After crash ghost UE App

[Fritsl]

This has been an issue for a couple of UE versions back, but apparently in 4.12 it’s getting to be a severe and constant issue:

Ever so often UE4 crashes (That happens quite a lot, fair enough, we’ll work on why elsewhere) - the issue here, is ‘how’ it crashes on OSX:

An apparently ‘Not unresponsive App’ is not possible to open, and not possible to kill is hanging on the system.

Force close it, and it … is not closed. (pretty impressive actually

[EDIT: I forgot, it’s not even possible to close the Mac by shutting down normally, and the Mac is not complaining over stuck app… reboot is just not happening … again which is pretty impressive … has to hold down power button 4 sec]
.

Leave it there, and start a new instance is not a problem, but your computers fan will spin more and more.

So, as of writing this, specially since I am working with sub-levels (which is very-very crash-potent) - I have to REBOOT my machine 2-3 times every hour (every time UE crashes).

Please let me know what you need me to send you - it’s not as it’s possible to send a standard crash report ;)![alt text][1]

[anonymous_user_bcdd396d]

Hey Fritsl,

I took down the image as I did not know what it had to do with the issue… If it has significance, you can re-post with text explaining what the image is illustrating…

As for the “Unresponsive App,” please provide as many of the following as possible:

1. Your Mac’s specs. You can find this in the Apple menu >About This Mac>More Info> Add the information from this window (serial # not necessary).

2. The “System Report:” Apple menu >About This Mac > System Report>Hardware (All information listed in the “Hardware Overview.”) You can cut and paste this information or provide screen shots, whichever is more convenient.

3. *If the Crash Reporter window ever pops up when the crash occurs, select “Copy Callstack to the Clipboard,” and paste that information in a document and add to this post. Be sure to hit “Submit” on the Crash Reporter pop-up to send the Crash Report to Epic.

4. The UE4.log (Located: ~/Library/Logs/Unreal Engine/Editor/)

5. The ProjectName.log (Located: ~/Library/Logs/Unreal Engine/ProjectNameEditor/)

Providing this information and appropriate logs will help us track down and isolate the source of the bug as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Thanks for your cooperation,

.

[Fritsl]

Sorry for not being clear.

A) I am NOT filing a report about crashing.

B) There are multiple ways that Unreal 4.12.3 crashes, but this I am sure is being looked at.

C) I am writing here about something ‘deeper’, something that happens on ALL crashes with UE on my OSX:

When - for any good or bad reason - UE4 crashes, it does not take with it to the grave the Chromium Embedded Framework (UnrealCEFSubProcess)- it hangs.

It hangs in a way that it cannot be stopped, only by rebooting the computer.

And It hangs in a way that the computer cannot be restarted without holding down the Power button for 4 seconds.

However it does not hang in a way that (apparently) does anything to the system. So I think in most cases people are not aware that after a crash, they have UnrealCEFSubProcess running.

However, when this kep happening (after you have had a couple of crashes), something builds up, and the fan starts not to rest.

It is so to speak ‘unseen’, and yet it’s IMO a cause for quite a lot of problems.

---

OSX 10.11.5
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15", ultimo 2013)
2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

As for 3 → 5 they do not apply as this is not about a crash, but about how any crash leaves behind a running UnrealCEFSubProcess

As for my screnshot that did not make sense to you: Here is a cutout of it again. This is the window that is used to ‘force-quit’ any applications. I can see that it must not make any sense without this explnation: THere ARE NO INSTANCES OF UE RUNNING when it is taken.

I CANNOT Alt+Tab to Unreal at this moment.

If I at that moment Press ‘Afbryd’ which is the big blue button (‘Terminate program-button’) the system acts as if the app is closed, and then its not.

This process is kept alive. All there is to do, is to hold down Power button for 4 seconds.

[anonymous_user_bcdd396d]

Thank you for clarifying. I found this listed as a bug for PCs a while ago and in the notes for bug OPP-4403: “Unreal CEF subprocess persists after abnormal shutdown.”

In the notes it says, “Seems only to happen on Windows. Mac render processes are cleaned up automatically.”

I was not able to reproduce this by forcing the Engine to Crash on two different MacBook Pro’s (Retina, 15", Late 2013 2.3GHz Core i7 16GB Ram); One running OSX10.10.5 and the other OSX10.11.5.

This leads me to ask, is this happening with a specific project that you are updating with each version of the engine or can you reproduce this with a Blank Third Person project?

[Fritsl]

Hi ,

Please note that you are asking me to crash with a Blank Third Person project to reproduce abnormal termination issues. It really does not make sense, because UE is not that unstable.

I can make UE crash, but then it is no longer from ‘a blank project’.

Perhaps you can tell me a certain way to make UE crash on a blank project, then I can start a blank project and see if a process is hanging after abnormal termination?

[anonymous_user_bcdd396d]

To troubleshoot this:

1. Open a Blank Third Person project
2. Play in Editor (Standalone or Viewport)
3. Press “~” to bring up the Console Commands
4. Type debug crash

When editor crashes on a blank project, does it exhibit this “hanging” behaviour?

[Fritsl]

Hi , It appears to me that you are refering to Win setup, please be aware that I am working on a Mac with you here.

I was not able to let open anything via ~on my MacBook pro European (Danish) keyboard.

I read this post:

Where can i type the text box "Enter Console commands" on Mac?

And remapped the ‘Console’ key.

However when I press that key, there is absolutely no, zero response.

I was able to for instance press Shift + F1 to get mouse control, and I can press (Shift + Cmd + [a key with *'@]) to get another ‘debug’ screen - but no console, absolutely zero reaction, I never have been able to do this on OSX, frankly I thought you had removed the option.

Reading deeper, it got clear to me that in order to do what you propose, one has to go to Edit → Project settings → Input, and in there set up a key. As you can see, I set up the key P for test. And THAT works.

Now, before I try and crash, I’ll post this, because you never know how hard that crash will be.

[Fritsl]

OK, Writing
debug crash
in the console leads to a ‘clean crash’ with no left ‘empty’ app to Alt-tab to.
This goes both for a fresh project, and for my main project from which I am constantly experiencing the hanging ‘empty’ app. Such a forced crash is clean.

The only thing left with this forced crash, is the usual (bugged in another post) ‘UE4EditorServices’

[Fritsl]

I can see in my previous post that I swapped the two images, sorry.

[anonymous_user_bcdd396d]

I am not familiar with the Danish Keyboard, but on the US keyboard on a Mac you can simply use the tilde key (~) to bring up Console Commands in UE4, the same way you can in Windows. Your workaround may be useful for other Danish users, however.

As for troubleshooting the initial reported crash, please cut the contents of the Crash Reporter pop-up here, including your machine ID, so that we can find a common denominator among other users experiencing the same crash. This, of course from a crash in your project -not a “clean crash” as you’ve described.

Alternatively, you can send me a link to your project in a private message on our . If so, hopefully I’d be able to reproduce not only the crash but the primary reported behavior of not fully shutting down.