Freezing/crashing when UMS isn't the active window

[Tdouellette]

This sounds insane because it doesn't seem like it could be a real thing, but it has proved itself to me. When I am streaming video to my XBox 360 from my Macbook Pro Retina, it streams flawlessly for as long as I want *as long as I keep the UMS main panel open as the active window*. If I minimize UMS to the tray or sidebar or make Safari or Finder any other application the active window, the streaming crashes; sometimes it takes two minutes, sometimes more, it's completely random and happens repeatedly as long as UMS isn't active. Sometimes the crashes are instant and other times it freezes for a few seconds before crashing, but when it freezes if I make the main panel the active window again, the stream comes back instantly instead of crashing.

The attached log was taken after one of each instance over the course of a ~20 minute stream: a crash and a "save" where it froze and I brought the window back to the front before the crash. If I can make anything clearer or answer any questions just let me know.

Thanks a ton in advance!

Edit: Added a new log file as I realized that trace should probably be running the whole time, though it doesn't seem to have made a difference(?).

[Tdouellette]

Bump.

This problem is still occuring and it is now 100% clear that not being "on top" of other windows is the cause of the issue. When starting a stream with UMS not the active window sometimes the screen will go black as if initiating the stream, then just stay there until it crashes, or it initializes the very instant that I make UMS active.

[jhh]

Same problem here. Looks like the screensaver is the problem. Disabling screensaver on Mac makes UMS to be upmost window all time and therefore no crashes occur.

[Tdouellette]

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in having this issue (and I still am), and thanks a lot for the reply and for trying to help! Unfortunately in my case I don't have a screensaver enabled, but I can't just keep UMS as the active window because I'm doing other things. The issue is a big problem for me because normally while we're streaming something to the TV, either my wife or I is using my laptop and keeping UMS active and open on top of all other windows is quite a nuisance, especially if one of us wants to watch or play something in fullscreen on the laptop. When doing that, we have to deal with not only the stream crashing constantly, but the person on the laptop has to bring UMS to the front, wait for the stream to re-initialize, then shift back to what they were doing...and then it might happen again seconds later, or they might have a few minutes.

[Kefran]

Mavericks (OS X 10.9) introduced a new feature called 'App Nap' which places applications that are hidden and not currently doing anything, into a paused state to save energy.

Try disabling App Nap:

Click on 'Universal Media Server.app' in Applications folder (or wherever your copy is installed) --> Click 'File' menu --> Click ''Get Info' --> check 'Prevent App Nap' checkbox in 'Universal Media Server.app Info' window.

Hopefully that fixes your problem.