Winamp 5.5 crashes because of playlist generator

[chbxxx]

Yipieh it Works !!!!!!
-downgrade to Winamp 5.5 Public Beta Preview 3 (build 1600)
-scanning with playlist generator until it crashed
-find broken tracks in _crash.dmp file and delete tracks
-reset database in Playlist generator and rescanning
-upgrade to Winamp 5.5 final and be Happy !!!!

Nice weekend from Germany and excause me for my horrible english

[DJ Egg]

Ok, all we need now is a link to a sample file that crashes Winamp / Playlist Generator, then we can fix it so that it doesn't happen again when encountering similarly corrupt files. Otherwise, this whole exercise has been in vain...

[zul.ashish]

My problem is that, in preferences if i scan, i get "error initializing playlist generator" always, never has gone to step 2. I am behind proxy which needs authorization, but i've fed that in the settings and winamp connects to the net.

Also, there is no cddbplm.gcf file in my gracenote folder..

[The Serminator]

Is there a simple, reliable, free program out there that will analyze / identify corrupt media files?

If I could find them and delete / fix / re-rip them, then the specific corruption that is giving Gracenote fits wouldn't matter.

[LuTHieR]

My problem with Playlist Generator was slightly different... it scanned my whole collection (12k+ files) without problem and I even generated a couple playlists with it (and they were pretty good, I must say).
So I turned off my computer and the next time I turned it on and tried to generate a playlist... it crashed (with a million "Playlist Generator could not initialize" windows). Just one thing: that time, I had no internet connection... but I assume it's only required to scan the music collection, right?
Anyway, when I tried it again with internet connection it crashed again.

By the way, I'm using Winamp 5.5 final with Bento Skin and the latest in_mp3.dll plugin.

[toybars]

Originally posted by LuTHieR
My problem with Playlist Generator was slightly different... it scanned my whole collection (12k+ files) without problem and I even generated a couple playlists with it (and they were pretty good, I must say).
So I turned off my computer and the next time I turned it on and tried to generate a playlist... it crashed (with a million "Playlist Generator could not initialize" windows). Just one thing: that time, I had no internet connection... but I assume it's only required to scan the music collection, right?
Anyway, when I tried it again with internet connection it crashed again.

By the way, I'm using Winamp 5.5 final with Bento Skin and the latest in_mp3.dll plugin.

+1
i've same problem as yours. scan 4/4 finished in 7 hours of
27000 mp3s and crash..

[dasugo]

Having similar issues. after scanning no more playlists. getting that errors til I have to shutdown winamp using task manager too.

If I have corrupt files, let me at them. I will keep looking for answers.

[mikey182]

Hi - even using the patch above my playlist generator still hangs.

I triggered it once, it went through steps 1-3 fine and winamp crashed during step 4 (after roughly 200 of 5888 files).

After that it would come up with the initialisation error on startup.

I can clean the 3 files in "C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins\Gracenote" and then I don't get the init error - it starts to scan again fine, but now gets stuck at the START of step 4 - it's saying "0 of 5888 files complete" but still seems to be trying to process, since the . .. ... sequence is still occuring (cpu use is virtually zero so I guess it's not really trying).

Also, I cannot run the old beta to get an error report, as the link below no longer works (the link to the exe)

Originally posted by DJ Egg
@chbxxx and anyone else who is still getting a crash when using Playlist Generator....

As we cannot reproduce the problem,
all I can suggest for now is that you temporarily downgrade

from: Winamp 5.5 Final (build 1640)
to: Winamp 5.5 Public Beta Preview 3 (build 1600)

In the beta, see: 'Winamp > Prefs > Error Feedback' for more info & config.

Cheers for any help,

mikey

[dasugo]

hey guys,
I have a folders where I download torrents and even though a file hasn't fully downloaded, the file already exists in the folder. So Winamp thinks that the file actually exists and stuff.

I excluded winamp from scanning that folder and my playlist generator works.

[DJ Egg]

@mikey182

The download link for 5.5 public beta preview 3 (build 1600) is still working ok for me:
http://download.nullsoft.com/winamp/..._beta_full.exe

The only reason I asked people to temporarily downgrade was so that they could get a crash log from the Error Feedback plugin, as that tool is only included with the beta builds, not the final release builds.

