How can I effectively report these specific crashes that happen on my systems?

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1

I’ve been recently noticing lot of crashes especially when working with sequences. The project doesn’t need to be heavy. All it needs a few simple 1080p clips and sequences. No effects. That’s it.

Most importantly, they happen the most when I launch my project directly from .kdenlive file. They are less common when I first open Kdenlive and then launch project from “Open Recent” menu. Similarly, doesn’t happen when launching with CMD.

There are 3 crashes:

  1. Scroll related: It usually happens when you’re working with multiple sequences. When you close / open and scroll horizontally, it can crash at any moment, randomly. Of course, one could say “I’m doing too many actions too fast”. But the thing is, when you are working on a decent size project, you’ll always be dealing with such actions, and that’s when it happen, randomly, unintentionally. But even then it should not happen. I’m not too fast.
    Example screen recording: https://youtu.be/sFdKqADnXBk

  2. Closing main sequence: When you open multiple sequences and then close the first (main sequence), it will not close and instead crash. Every time. Example: https://youtu.be/dFsXIuQCups

  3. Closing Kdenlive: When you press X (close) button, you see a Windows loader, that is a sign it has crashed instead of closed properly. Normally, it doesn’t close like that. Next time it starts up, it will tell you a backup file is available, which is further confirmation. Example: https://youtu.be/WJh2o6IJvxI

I have tested these things on two systems with version 24.12.0 and 24.12.1.

  1. Laptop - Windows 10, i7 8550u, 940MX 4GB VRAM GPU, 16GB RAM, SSD
  2. Desktop - Windows 11, i5 12400F, 3050 6GB GPU, 16GB RAM, SSD

Lastly, I would say my systems are nowhere bad for video editing, because they can handle davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro very well with no issues.

Then there’s a possibility that my two systems are not compatible with Kdenlive. But then again, it doesn’t explain the experience with “Open Recent” projects.

I strongly believe, they are Kdenlive bugs, even if they are not compatible with my systems or not happening with anyone else.

People on Reddit deny like “It never crashed for me in last 3 years!”.

I assume developers won’t consider them bugs or won’t fix it because they won’t be able to reproduce them.

But that’s all I have. Given all that, how do I effectively report them? Is there any hope for me?

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File a bug report on

https://bugs.kde.org

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Well, they definitely won’t be able to reproduce them if you don’t give the report enough attention to detail and describe precisely what actions they need to perform to do so.

I already told you previously, the best way to do that is provide a minimal project file and/or step by step instructions for how to make the problem occur with things other people can find in their own homes.

If the problem really is specific to some source file of your own, then we may need it or something like it, but in general we don’t want GB of your video to perform a test. Try using colour or title clips to create a minimal example if you can.

“Here’s a video of it happening” isn’t generally something I can test or quickly triage …

As a concrete example, this:

… is very patently not true. And I know that, without looking any deeper, because it’s something I (and surely lots of other people) have done hundreds of times and it has never, ever, crashed on me.

In which case my first instinct would usually be something like “meh, user error, nothing I can do about this, move on” …

But you’re new here, and you seem to have a talent for blowing things up, which is a valuable skill for software testers to have, so I’m going to try one more time to get you on the path of filing actionable bug reports …

Here’s the very essential item that you didn’t bother to tell us: this only happens when you have nested other sequences into the first one. [And it actually doesn’t happen Every Time, but knowing that, it is quite reproducible.]

Nested timelines do still have a few rough edges, so this one is definitely worth a bug report - and as I also told you previously, shouldn’t be too hard to find and fix given a way to reproduce it.

I’m not going to watch your other videos, I’m going to leave it as an exercise for you to figure out how to explain exactly what you are doing step by step yourself.

But please, if you want to help us help you:

  • Describe one bug in each report. Mashing together “here’s everything I found a way to break today” isn’t conducive to coherently and clearly analysing The Problem That Needs Fixing.

  • Clearly describe the precise steps needed to make the problem happen in a way that a moderately intelligent young child should be able to follow without assistance.

And do drop the “woe is me, I cried wolf and nobody believes me” business. If you tell people I did X and it crashed, when what you really did is Y, and they all know that doing X works just fine, then yeah, woe really is you. But that’s fixable - as are the bugs - if you hone your talent at finding them into a skill for describing how others can find them too.

Honestly? Right now, I’m not really sure - I tried to point you in the right direction earlier, and maybe it was just me that wasn’t clear enough in that case, but we don’t seem to have come far since then …

But I do hope so. Really. The first step to fixing all bugs is having someone find them, and people who are really good at that, are kinda precious. In the good way.

So take a deep breath, slow down a bit. Look carefully at what you can do to find the edges between where the problem does and does not happen. Then tell us what you learned. And if you do that well, things will get fixed.

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Like I said, two of the problems are very easy to reproduce and I can even explain it how to reproduce. 1) Crash on closing Kdenlive (happens sometimes) 2) Crash on clicking X icon to close main sequence (that happens every time)

But my doubt is, even after explaining, and them not encountering these issues (like you don’t face these issues), would they consider it bug?

