Menu bar disappeared

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mkihr
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Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:17 pm

Menu bar disappeared

Post by mkihr »

Hello!

For some reason the menu bar of kJams Pro disappeared. When ever I start kJams now, the main window appears and I can select songs and play .... But there is no menu bar. And while the kJams window is in the foreground there is also no Dock visible. The only way to stop kJams is to get the focus on another window and then end kJams via the Dock.
I am running MacOS 10.12.1 on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015). kJams Version is 1.0.2b12.

mkihr
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:17 pm

Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by mkihr »

In the meantime I tried several things:
I deleted everything in com.metamuse.kjams.savedState.
I deleted com.metamuse.kjams.plist.
No change.
I installed a trial of kJams 2. Shows exact same behaviour.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by DeusExMachina »

You can also, of course, force quit it.
⌘ ⌥ esc.
Sounds like you have screen zoom on or set the dock and menu bar to auto hide. If you shoot the cursor all the way to the top of the screen and leave it there, does the many bar return?
In 10.12, you can change these in system preferences>General and/or Dock

mkihr
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:17 pm

Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by mkihr »

No! I do not have any of this enabled.
And this strange behaviour is only with kJams. No other application. It is new to me that I can set this for individual applications.
Anyway: The task bar as well as the dock do not appear when I set the mouse there.
And once again: The window is not going to fullscreen (as it would be with screen zoom). It is just in the foreground with standard size.
In between I have even deleted the application including all directories and preferences. After reinstallation same behaviour. Is there anywhere a config file or directory in a place I don't know?

DeusExMachina
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by DeusExMachina »

Have you tried running the app from a different user account?

mkihr
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:17 pm

Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by mkihr »

Hello!

I tried that one. Here is what happened:

I created a normal user account.
I started kJams and it started with the password explanation and the asked tow time for the password.
This did not happen on the other account after deinstallation and reinstallation. I have deleted all preference files and directories I know, but he is not asking for that which leads me again to the question: Is it storing something in a place I don't know? For me it is obvious that there is somewhere a configuration file which was not removed.

But here is what happened on that other account:
After first start and two times entering the password nothing happened anymore. Activity monitor showed the application as not responding. I waited a few minutes, but nothing happened.
I killed the app and started it again. Again asked for the password. But then it moved forward till: creating venues. There it stopped and nothing happened anymore. CPU usage 75%. Again I waited several minutes. Then I killed it again.
I started again and it came again up with asking 2 times for the password and then hung at the same point as before. I tried a few times but no change.
I changed the account to a administrator account and this time it started. Taskbar and Dock was visible.

So far, so good. Beside the fact that this application seems to be working only on a administrator account (which is quite strange) it don't help
much. I do not want to run it in a separate account.

How can I remove this application from my system without anything remaining?

mkihr
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:17 pm

Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by mkihr »

Found it. Means I found the place where the preferences are stored. Don't know why I did not get that one before: ~/Library/Preferences/kJams
I used Instruments to trace the IO activity and with that it was easy. After deleting the kJams Preferences.plist it started with asking again for the password and then came up normal. Taskbar is back now.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by DeusExMachina »

A few things:
First, it sounds like you have a permissions issue, not specifically kJams related, but on kJams support files.
Second, they aren't just in ~/ but also in /.
kJams stores files in:
~/Library/Preferences/kJams,
~/Library/Preferences/com.metamuse.kjams.plist, and
~/Library/Application Support/kJams Plugins, as well as:
/Library/Caches.
Previous version also stored files in /Library/Application Support/kJams Plugins and /Library/Preferences
(though it stopped doing that a few versions ago).
Depending on when you first installed, you need to check all those places to remove any and all files to completely uninstall.
Sounds like some kJams support files permissions got set to something like system=read, staff=x, user=no access, or some such, and that caused kJams to hang at a key point in the launch process. This explains why it would run from an admin account but not a standard account.
By removing all of them, and reinstalling from a freshly downloaded copy, you should be all good, including running from a standard account. If you don't want to have to recreate your entire library, do the following:
Make backups of all the files listed above (from ~/Library/Application Support, ~/Library/Preferences, and ~/Music/kJams).
Delete any old files in /Library (Preferences and Application Support and Caches).
Download a fresh copy of kJams and run to install.
After running it once, quit.
Then go to your back ups you made in the step above.
In your ~/Library/Application Support/kJams Plugins folder should be Atomic Parsley. You can leave that alone.
In ~/Library/Preferences folder should be the kJams folder and com.metamuse.kjams.plist. You can leave com.metamuse.kjams.plist alone. It doesn't do anything that you will need to transfer.
So you are left with the files in ~/Library/Preferences/kJams, and ~/Music.
If you have settings in your old install that you want to transfer and don't want to recreate, you need to copy the kJams Preferences.plist file. If you have ShowScreens you want to save, you need to copy the Producer Template folder as well, BUT…
First, you should check their permissions. You can find them by doing a "Get Info" (⌘ I) on the files/folder. Your old kJams Preferences.plist file should have permissions set to:

You=read/write,
staff=read only
everyone=read only.

If that looks right, go ahead and copy your backup file over top of the one that just got installed.
The Producer Templates folder should also have the same preferences, as should EVERY file inside it.
If these look good, go ahead and copy that folder over top of the new one. This should copy all your settings and Showscreens over to the new install.
Then relaunch kJams and test it out. If all things are good, then go to ~/Music/kJams.
That folder and ALL of its contents should also have those same permissions.
If that looks good, copy all the contents inside ~/Music/kJams/kJams Library on top of the newer ones.
This should resurrect your original library and venues.
If all went well, AND all those files had the correct permissions (you checked all of them, right?) you should be good. If the problem returns, there is a problem internal to one of those files and I suspect Dave will want to take a look at them.

dave
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by dave »

wow sorry i've been out of the loop on this! the solution is just to hit command-zero on your keyboard.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by DeusExMachina »

Pretty sure this was not just a full screen issue, since that is not fully consistent with what he says was going on, including not being able to quit kJams and the kJams main window being visible.

dave
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by dave »

i've seen situations where you're NOT in full screen mode but kjams PARTLY thinks you are so hides the menu bar. this mode sticks between launches. command zero fixes it.

not quitting i think is a separate issue completely, even if it happened around the same time.

OP: if it's still not quitting, please email me and i'll find out what the sitch is.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by DeusExMachina »

Hmm… while that is an odd bug, I was going off this:
In between I have even deleted the application including all directories and preferences. After reinstallation same behaviour.
Even without properly removing ~/Library/Preferences/kJams, would this behavior really survive a reinstall?

dave
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by dave »

yes, the problem is stored in the prefs. i'm going to guess that the prefs were not *entirely* deleted

Stemms
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Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:12 am

Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by Stemms »

dave wrote:wow sorry i've been out of the loop on this! the solution is just to hit command-zero on your keyboard.
What is command-zero?
Last edited by Stemms on Thu Mar 10, 2022 5:20 am, edited 7 times in total.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Menu bar disappeared

Post by DeusExMachina »

Typing the command (⌘) key and the 0 (zero) key on the Mac keyboard at the same time.

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