JohnCoates
Black Screen instead of displaying videos
I seem to have what seems to be a common issue, in that I only get a black screen, rather than any videos playing, although occasionally it does seem to work.
I have turned on the additional logging, but as far as I can see there are no actual errors in the log. The latest log shows the following:
2025-01-31 18:45:03.123 : 🖼️ AVinit (.saver) (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) p: true o: true 2025-01-31 18:45:03.138 : Running under companion in preview mode, preventing setup 2025-01-31 18:45:03.152 : child count 3 2025-01-31 18:45:03.169 : /PWC2 wdl 2025-01-31 18:45:03.185 : 🖼️ <AerialView: 0x131f30480> AVdeinit 2025-01-31 18:45:03.202 : reload sidebar 2025-01-31 18:45:03.218 : child count 3 2025-01-31 18:45:03.234 : empty set 2025-01-31 18:45:03.250 : NPrs 2025-01-31 18:45:05.579 : arm64 2025-01-31 18:45:05.617 : arm64
(this is in ArielCompanionlog.txt, there is another log called Ariellog.txt but that hasn't updated today)
Any ideas what could be causing the problem?
I am also seeing this same behavior intermittently on my M1 MBA running the most recent version of MacOS and the current version of Aerial. On Jan 31, 2025, at 1:06 PM, Rob-Sherer @.***> wrote: I seem to have what seems to be a common issue, in that I only get a black screen, rather than any videos playing, although occasionally it does seem to work. I have turned on the additional logging, but as far as I can see there are no actual errors in the log. The latest log shows the following: 2025-01-31 18:45:03.123 : 🖼️ AVinit (.saver) (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) p: true o: true 2025-01-31 18:45:03.138 : Running under companion in preview mode, preventing setup 2025-01-31 18:45:03.152 : child count 3 2025-01-31 18:45:03.169 : /PWC2 wdl 2025-01-31 18:45:03.185 : 🖼️ <AerialView: 0x131f30480> AVdeinit 2025-01-31 18:45:03.202 : reload sidebar 2025-01-31 18:45:03.218 : child count 3 2025-01-31 18:45:03.234 : empty set 2025-01-31 18:45:03.250 : NPrs 2025-01-31 18:45:05.579 : arm64 2025-01-31 18:45:05.617 : arm64 (this is in ArielCompanionlog.txt, there is another log called Ariellog.txt but that hasn't updated today) Any ideas what could be causing the problem?
—Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***>
Ok so let's separate a couple of things.
- If you JUST see a black screen (no overlays), then macOS's legacyScreenSaver has crashed.
Easy fix : Open Activity Monitor, filter for legacyScreenSaver, force kill it. Retry and it should be good. Sometimes it crashed so bad that only a restart can fix it, but it's extremely rare afaik.
- You see overlays but no video. Then it's an Aerial issue, it's usually a corrupted video file causing it. Going through the cache and checking the files is your best bet, or if you use your own videos, check they all play correctly in Quicktime
(this is in ArielCompanionlog.txt, there is another log called Ariellog.txt but that hasn't updated today) Any ideas what could be causing the problem?
@Rob-Sherer because you don't see the regular log (AerialLog.txt) updated, this is what you are experiencing (case 1), legacyScreenSaver is stuck. So try steps above.
@Pcar17 can you check with the logs or overlay in which case you are ?
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, I do just see a black screen, but I don't see legacyScreenSaver in Activity Monitor. I always shut down my machine at the end of the day, too, so it's been rebooted. I will check again to be sure though, the next time this happens.
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, I do just see a black screen, but I don't see legacyScreenSaver in Activity Monitor. I always shut down my machine at the end of the day, too, so it's been rebooted. I will check again to be sure though, the next time this happens.
Try to check if you get a preview in System Settings or not and let me know. If you don't have legacyScreenSaver hanging, it should run (and create a log) for both System Settings or running the saver itself.
No log means macOS is not launching it and something is stuck there (usually legacyScreenSaver but sometimes, though it's extremely rare from what I've seen, it can sometimes be macOS fully denying the screensavers to launch). Log is key in any case, keep me posted.
Yes, if I do a preview in the System Settings that does work ok. Other screensavers do work ok to, it's just seems to be Ariel that has a black screen. I was wondering the same thing as what you said, something seems to be preventing it from launching.
So 3rd party screensavers are treated differently, Apple's built in screensavers usually work fine, so it's not a good comparison. You can try another 3rd party one if you want like : https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/download.html
This should confirm it's legacyScreenSaver that blocks or not.
I've actually done that already, all of those screensavers work fine, as it goes. Although I have noticed they install in a different directory, not sure if that makes a difference.
Hmm. Can you quickly restart your mac, see if that fixes it ? My best guess is that legacyScreenSaver is refusing to launch it.
You could also try opening Console.app, start logging, launch the screen saver and try to find if any error pops then.
It has just worked, although for some reason it didn't display my music that was playing in the background, although I have seen that working before.
Do you need to see any logs to compare it with when it didn't work?