But so far, no-one's provided a crash log, nor a link to a sample mp3 file that crashes playlist generator, as requested...

[mikey182]

Hi DJE,

I realise all that (the logging sounds great!), but the link does not work for me:

http://download.nullsoft.com/winamp/..._beta_full.exe

Not Found
The requested URL /winamp/beta/winamp55_1600_beta_full.exe was not found on this server.

Might be a permissions thing.

Update: I have trimmed down my dirs and it now seems to be working (609/4391 so far) on step 4 and actually going up/using cpu. The trimming was mostly removing dirs that contained video - not sure if they're scanned or not. Will re-try just those directories later to find what was causing the crashes (assuming it works now without them).

Even when it's working though it's still quite buggy. During testing I would have 1 directory in my local library and it would scan fine - however if I pressed "Pause" or "Reset Database" on the "Winamp Playlist Generator" window it would crash winamp. That seems to be fairly consistent on my system in case there's any logs that might be of use.

Cheers for the response

[dasugo]

Ok, I will downgrade to the beta and see if I can generate the error again..

umm, beta gone.. oh well..

[DJ Egg]

@mikey182

Winamp 5.51 Internal Beta whatsnew

* Fixed: [ml_plg] Crash when stopping Playlist Generator scan or resetting database


Alas, in 5.5, the only way to get it to work is for you to do the full scan to 100%, all in one go.

[thegeologician]

I'm getting the same problem. It seems to be a problem with the size of the library. I get a crash after some time of scanning my files, but I can't confirm the 6000 files limit, I don't know how many files it reads before crashing.

But I tried the following:
- Having the Media Library options screen open, I clicked "Rescan now" so I saw which file was processed at the time of the crash.
- I removed that file, tried again (restart Winamp, "rescan now", wait some minutes) another file "caused" the crash.
- Tried that several times.

- I activated the option to add all played files to the library (always after restarting Winamp). I played the files that caused the crash before, without problems!

- Windows MediPlayer plays them as well.

--> I think it's an issue with the size of some (temporary?) list during scanning of files, rather than a problem with the files themselves.

Sorry, don't know much more about it. Tell me if I should downgrade to the beta-version to maybe get you some more helpful logfile!?

Hardware: Dell Dimension DIM 2400, P4 3GHz, 512MB RAM
Software: WinXP Prof.

Hope you find the bug, you're doing tremendous work!
Greets,
Martin

[DJ Egg]

@thegeologician

You're getting a crash with scanning both Watch Folders AND Playlist Generator, or just one but not the other?

Have you installed the "in_mp3 update patch", as referenced in this thread and in the sticky thread at the top of this forum?

If yes, then please provide us with a link to a sample mp3 file that crashes Winamp.

I don't know how many more times I have to ask this same thing, but unless we get a sample file (use: stashbox.org or mediafire.com to upload the file to, and post the download url here), then there's nothing we can do.

It's got nothing to do with any file/folder size limit.
I've got 30,000+ files in my main Music folder & subdir's, and don't get any crashes whatsoever.

[thegeologician]

That was while scanning media, I didn't get as far as mixing a playlist...

The files I suspected are part of a freely downloadable album:
http://www.laridae.at/getrelease.php..._id=laridae031
I just unpacked that .zip, didn't alter the files, so I propose that download rather than uploading it again.

BUT: as I said before, the crash is not exactly reproducible!

AND: After trying and re-trying several times (~10x, restarting Winamp every time), then importing the folder with these files only (worked), then again resetting the library ("Clear Media Library") - now it does scan everything alright!? Are there remnants of the media library, even after the cleaning?

Seems that's making it all just more complicated, but maybe the info helps...

EDIT:
P.S.: Yes, someway in this I installed the patch, but there was no immediate effect Winamp was still crashing after that.

[DJ Egg]

@thegeologician

Thanks

We can't get the ML or Playlist Generator to crash with those files, but I can see some potential issues, eg.

-missing mp3 info in alt+3 due to there being no (xing) header

-embedded albumart in some of the tracks is effected by the notorious itunes unsynchronization bug

Hopefully we'll get those issues resolved too for 5.51

But really, people need to stop using some of these buggy encoders and editors. All we can do is find workarounds for their bugs.

