kbfs: files mysteriously stopped uploading

[taw00]

(I also asked this in keybasefriends kbfs chat.)

problem: files are no longer uploading (this is a copy to a mounted kbfs, not git)
question: How can I troubleshoot why it simply stopped uploading?
system: Fedora 32 server (no GUI). Been using Keybase on this system for years, updating consistently.
version: keybase-5.6.1.20210125164223.f3b21527b9-1.x86_64
situation:

• under DirtyPaths, a directory and two files beneath it are listed (i.e., as found in /keybase/public/toddwarner/.kbfs_status)
• kbfs fs uploads says nothing is in process
• kbfs fs stat [filepath] gives me the file info and NOT_STARTED
• there are no conflicts listed in any of the .kbfs_status file that I can see
• quota: I have used kbfs for years and years now, but my quota usage is relatively small
• devices: I have two devices with kbfs mounted, but I only write to the fs on one device I waited a long time today for kbfs to sort itself out. It is unchanged after a couple hours.

my log id: 509cffa4aaea798c9a34451c

[taw00]

Strib helped me. This is what we did:

1. tried shutting down the services, moving the journal directory out of the way, restarting the service, and coping the files again (this failed to resolve the issue).
2. tried shutting down the services, nuked ~/.local/share/keybase/kbfs_block*, restarting the service, and coping the files again (this worked)

There is a bug ... some where. :)

[jpaugh]

I'm having the same issue, and tried several things. Each time I restarted the keybase service, I opened the GUI to check things out. From what I've gathered, opening the GUI is necessary in order for the service to restart fully and properly, and especially to recreate the internal files I kept deleting. In order, here's what I tried:

1. Remove the kbfs_block_cache folder

   1. $ keybase ctl stop
   2. $ rm ~/.local/share/keybase/kbfs_block_cache
   3. $ keybase ctl start

   At this point, the pending uploads were still there (keybase fs uploads). No apparent change.

2. Turn off the service again, and move the kbfs_block_cache and kbfs_block_metadata folders into a new old folder, as per @taw00's instructions.

   No apparent change. The pending uploads were still there, and the files still existed in the local copy of KBFS.

3. Turn off the service, move the kbfs_journal folder into old/, and delete the two kbfs_block_* files.

   This removed my list of recent files from the app, and removed all pending uploads. It also removed the local copies of the files I wanted to upload from KBFS. Good so far.

4. Tried re-uploading the files. At first, it displayed a very short upload time (as before), and seemed to show no progress. However, while typing this out, it has changed, and shows some sort of progress.

5. I repeated step 3, because I realized I was uploading more data than I wanted to sit and wait for; and I repeated step 4 with several small files. Unfortunately, that ended my good luck. The uploads list went back to the same behavior, with a very short estimated time, and no progress.

6. Repeating step 5. This time, it finally allowed uploading! Yay! I verified that I could see the files from another device.

[jpaugh]

@taw00 Can you please re-open this ticket, as it's still an issue.

[taw00]

Reopening at @jpaugh 's request.