer cannot allocate the amount of memory that the Set Automatically button requests.  If this occurs, then repeat the previous procedure, but instead of clicking Set Automatically, simply type the value 1000 into the field labeled "Megabytes of memory currently allocated to 32-bit Zerene Stacker".  Click OK, exit, and re-launch.
-===== Macintosh OS X, the downloaded bundle runs once but not again =====
-This extraordinarily puzzling problem, reported on four systems to date, has the symptom that a downloaded bundle runs fine once, but on subsequent launches it aborts immediately with "The application ZereneStacker quit unexpectedly" even though there is no problem with memory allocation.
-The root cause of this problem turns out to be that the Mac operating system has somehow modified or replaced a JavaApplicationStub that is provided with the bundle.  The modification/replacement happens on first execution, which is why Zerene Stacker works once but not after that.
-In the long term, we will change the Zerene Stacker bundle to use a different first-execution procedure to avoid this problem.
-But as a short-term workaround, it has proved adequate to replace the JavaApplicationStub in Zerene Stacker with one that should already be found on your system. Here is the procedure:
-The file to be replaced is at
-ZereneStacker.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub .  To reach into this
-directory, simply right-click (or ctrl-click) on the ZereneStacker icon,
-then select Show Package Contents.  Navigate to Contents/MacOS, and you
-will see the file JavaApplicationStub.
-The JavaApplicationStub that you need to use instead can be accessed using
-Finder.  Open a Finder window and go to
-<bootdisk>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/MacOS,
-where <bootdisk> is just the name of the disk that you boot from.  There
-you will see one or two files, JavaApplicationStub and possibly
-JavaApplicationStub64.
-Right-click on the JavaApplicationStub in the ...Frameworks... tree, and
-select Copy "JavaApplicationStub".
-Then go into Contents/MacOS of the ZereneStacker package, right-click on
-any blank space, and select Paste Item.  You should receive a warning that
-"JavaApplicationStub" already exists.  Go ahead and allow the replacement,
-after looking one more time to be sure that you really are inside the
-ZereneStacker package and **not** still in Frameworks.
 ===== Macintosh OS X, accessing external drives may be awkward =====
-**Note:** In all recent versions, you can drag-and-drop directly onto the input files list.  There is no need to File > Add Files to  open a filechooser as described below.  Just open a separate Finder window, select your image files there, then use drag-and-drop to enter them directly into Zerene Stacker's "Input Files" panel, at the place where it says "(Drop files or folders here to begin)".
+On Macs, Zerene Stacker normally attempts to open a Finder window to use as a helper service for navigating and selecting files.  On a few Macs, for unknown reasons, the Finder window refuses to open.  In that case, Zerene Stacker automatically switches to a different method, using a facility named "JFileChooser" that is part of the Java Runtime Environment that Zerene Stacker runs on top of.  (The use of JFileChooser can also be selected explicitly, by removing the checkmark at Options > Preferences > Look & Feel > "Use system native File Choosers if possible".)
-Further explanation and other approaches follow.
-The Java filechooser currently used by Zerene Stacker does not display alternate volumes like the native Mac filechooser does.  External drives can still be accessed, but the procedure is somewhat awkward.
-On OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and later, the easiest approach is to open a filechooser dialog box in Zerene Stacker, using File > Add Files.  Then separately, use Finder to open the external drive or network share, go to the appropriate directory, and select the files of interest.  Drag and drop those files onto the Add Files dialog of Zerene Stacker, then click the Add button in the Zerene Stacker dialog.  This method also has the advantage of showing you a thumbnail preview of the files to be added.
-Alternatively (and required for OS X 10.4), you can go to the bar at the top of the window, the one where the current directory is shown.  Click once on that bar and it will expand into a pull-down list of enclosing directories.  At the bottom of the list will be an entry like "Macintosh HD", representing the main file system of the computer.  Click that.  Scroll to the bottom of the list and double-click on Volumes.  That should give you a list of all your currently mounted media.  Double-click on any external drive to open that, then navigate as usual.
+Unfortunately the JFileChooser interface looks much different from Finder, and it requires more mouseclicks to access drives other than the default.
-The latter approach is required on OS X 10.4 because drag-and-drop into the Zerene Stacker filechooser does not work on that system.
+To access alternate drives using JFileChooser, proceed as follows:
+  - Open a JFileChooser window, for example by File > Add File(s) or File > Save Output Image(s).
+  - Go to the bar at the top of the window, the one where the current folder is shown.  Click on that bar and it will expand into a pull-down list of enclosing folders.
+  - At the top or bottom of the list will be an entry like "/" or "Macintosh HD", representing the main file system of the computer.  Click that to open it.