[Robster400]

Hiya, i was having massive probs getting the generator to scan all my MP3's,(32k of em) it kept crashing at random points in the scan,so i put a few hours into tidying up all the tags & removing comments,mainly long ones involving artist reviews etc.. now it scans fine everytime, i say everytime cuz winamp refuses to close properly!! (grrrr),damaging the database i guess, but solved that by keeping a backup of the Db, copying it across whenever it becomes corrupted.. Ah, the joy of not having to pick tunes by hand!

[riffer]

I've had much the same problem with Winamp 5.5, getting repeated "Can't initialize playlist generator" errors until I'm forced to kill Winamp.

I'm of the opinion there's multiple bugs in both the generator plugin in and the Gracenote DB libraries.

In my case, I've run a scan against my MP3 collection on my home PC. It's scanning now with no errors. I also have the SAME MP3 collection on a fileserver at work. While WInamps Media library is able to index and play the collection on the fileshare with no problem, the Playlist generator can't even initialize a scan without generating an error.

So at least one bug is the inability to deal with fileshares. In my case the share is on a linux box running Samba, I haven't tested with a windows fileshare. But i'd recommend checking with everyone who's reported this bug and finding out how many are scanning local files versus files via windows shares.

I'd like to add that I had absolutely no problem using the Predexis playlist generator in the past. Not only would it never crash Winamp, it'd scan my entire MP3 collection regardless of whether it was on a fileshare or local. I'll probably end-up installing it in Winamp 5.5 since the built-in playlist stuff is pretty much alpha at this point.

(Gracenote as a company is more about money than actual software quality anyways)

[DJ Egg]

Or you could just wait for 5.51 where the bugs will all be hopefully fixed
(as I've already mentioned a few times in this thread).

[Robster400]

Due when?

[riffer]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Or you could just wait for 5.51 where the bugs will all be hopefully fixed
(as I've already mentioned a few times in this thread).

I have no problem with waiting, but I hope your team will do some testing on these issues with MP3 libraries on file shares. Since in my case the two computers are very similar builds and the MP3 libraries are the same, the most significant difference is the storage.

[koikahin]

my problem is yet completely different. this is my office computer which is a part of a domain.

in my case, whatever be the number / kind of songs it be, the playlist generator always fails to initialize. i have tried different mp3 files, even a single file in the library but it fails everytime. i have tried all the solutions outlined in this thread.

[DJ Egg]

@koikahin

If you use a proxy connection, then that is a different issue.

Known Bugs

16. Gracenote/MusicID features (CDDB, Playlist Generator, Auto-Tag) not using Winamp's proxy setting *

* = Fixed in latest internal builds

[The Serminator]

I probably sound like an idiot...

but what's a proxy connection?

[Loopsie]

My situation is a bit like some of the previous mentioned ones, but I don't even get to part one of the scan. It doesn't even load the scan anymore, just goes straight to the failed to initialize message.

[peelax]

Firstly I would like to say what a great idea this is and how wonderful 5.5 is in general, thanks guys. But I thought I would add the problem I have found with playlist generator. It works fine after scanning all the songs, but when I add any songs using Library -> Add music to library (from a folder that is in the watch folder) it seems to screw it up, and I get the playlist generator could not init error a million times. So I have to reset and rescan all my songs (which is quite annoying). I don't think it has anything to do with corrupt mp3s as it works fine normally, it just has issues when I try and add new music. I'm not sure about when I just play the music and don't try and add it to my library....

[khopek]

I'm having the same problem.
When I first installed WINAMP, everything worked perfect.
I used the playlist generator multiple times
(other than the fact the only songs it seemed to want to play were xmas songs that sounded nothing like the song I wanted...it worked fine.)
Today I try to play tracks similar..
& i get an error initializing error that repeated at at least 100x i counted, then i gave up because it wouldn't stop and closed WIMAMP.

I have over 8000 songs...I don't have any extra plug-ins or whatnot either, and the patch didn't seem to work.

[Loopsie]

Right, I've just set winamp to use my university's proxy, still having the same problem with multiple failied to initialize errors....

[floatingbeaver]

Just wanted to add my two cents to the conversation, since so many seem to be having this problem....
My playlist generator crashes winamp with the "failed to initialize" error repeating until I use Ctl Alt Del. The initial scan of my music completed without incident, and I was even able to make several playlists before the error began appearing. I reinstalled winamp with the same results. I have no additional plugins and about 13,000 files, separated into several folders.

