Hi Koos -
From your description I suspect you had a memory issue, i.e running out
of memory. It might be caused by QGIS but it's probably caused by some
other app running on your computer. Some (badly implemented) apps are
"leaking" memory, i.e: allocating memory, but never deallocating it
after use. After some time the bad app has allocated large amounts of
memory that's not available to other apps.
If you are short on available memory on the computer the OS will begin
to swap contents from the memory to and from a swap-file usually placed
in the root of C: (the hard-disk containing the OS). This can explain
the sudden periodic "freezing" of QGIS: The OS has to load pieces of
out-swapped QGIS content into memory before QGIS can continue.
If you additionally are short on available disk space on the system
drive and are creating some largish temp files (which usually is placed
on the system drive), the situation can rapidly escalate to a system
crash (BSOD)
To avoid this situation:
* Install more memory on your computer.
* Only have a minimum of apps running at the same time.
* Frequently reboot you computer (It's Windows, after all :-)
* If you have two hard-disks on your computer: Move the temp directory
to different drive than the one containing the swap-file.
You already done the "right now"- steps anyway so the mail is more a
reminder for other readers or google-searches :-)
And by the way: QGIS and Postgres/PostGIS is a killer combination :-) .
IMHO it beats other GIS applications hands down.
--
Med venlig hilsen / Kind regards
Bo Victor Thomsen
Den 10-04-2020 kl. 08:55 skrev Koos Fransen:
Dear Bo and Andreas
Thank you very much for your insights.
Given the fact that QGIS has been more stable since yesterday, I think
the problem was related to my hard drive memory and temporary files. I
did not have a lot of space left on the hard drive, and I tend do
leave my computer on when calling it a day, so maybe that combination
was not very helpful for QGIS to work smoothly.
I’ve deleted some data on my laptop, thus freeing up some space and,
as you said, I deleted my temp files for QGIS (I had been working with
very large datasets), and for now everything works quite well. I’ll
also start shutting off my laptop from time to time 😉
I’ll keep you posted if it should occur again and if I can find a
clear solution to the problem. Anyway, Bo, you and your wife’s list is
a very good starting point to start problem solving with should this
issue occur again. There are some things that I can exclude as reason
(build is the stable 3.10 version, it’s not the anti-virus, it’s not a
work network environment, …), and some things that I still have to
test. Many thanks for your help (and good luck with the teaching
assignment, I’m teaching introductory courses in GIS at Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, but one of the next things I would like to dive
into is the use of PostGIS and PostgreSQL for my own research)!
Kind regards
Koos
--
*dr. Koos Fransen*
Research unit Cosmopolis (VUB)
Research unit ISE (UGent)**
I am available for _VUB_ on _Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays_ and for
UGent on Mondays and Wednesdays. Consequently, I try to structure
meetings accordingly and answers to your mails may be delayed.
*From:*Andreas Neumann <[email protected]>
*Sent:* donderdag 9 april 2020 17:27
*To:* Bo Victor Thomsen <[email protected]>; Koos Fransen
<[email protected]>; [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [Qgis-user] ISSUE QGIS keeps freezing - QGIS Desktop 3.10.4
Hi,
These are all good points. I also had severe issues with Antivirus -
it slowed down or prevented a lot of the network access. The IT
services had to add exceptions.
But you describe that it only happens after a couple of days of usage,
which is strange.
If you find out what the issues really is, please let us know, so we
can learn.
Andreas
Am 09.04.20 um 15:20 schrieb Bo Victor Thomsen:
Hi Koos -
I had a talk with my wife Lene Fischer about your issues. (She is
a Assoc. Prof. teaching GIS at a department of the University of
Copenhagen using QGIS. I co-lecture with her on the use of spatial
enabled databases (PostgreSQL/ PostGIS)).
She hasn't experienced the issues you describe (but some other
issues)
Here is some pointers:
* Use a long-term releases and keep up with the point releases
3.10.3 -> 3.10.4 (Which you do :-)
* Clean the temp dir regularly (Which you did :-)
* Check the setup of your windows pointers to user-dirs, temp
space. Sometimes they are not suited for computers outside the
university network (or inside, if the network sucks)
* Check if your logon name contains special characters outside
us-ASCII like accented character or blanks. QGIS is fine with
these but some add-on libraries is not. The logon name can be
a part of a path name that something chokes on.
* Check your antivirus by temporarily disable it before using QGIS.
* Check your disk space. The temp dir can "grow" considerably
during QGIS use.
* Check the amount of memory used on your computer. If you
*are* using all available ram you *will* get the symptoms you
describe
* Install a minimum of plugins.