+  - Scroll to the bottom of the list and double-click on Volumes.  That should open to give you a list of all your currently mounted media.
+  - Double-click on any external drive to open that, then navigate as usual.
 ===== Macintosh OS X, launch fails due to Courier font problems =====
@@ Line 392: / Line 351: @@
 In a few remaining cases, it is necessary to manually edit the "zerenstk.cfg" configuration file so as to delete the line that begins with "RetouchingBrush.Width=".  This file is located in the ZereneStacker folder as described  **[[:stacker:docs:faqlist#i_need_to_report_a_problem_are_there_log_files_i_can_send_you|HERE in the FAQ]]**.  This file can be edited with any plain text editor, such as Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Macs.  The offending line probably says something like "RetouchingBrush.Width=Infinity". Get rid of that line entirely.  Edit the file while Zerene Stacker is not running, and then Zerene Stacker should behave normally when launched again.
+===== External TIFF reader cannot handle commas in file or directory names =====
+(This problem is fixed in Build T201303132055 and later.)
+The external TIFF reader erroneously truncates the file name or path at the first comma.  This error results in a generic "Uh-oh -- something went wrong" popup, with diagnostic details in the console log that go something like this:
+            Trying to read /Users/zstest/ImageFiles/stuff, etc./TIFF/IMG_2575.tif
+            ...
+            From external converter error stream: TIFFOpen: /Users/zstest/ImageFiles/stuff: Cannot open.
+            com.zerenesystems.stacker.a.o: Tried but failed to read /Users/zstest/ImageFiles/stuff, etc./TIFF/IMG_2575.tif using external converter.
+Notice the truncation of "ImageFiles/stuff, etc./TIFF/IMG_2575.tif" to be just "ImageFiles/stuff" in the error message.
+There are two different ways to avoid this problem:
+. Rename the files or folders to remove the commas, or
+. Go to Options > Preferences > Preprocessing and remove the checkmark on "Use External TIFF Reader".  This will cause Zerene Stacker to use its internal TIFF reader, which is a completely different piece of software that handles commas correctly.
+===== Macintosh OS X, the downloaded bundle runs once but not again =====
+This extraordinarily puzzling problem, reported on four systems to date, has the symptom that a downloaded bundle runs fine once, but on subsequent launches it aborts immediately with "The application ZereneStacker quit unexpectedly" even though there is no problem with memory allocation.
+The root cause of this problem turns out to be that the Mac operating system has somehow modified or replaced a JavaApplicationStub that is provided with the bundle.  The modification/replacement happens on first execution, which is why Zerene Stacker works once but not after that.
+As of Build T201410311610 (October 31, 2017), Zerene Stacker has used a different launch procedure that avoids this problem.
+The earlier short-term solution was to replace the JavaApplicationStub in Zerene Stacker with one that should already be found on your system. Here is that procedure:
+The file to be replaced is at
+ZereneStacker.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub .  To reach into this
+directory, simply right-click (or ctrl-click) on the ZereneStacker icon,
+then select Show Package Contents.  Navigate to Contents/MacOS, and you
+will see the file JavaApplicationStub.
+The JavaApplicationStub that you need to use instead can be accessed using
+Finder.  Open a Finder window and go to
+<bootdisk>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/MacOS,
+where <bootdisk> is just the name of the disk that you boot from.  There
+you will see one or two files, JavaApplicationStub and possibly
+JavaApplicationStub64.
+Right-click on the JavaApplicationStub in the ...Frameworks... tree, and
+select Copy "JavaApplicationStub".
+Then go into Contents/MacOS of the ZereneStacker package, right-click on
+any blank space, and select Paste Item.  You should receive a warning that
+"JavaApplicationStub" already exists.  Go ahead and allow the replacement,
+after looking one more time to be sure that you really are inside the
+ZereneStacker package and **not** still in Frameworks.
+===== Using Capture One raw converter, must turn off option to "Embed Camera Profile" =====
+When using the Capture One™ raw converter from Phase One, sometimes a red "Uh-oh" popup error will occur, with a detailed diagnostic that says this:
+        java.awt.color.CMMException: LCMS error 13: couldn't link the profiles
+To solve this problem, go into Capture One and change its settings so as to select a color profile other than "Embed Camera Profile", before generating TIFF or JPEG files to be loaded into Zerene Stacker.  The "Embed Camera Profile" option apparently causes Capture One to produce an output file that contains multiple color profiles, linked together in some way that cannot be handled by the image I/O libraries used inside Zerene Stacker.  With "Embed Camera Profile" not selected, Capture One will include only the image's own color profile, which is fully supported by Zerene Stacker.
+This problem is believed solved in Build T201610272136 and later.