Thank you for your support. I hope this feature gets fixed somehow, as it seems like something I'd use often.

[KnottyEmily]

I'm having similar problems, the Playlist Generator fails to initialize when I scanning my library. My music is on a different hard drive to Winamp, there's less than 3,000 files. There are subfolders for each artist, and there are some other files in there too, like PDF and .doc/.txt files. Could they be the problem?

[urlwolf]

Same problem here, using 5.51, so I guess there are bugs remaining. I'm rescanning my library of 36,000 to see if that fixes the problem. MusicIP/predixis works fine.

When people talk about the patched in_mp3... is that included in the 5.51 release?

[J_Darnley]

Yes, the in_mp3 patch is only for 5.5 as 5.51 includes all the fixes and other changes relating to in_mp3. I am no longer experiencing problems with scanning my files for ml_plg. All my files seem to get scanned, even ones I thought wouldn't work (midi, spc, usf, psf). urlwolf, can you provide anymore information about your crash?

[DJ Egg]

If you got the crash in 5.5, then you'll still get it in 5.51

You have to delete the plg database files first,
then reopen Winamp and do a full rescan.

There should be no crashes from thereon.

See my first reply (2nd post in thread) for details.

[dasugo]

Just got a new computer and I tried Winamp again. I had given up cuz the freaking playlist generator kept flaking out on me.

I am stuck at 3507 file of 4180. hasn't moved in 45 minutes. I wish I knew what was causing my music lib to cause it to freeze.

Let me know what the file is and I will take care of it.

Vista Home Premium
Winamp 5.5.3
No additional plugins or skins added.

[blueNgrey]

Originally posted by floatingbeaver
My playlist generator crashes winamp with the "failed to initialize" error repeating until I use Ctl Alt Del. The initial scan of my music completed without incident, and I was even able to make several playlists before the error began appearing.

That's exactly my problem!
Before having this problem I've added some files in the Library and edited tags. Is this cause of the problem? then should i reset and rescan gracenote database everytime when new files are added?

[! AA !]

I had ( or have ) the same problem, Winamp crashed; than I deleted the files you mentioned and now I am rescanning..

[djstuke]

I am using Winamp 5.54 and I still get a crash when trying to scan the database.

If I make my Media library contain only certain paths, it works fine.

I'm pretty sure it's due to a corrupted file. I can pinpoint the directory the file is in, but not the actual file.

My question is is there any log anywhere that shows me what was the last file it was scanning?

My specs:

Dell Inspiron 700m
Intel Centrino 2.0 GHz
1 GB Ram
SigmaTel Audio Chip
Intel 82852 Graphics Card
Windows XP SP3
DirectX 9.0c
Winamp 5.54
Bundle Install

If you want more information (as this bug is supposed to be fixed in 5.54), let me know.

[GullyF]

Same issue, no solution.

Using Winamp 5.54 Full on a Sony Vaio VGC-RB49G (Desktop), Pentium 4, 3.6GHz, 2 GB RAM, RealTek Audio card, ATI Radeon x550 video card, DirectX 9.0c, on Windows XP Home SP2 Media Center Edition.

My plugin list is attached.

The crash occurs during step 4 of the Playlist Generation Scan, after 1421 of 8416 files.

Error message says "AppName: winamp.exe AppVer: 5.5.4.2147 ModName: in_mp3.dll ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 0001cd39"


Steps I've taken include deleting all three of the cddbplm files, then re-scanning: Same result...
I've deleted all local media, then rescanned for local media followed by re-scanning for the playlist generator: Same result...
I've completely uninstalled & re-installed Winamp 5.54, then did the steps above: Same result...
I've tried the Winamp55_MP3_Patch as well as the Winamp55_in_mp3_update3 patch: Same result...

As has been said elsewhere in the thread, I believe it to be due to a corrupt tag somewhere in the database - but what file? How do I find it?

[GullyF]

One other item of note: Using Mp3Tag v2.41, I noted four files of dubious quality. So I moved them to another directory & tried again (thinking these may be the corrupt files). This time, Step 2 and 3 of the Winamp Playlist Generator scan saw all remaining 8412 files. But when Step 4 ("Analyzing files") began, it changed to only seeing 8397 files.

Why is it that the gracenote database has 15 files fewer than what Winamp sees?