Channels App crashing - iOS/tvOS

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

This started happening last night on our Apple TV while watching a movie. Twice the app crashed to the Apple TV home screen.
I passed it off as a rare thing, but tonight it also happened on my iPhone. I submitted diagnostic logs at that time - 896855f0-e65d-4d3d-9f08-19c586dfbb7a.

What is odd is that each time it happened, I noticed this entry in the logs on the web app:

2023/01/22 20:09:06.722243 [TRS] DNS: OK: Resolved host via system DNS
2023/01/22 20:09:07.004303 [TRS] Cloud Reachable: OK: Connected to community.getchannels.com
2023/01/22 20:09:07.206800 [TRS] Local Time: OK: Local clock is accurate
2023/01/22 20:09:07.206840 [TRS] TV Everywhere: OK
2023/01/22 20:09:07.245975 [TRS] TV Everywhere DNS: OK: Resolved TVE authenticator via system DNS
2023/01/22 20:09:07.581533 [TRS] Guide Provider: OK: Connected to guide provider
2023/01/22 20:09:07.581622 [TRS] Remote Access: OK: Remote access not configured
2023/01/22 20:09:07.586179 [TRS] Disk Permissions: OK

It seems that each time it crashed I looked at these logs and see this entry. Not sure if it's just coincedence or not.

#2

Server diagnostics/logs don't help with client crashes. We need diagnostics from the client.

#3

I sent diagnostics from the iOS client when that crash happened about 30 minutes ago.

I was just pointing out that I see that same entry in the web app logs everytime the crash has occurred.

#4

It just happened again on tvOS. I submitted diagnostics from the app after it occurred.

In my web app logs I see that same entry right before the crash that I posted above. Is the server briefly disconnected or something causing this? I haven't seen any interruption errors in my recordings though.

#5

Those logs are normal when you submit app diagnostic

#8

Can you run this on your DVR and give us the results?

$ curl -sq --max-time 10 http://localhost:8089/dvr/events/subscribe
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#9

If you mean run it in terminal as a command here is all that popped up:

jason@dvr:~$ curl -sq --max-time 10 http://localhost:8089/dvr/events/subscribe
{"Type":"hello", "Version":"2023.01.21.0716"}
jason@dvr:~$

Is that where you meant for me to type that?

#10

Yep, that's perfect.

Are you running any sort of proxy server in front of your DVR? The client is getting malformed data back from the DVR and causing it to run out of memory. We haven't seen this situation before and will need to add more diagnostics and checks to solve it, but getting to the bottom of why it's happening will be helpful.

#11

Thanks for looking into this.

I don't know what a proxy server is, so that probably rules out me having that set up.

I should update you though on a couple of things on my end. This morning I was having issues even accessing the server box (running it on a Beelink mini PC with Ubuntu server installed). I kept getting an error opening Webmin in my browser and it was saying something about being out of memory.

In frustration I just rebooted the box and moved everything back over to my Windows 11 PC and unplugged the Beelink. I decided maybe the Beelink was just dying or something.

I started running the DVR setup again on the PC and it's now re-scanned all my files and currently running the video index regeneration on everything.

I was just now watching an episode of the Flash and about 30 minutes into the show, the tvOS app crashed again back to the home screen just like it was doing last night, so it does sound like the Beelink isn't the main issue. I did submit diagnostics again from the app.

So you can think with my setup - I now have the DVR on my Windows 11 PC with a 4 TB HDD as my recordings drive. I have all of my other TV Series and ripped movies on a NAS box (TNAS). That is being accessed via the Samba connection from the Channels server. Everything I have is hard wired, no Wifi.

I don't know if this is a factor, but while the Channels server is running the video regeneration index, my NAS box keeps giving me warnings that it is running sluggish. I checked it via the web app for the TNAS and the CPU on it goes from about 30% up to 90% kind of back and forth.

The only software I have that is accessing those files right now is the Channels DVR. I don't have Emby or Plex installed anywhere at the moment.

Let me know what else I can provide to help with this as I've never had any of these issues before. Things usually just play fine.

#12

I never heard anything back from my last post on this in January.

I am seeing this crashing happening again. It has happened twice now in the past 2 hours while watching an imported TV Show.

I had it earlier today as well while watching a movie.

I did submit diagnostics after this last crash at around 5:35pm from the Apple TV app.

#13

Does it always crash when you watch the same import?

2 Likes
#14

No. It's random.
I was watching Star Trek III when it crashed twice earlier today.

It crashed prior to my post while watching Next Level Chef. It did crash twice during the same episode. I submitted the logs again after the 2nd crash.

However, I watched about 45 minutes of Star Trek IV and it never crashed while watching that one.

#15

The crashes you are having now seem to be different than the ones you were having before.

If you can isolate a specific recording that can regularly cause the crash, that would help us narrow down where the issue is.

#16

Gotcha.

I will play around with it tomorrow some more. Since I know what I was watching I will fire those up again and see if I can make it occur.

We are watching some more episodes of Master Chef right now - if it happens with those I will also submit logs as they happen.

#17

I haven't been able to re-create this one. However, I was using the Emby app on the same Apple TV device and had a very similar crash where the app just closes to the home screen and when I re-open it the video I was watching also reopens like it was paused or something.

So, it may be an issue with the Apple TV device in general and not the app specifically.

If it occurs again I will just submit logs in case it is helpful.

#18

I just sumbmitted logs again on this. Watching Stripes (bluray rip) about 3 minutes into the movie and the app crashes again, same way mentioned about.

Logs submitted at about 2:04am EST

#19

Submitted logs again...

#20

2 posts were split to a new topic: Crashing on Apple TVs