Launching Files hangs, gives “Screenshots is not responding” error and then fails

[aral]

What Happened?

I try to launch Files.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Launch files via Applications Menu

Update: Same behaviour now happens whenever a file dialog should display so my system has become basically unsuable.

It hangs.

Then I get an error about Screenshots not responding.

If I kill it, the Files process is also killed. If I wait, I get the same error again.

This started happening after the last time I updated the OS components to the latest (yesterday).

Update: workaround/fix

1. Uninstalled Files via AppCenter
2. Removed all /usr/bin/io.elementary.files* binaries.
3. Restarted

After the restart, Files (and other file dialogues) are back to launching immediately and without issue. Closing.

Expected Behavior

Files should launch.

Possible reasons, unique to my system

1. I had a self-built (from source version of Files installed).
2. I also had the nightly Nautilus (GNOME) installed for testing.

I’m wondering if #1 messed up the files database or something.

Things I’ve tried to try and fix it

• Uninstalled Files, reinstalled from AppCenter
• Uninstalled Screenshot, reinstalled from AppCenter
• Deleted /usr/bin/io.elementary.files* (app itself, daemon, pkexec file) and reinstalled via AppCenter

Same behaviour.

I also cannot see Files in flatpak list.

---

Update: OK, this is odd, so Files is but isn’t a Flatpak?

> which io.elementary.files

/usr/bin/io.elementary.files

???

Update on the update: Right, so Files isn’t a Flatpak due to sandboxing issues. See https://github.com/elementary/files/issues/1508

---

(As I write this, I just tried opening Files from AppCenter and it just worked after taking a very long time to launch so I’m going to use this opportunity to attach some screenshots.)

(Nope, just tried dragging and dropping a screenshot into Web and I’m getting “file is empty”. So no screenshots.) :(

OS Version

6.x (Odin)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

Output of /var/log/syslog during launch:

Oct 14 11:29:15 dev gala.desktop[2241]: Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1800003
Oct 14 11:29:17 dev dbus-daemon[1538]: [session uid=1000 pid=1538] Activating service name='io.elementary.files.db' requested by ':1.3755' (uid=1000 pid=87471 comm="io.elementary.files " label="unconfined")
Oct 14 11:29:17 dev io.elementary.f[87480]: marlind-tagging.vala:78: Database path: /home/aral/.config/marlin/marlin.db 
Oct 14 11:29:17 dev dbus-daemon[1538]: [session uid=1000 pid=1538] Successfully activated service 'io.elementary.files.db'
Oct 14 11:29:19 dev tracker-store[87404]: OK
Oct 14 11:29:19 dev systemd[1521]: tracker-store.service: Succeeded.
Oct 14 11:30:01 dev CRON[87699]: (root) CMD ([ -x /etc/init.d/anacron ] && if [ ! -d /run/systemd/system ]; then /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null; fi)
Oct 14 11:30:07 dev io.elementary.f[87471]: Application.vala:133: Report any issues/bugs you might find to https://github.com/elementary/files/issues
Oct 14 11:30:07 dev gala[2241]: clutter_actor_remove_child: assertion 'CLUTTER_IS_ACTOR (child)' failed
Oct 14 11:30:07 dev gala[2241]: invalid (NULL) pointer instance
Oct 14 11:30:07 dev gala[2241]: g_signal_connect_data: assertion 'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
Oct 14 11:31:14 dev touchegg[809]: libinput error: client bug: timer event9 debounce short: scheduled expiry is in the past (-10ms), your system is too slow
Oct 14 11:31:19 dev io.elementary.f[87471]: Source ID 42 was not found when attempting to remove it

Hardware Info

OS: elementary OS 6 Odin x86_64 
Host: LabTop Mk IV 
Kernel: 5.11.0-37-generic 
Uptime: 23 hours, 16 mins 
Packages: 2355 (dpkg), 65 (flatpak) 
Shell: fish 3.3.1 
Resolution: 3840x2160 
DE: Pantheon 
WM: Mutter(Gala) 
Terminal: io.elementary.t 
CPU: Intel i7-10710U (12) @ 4.700GHz 
GPU: Intel Device 9bca 
Memory: 4747MiB / 15875MiB 

Screenshots

Right, let’s try adding Screenshots by dragging from Files into Firefox instead of Web… right, that seems to work.

[aral]

Reopening as it has started doing it again. Nothing’s changed since the last restart when it had started working.

[jeremypw]

Files is not flatpak'd and is not intended to be run as one. There is nothing in the Files codebase to do with "Screenshots". Is there a process "Screenshots" running. Dragging and dropping images into Web is flaky - best to upload them with the Github interface.

After rebooting to reset things, try launching Files from the terminal with io.elementary.files and post any error messages appearing before the hang.

[jeremypw]

Closing as no further evidence that this issue is related to Files given.