Now talking about 3rd crash. That is totally random. I know certain steps that would lead to that crash within 2 minutes. But I can’t tell exact steps what leads to that crash. So they will again never be able to reproduce it or dismiss it.

Lastly, as I wrote at the beginning of this post, it’s nothing fancy project. I download 4 clips from Kdenlive tutorial only.

Lastly, about “nested sequences”, I thought videos will be helpful (they are indeed helpful to know how to reproduce, as video proofs are better along with mere words). But since you seem to suggest that nobody would watch them, I’d mention that in written form.

I would easily submit full project also, which is less than 20MB.

But is there any point in reporting the 3rd bug given there are NO precise steps? That is my fear. If you can’t reproduce something in precise steps, it would be a considered a bug for me only. That doesn’t help Kdenlive.

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Which part of that, literally (as you again tried to explain it without describing all the details of what you did) is absolutely not true was I just unclear about?

I can create a new project with multiple sequences, then close any or all of them in any order, and that does not ever cause a crash. There is no bug following the steps as you described them.

It’s only when I introduce the step that you did not tell us - nesting other timelines into that first one - that the bug you encountered actually appears.

Nobody is going to have time to try and guess all the things you don’t tell us - so if you don’t tell us, they are just going to languish until someone comes along who can.

Unless I wake up magically psychic, there is absolutely nothing we can do with “I know certain steps that make it crash” if you don’t tell us all the details of what steps to take. If you can’t explain even that much of it, how can you possibly imagine that we might have any idea where to start looking? So instead of immediately posting here to say you fear nobody will ever find it - go take some time to explore it until you do understand enough to properly describe it. That’s when we’d love to hear what you found. Without that, you’re just taking people’s time away from actually being spent on fixing and improving things.

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There is no way of telling other than filing the bug report, now is it? No one can read the dev team’s minds. And as @Ron has pointed out several times, the more details you provide, the better the chances of reproducing the errors are. Screenshots and your screen recordings help also. Trust me, they are being watched.
But the best piece of evidence is the .kdenlive project file. Even with using placeholders it can provide a lot of information and perhaps completely suffices to replicate the errors. If the clips are small upload them, too, or aty least provide links to a cloud share.

For better troubleshooting, focus, and replies, please report the bugs separately. Thanks!

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Yeah, I didn’t actually mean to say that they aren’t helpful at all - just that they aren’t a replacement for actually explaining the problem. If I have to guess what I’m looking for, you don’t get to be surprised when I guess wrong or just give up on guessing.

For bonus irony points though - it’s almost like the nested timelines problem was already known, and I can confirm that appears to be fixed in 24.12.2.

Unless there’s something else I still don’t know about how to reproduce it :slight_smile:

8

Which part of that, literally (as you again tried to explain it without describing all the details of what you did) is absolutely not true was I just unclear about?

There is no bug following the steps as you described them.

I clearly wrote in original post that it may not happen for others. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a bug. That is absolutely true for me. You probably didn’t read my original post carefully.

Lastly, my post was meant to be understood with those videos, which you never considered worth your time. Again, that won’t help Kdenlive.

Do you want to say if it’s not happening with you or most people, it isn’t a bug? Then there’s no point of further discussion.

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Again, you can’t reproduce it if it’s not happening on your end. I could.

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Honestly, whole point of this post was to discuss how to report effectively when others can’t reproduce it.

And as @Ron has pointed out several times, the more details you provide, the better the chances of reproducing the errors are. Screenshots and your screen recordings help also. Trust me, they are being watched.
But the best piece of evidence is the .kdenlive project file. Even with using placeholders it can provide a lot of information and perhaps completely suffices to replicate the errors. If the clips are small upload them, too, or aty least provide links to a cloud share.

I am fully aware of it and I’m able to do it. The question was how or should I report it if it doesn’t happen with others. Ron seems to be insisting that “it isn’t happening for me” so it isn’t a bug. Or I misunderstood.

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And it will not happen for you either if you follow exactly the instructions you wrote.

I’ve tried to help you, I’ve failed. I’m going back to actually fixing things.

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Nevertheless, it seems two of these bugs are fixed for me. Couldn’t reproduce today. I would know more in coming days.

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Yes you’re right, the instructions were not clear. Because you skipped videos. Videos were part of instructions.

Even then I agreed, if I were to report I would add written details on actual bug report after you pointed it out.

Again, it was a discussion post about bug content, not a bug report.

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Also note that I’m a beginner in all this, that’s why I post here and there to know more. Even then I know my initial bug reports wouldn’t be up to the standards.

Also, I want to clarify I want best for Kdenlive because I can’t pay for other paid software. I want it to be as good as possible, even if it doesn’t include more features. There’s no intention to criticize Kdenlive for the bugs. Because I know there’s no point in it.

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You definitely should. Because you never know who else has or hasn’t the problem, even though some users in different chat channels say they don’t experience the same issue or cannot reproduce.

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