Suppose I have several media files that have very similar file names, such as
abcdefgh_1.jpg
abcdefgh_2.jpg
abcdefgh_3.jpg
Also, suppose these media files don’t have captions. And indeed, suppose I have thousands of media files, most of which do not have have captions. (My real files have much more meaningful file names. Most of them don’t have captions, although some of them do.)
If I sort the media list by filename, these three files will sort all together. If I sort the media list by caption, these three files may not sort all together. I would have expected that all the files with the same caption would use the file name as a tie breaker on the sort, and files with a null caption all have the same caption. So I think the design needs to be improved to use the filename a tie breaker when sorting by the caption and when the captions are the same. But that problem alone does not lock up RM8.
Further suppose that these three files are all in the same folder and that I rename the folder from outside of RM8. That creates broken media links for all three files. That’s not a good thing, but let me continue.
Finally, under these circumstances suppose I sort by caption so the three files with broken links are not sorted together and suppose I filter media list by the string “abcdefgh” without the quotes. The only files I will see will be those three files and they will all show broken links. And strangely enough, RM8 is pretty well locked up at this point. For the most part, it will not respond to the mouse or keyboard at all. The only exception seems to be that RM8 will respond to clicking on the X in the far upper right hand corner of the screen to try to shut it down. But then the main screen goes completely white and the popup screen that would be asking you about a backup also goes completely white. The only way out at this point is to use Windows Task Manager to kill the RM8 task.
The problem is not 100% repeatable, but I have been able to repeat it several times in the last hour. The conditions to create the crash seem to be the following.
- The media file names in question must all begin with the same substring.
- The media files in question must not have a caption.
- The media list must be sorted by caption. There are some media files in my database that do have a caption, but these media files in question do not sort together because they all have a null caption and the file name is not a tie breaker.
- The media list must be filtered by the substring that is common to the file names in question.
These seem to be necessary conditions, but they do not work every time. I can run through the same scenario several times. Sometimes the scenario will lock up RM8 and sometimes not.
These may seem like obscure conditions. But my file naming conventions are such that many files typically start with the same substring. I had indeed renamed a folder (not the file names in the folder) from outside RM8 for what seemed like good and valid reasons at the time while forgetting to update the media list in RM8. I had noticed a file with broken links. I had filtered on the substring at the beginning of that file name to see if there were other broken links. There were, and RM8 was locked up as described.
By the way, in addition to using the file name as a tie breaker for file captions that are the same (or null, which amounts to the same thing), it would be helpful if something on the screen actually told you whether the sort was by filename or caption instead having to guess.