Hi,So since I reported a similar situation Ariel has been working flawlessly on my M1 MBA running MacOS 15.3. Please close out any issue related to me. If it occurs again, I can report it. Thanks…..JohnOn Feb 1, 2025, at 6:47 AM, Guillaume Louel @.***> wrote: Ok so let's separate a couple of things.
If you JUST see a black screen (no overlays), then macOS's legacyScreenSaver has crashed.
Easy fix : Open Activity Monitor, filter for legacyScreenSaver, force kill it. Retry and it should be good. Sometimes it crashed so bad that only a restart can fix it, but it's extremely rare afaik.
You see overlays but no video. Then it's an Aerial issue, it's usually a corrupted video file causing it. Going through the cache and checking the files is your best bet, or if you use your own videos, check they all play correctly in Quicktime
(this is in ArielCompanionlog.txt, there is another log called Ariellog.txt but that hasn't updated today) Any ideas what could be causing the problem?
@Rob-Sherer because you don't see the regular log (AerialLog.txt) updated, this is what you are experiencing, legacyScreenSaver is stuck. So try steps above. @Pcar17 can you check with the logs or overlay in which case you are ?
—Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
I have the exact same issue (blank screen only, no overlays). No legacy screensaver process in activity viewer. Preview in system settings is also blank.
It's intermittent, meaning, this issue pops up, then disappears again, then re-appears, and so on. No pattern.
Yes, the same as me, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and I can't see any pattern.
I have the exact same issue (blank screen only, no overlays). No legacy screensaver process in activity viewer. Preview in system settings is also blank.
It's intermittent, meaning, this issue pops up, then disappears again, then re-appears, and so on. No pattern.
My understanding of this issue is at some point, something breaks and macOS will not even try to launch Aerial until you reboot your mac.
This is linked to a bug they introduced last year where they don't stop screensavers but keep them running in the background.
My best guess is that maybe it's the workaround we found that is causing this, but it's unclear.
In my experience however this is fairly rare, I maybe was able to reproduce this 10 times only (and in those cases, there's nothing for me to debug, macOS just doesn't even attempt to launch the screensaver). Maybe on some hardware it happens more often.
It's a crappy situation, I wish I had a fix. I filled bugs with Apple, I even tried using some DTS support to get attention to the issue to no avail.
With that said, they fixed a longstanding bug in 15.3 for broken multi monitor support so who knows, maybe they'll get to that one.
OK. I'll keep my fingers crossed that Apple fix this in future. I'm sure it did used to work well in the past, so they have clearly broken something.
I probably have a workaround for this now in the alpha version of V4, it's available here. However it's very early and breaks stuff, so use at your own risk or wait for a more stable build !
https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/AerialCompanion/releases/tag/v3.9.9a4
I probably have a workaround for this now in the alpha version of V4, it's available here. However it's very early and breaks stuff, so use at your own risk or wait for a more stable build !
https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/AerialCompanion/releases/tag/v3.9.9a4
Thanks, although I think I will wait until it's more stable before I try it. Fingers crossed though!
Running the latest Tahoe. Can't get 3.9.9a4 to play the videos (local mp4 files), only see black screens (iMac with 2nd monitor). Everything is where it should be, the settings are correct. My videos are shown under Now Playing, but not under Browse Videos. All videos are also in the cache. The latest stable version only worked intermittently. The log file looks like this: 2025-11-25 14:50:38.941 : 🚚 Migration: companion.json exists, already on new system 2025-11-25 14:50:38.942 : 🚀 UnifiedPaths: Starting initialization 2025-11-25 14:50:38.942 : 🚀 UnifiedPaths: Base directory exists, checking for companion.json 2025-11-25 14:50:38.942 : 🚀 UnifiedPaths: Already initialized, ensuring subdirectories exist 2025-11-25 14:50:38.942 : 🚀 UnifiedPaths: Ensuring subdirectories exist 2025-11-25 14:50:38.943 : 🚀 UnifiedPaths: Initialization complete! 2025-11-25 14:50:38.943 : Version 3.9.9a4 launched on Version 26.1 (Build 25B78) 2025-11-25 14:50:38.950 : update 2025-11-25 14:50:38.950 : umc 2025-11-25 14:50:38.991 : 🌉 PluginBridge set-up 2025-11-25 14:50:38.991 : 🐶 initialized 2025-11-25 14:50:38.992 : 🐶 Listening for screen events 2025-11-25 14:50:38.995 : → Checking screensaver version status... 2025-11-25 14:50:38.995 : Installed: 3.9.9a4, Bundled: 3.9.9a4 2025-11-25 14:50:38.996 : Up to date: 3.9.9a4 2025-11-25 14:50:38.996 : Version 3.9.9a4 installed false 2025-11-25 14:50:38.996 : update 2025-11-25 14:50:44.695 : update 2025-11-25 14:50:51.440 : Opening Aerial settings panel 2025-11-25 14:50:51.545 : update
I'm confused by the line 'Version 3.9.9a4 installed false'
@ianhsv I created a separate issue for you, please try to only post there about your specific issue thanks.