* Keep your windows installation as clean as possible. QGIS
might conflict with some other software installed on your
computer. You might try to install QGIS on computer with a new
clean install of windows. Check if the error is repeated on
the new computer.
* You might try with installing QGIS from the "network
installer" utility instead of a stand-alone installation
(https://download.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/osgeo4w-setup-x86_64.exe).
It defaults to another installation directory than the
stand-alone installation. That might help.
* If nothing of the above works - try another version of QGIS
i.e. 3.12.1.
The network installer has the possibility to install a
"bleeding edge" version of QGIS but I won't recommend using
these in a teaching situation (or any other situation which
involves inexperienced users). But you can use it in a testing
situation
--
Med venlig hilsen / Kind regards
Bo Victor Thomsen
Den 09-04-2020 kl. 11:20 skrev Koos Fransen:
Hi Bo
Thanks for your quick response!
Sorry for the minimal information provided, I wasn’t sure what
to add (first question to the QGIS user list).
To answer your questions:
OS: Windows 10 – 64 bit
QGIS version: 3.10.4 64 bit, stand-alone installation
I’m not in any networked set-up, I’m working from home on my
own computer. I have only one plugin installed (QuickOSM), and
I’ve already tried uninstalling, but without any difference.
Since my question I’ve been trying some things, and I have
deleted the temporary QGIS files in my Local/Temp folder. When
I open and use QGIS now, I have the feeling it’s more stable
again. It gives a hint of freezing up at the start, but
afterwards all goes quite well again. Then again, not sure of
this is a solid solution for fixing this issue, as I have
experienced this issue before completely deleting and
reinstalling everything QGIS-related on my laptop (using REVO
uninstaller). After this, QGIS worked fine for about a week
until today.
I do recall trying to load some large files into QGIS, maybe
they were stored in a temporary directory somewhere and
deleting the temporary files helped?
Anyways, it might be relevant for me to know. I’ve switched
our courses from ArcGIS to QGIS, and I’m really happy about
it, but I would like to be able to help my students if these
kind of problems occur.
Thank for the help already, not sure if there’s more to do for
now, but let me know if you have any more ideas.
Kind regards
Koos
--
*dr. Koos Fransen*
Research unit Cosmopolis (VUB)
Research unit ISE (UGent)
I am available for _VUB_ on _Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays_
and for UGent on Mondays and Wednesdays. Consequently, I try
to structure meetings accordingly and answers to your mails
may be delayed.
*From:*Qgis-user <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Bo
Victor Thomsen
*Sent:* donderdag 9 april 2020 10:16
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [Qgis-user] ISSUE QGIS keeps freezing - QGIS
Desktop 3.10.4
Hi Koos:
That's not much information to go on.
What about: OS type and version ? 32/64 bit os ? QGIS
version ? QGIS 32/64 bit ? network environment ? Normal
stand-alone installation or Network installation ?
I'll hazard a *guess* based on my own painful experiences: You
are working in a networked windows setup, where your IT
department has made some modifications for home directory
(including temp file placement) and/or the userdata
environment - maybe making it fully dependant on the network.
And maybe You are using the same login account for all pupils.
Combine this with a marginally functioning network and it will
be a train wreck
Another scenario: You have installed some plugin, that's not
working correctly.
What you can test:
* Disable/Remove all plugins from QGIS and test if the
problem goes away
* Load some GIS data locally on you computer and disconnect
the computer from the network. Then test QGIS again.
That said, QGIS ver. 3.10 onwards has long startup times.
However it's quick and stable after that
--
Med venlig hilsen / Kind regards
Bo Victor Thomsen
Den 09-04-2020 kl. 09:46 skrev Koos Fransen:
Dear all
I have a question regarding QGIS.
I’m using QGIS for my classes, but since a recent install
my QGIS keeps freezing right after startup. It doesn’t
respond until after a minute, then I can open some files
and then it freezes again. This keeps on going, making it
impossible to keep working with QGIS.
I’ve tried reinstalling, which always helps at first, but
after a couple of days it starts freezing again. I’ve also
tried with different versions, with the same result.
It might maybe have something to do with temporary files?
Has someone experienced the same issue, and are there
possible solutions that you know of?
Thanks!
Koos
_______________________________________________
Qgis-user mailing list
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
List info:https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
Unsubscribe:https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
_______________________________________________
Qgis-user mailing list
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
List info:https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
Unsubscribe:https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
_______________________________________________
Qgis-user mailing list
[email protected]
List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
Unsubscribe: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
