What to do about crashes

I’ve been retyping this same set of instructions in a lot of threads. So I thought I’d make a single post that I could refer people to about crashing. If you are experiencing crashing and want to post something, please make a new thread with your details.

Let’s see if we can keep this thread just for helpful advice.

Just walk down the post, try each thing in order. I suspect this will help a lot of people. For those that it doesn’t help, it shows you how to get individualized support about your problem from the developer.

Post a crash report

Crash reports give the people on the forum more info about your crash. With more info they can provide more than generic responses about what to do.

Here’s how:

  1. Click the Report button on the little popup window that displays after the next crash.
  2. Copy all the technical text in the section at the bottom.
  3. Save that text to a text file.
  4. Post that text file – or share it via Dropbox or similar.

This may help identify if the problem is related to one of your installed addons.

Disable plugins you’re not using

It seems that RW changed some things that caused several plugins to start crashing. Plugin developers are finding these crashes at the same time as users, unfortunately, so we’re having to catch up and make fixes as fast as we can. Until then, it’s a good idea to at least disable the plugins you’re not using. Here’s how:

  1. Open RapidWeaver by holding down the shift key – but don’t open a document – just the app by itself.
    The shift key temporarily disables all plugins.
  2. Choose Preferences… from the RapidWeaver menu ( Cmd - , )
  3. Select the Addons tab
  4. Uncheck every Plugins you are not using. You can leave Themes and Stacks alone.
    Yes, even plugins that are not in the current document can be actively running. (Ex: FindPlus is part of PlusKit and is available whether you have added a PlusKit page or not.)
  5. Close the window, and relaunch RapidWeaver (you’ll be forced to relaunch)

Now try your document and see if there is any improvement.

Updates

You may have already done this in your various other attempts.

  1. Launch RW (You can use the Shift-Key if necessary like section above)
  2. If RW notices any addons have updates it will ask if you want to download the updates.
  3. Agree to the updates.
  4. Relaunch RW (you will be asked if you’d like to after the updates complete)

Try your document again to see if there is improvement.

Get Support

If you’ve gotten this far and things are still not behaving well, then it’s time to get support. If you posted your crash report, to the RapidWeaver forum, you have an idea about which developer to contact:

  • Realmac Software for issues with the main app.
  • A plugin developer like YourHead Software for plugins like Stacks and PlusKit
  • Or even a theme or stack developer? Perhaps but less likely for a crashing bug. But if you find quirks in your stacks, or strange HTML of the theme, then it’s time to contact developers like Joe Workman or Elixir or the dozens of other guys that build the awesome widgets and themes.

When you contact support you should include:

  1. Your project
  2. What to do to make the crash happen.
  3. Your complete RW environment. Here’s some detailed instructions on how to do that:
    https://yourhead.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033849994-Sharing-Your-Project-and-Add-ons

This will be far too large for an email, so package it up in a zip file (the link above shows you how) and share it with DropShare or Dropbox or another link sharing service – then send the link to the whichever developer is appropriate. You can usually find support links in the footer of most developers web pages.

Good Luck – I know you’ll get this sorted out and be back to building pages productively in no time at all. :slightly_smiling_face:

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