Tao Effect Forums

Espionage => Espionage 2 => Topic started by: slash on December 05, 2010, 06:50:12 AM

Title: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: slash on December 05, 2010, 06:50:12 AM
Hey guys,

I am using Espionage since 3 months now and am very happy with it. However, unlocking Safari got slower and slower until the point that now I am asking you guys for help.

I am using both the newest and up-to-date version of OS X and Espionage.

I have added Safari with the application template provided. The locked folders are "Safari", "com.apple.safari" and another "Safari". So 3 in total.

If I open Safari and then enter my password, "Safari" and "com.apple.safari" are unlocked within 1 second. And then it takes about 20 seconds until the other "Safari" is unlocked. During these 20 seconds I can still move the mouse cursor, but nothing else. No other application will open or respond. It seems to me that it takes longer and longer until "safari" is unlocked now. However, if I then lock Safari and unlock it again, all 3 folders are unlocked quickly. So it only slows down for the first time I unlock it after boot-up.

All other applications/folders are unlocked very quickly. Like the Mail application for example or the other folders I have encrypted.

I wondered if I shall do this: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=99#p229 (http://www.taoeffect.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=99#p229)
But before I start messing around, I just wanted to ask for your assessment.

I would be very grateful if you guys can help me out here.

Best,
Slash

PS: Awesome software nevertheless  :)
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: greg on December 07, 2010, 10:10:11 PM
Hey Slash, thanks for the kudos. It sounds like you're encountering a known problem with disk images that can happen if they weren't unmounted properly during a restart.

When this happens, the next time the disk image is mounted it takes a bit of time. I'm not sure exactly why, but if I had to guess it's probably the system running a quick scan of the entire disk image to verify that its contents are intact (something akin to fsck (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fsck)).

The best way to avoid it is to lock all folders prior to restarting. If you have your Safari folders set to Lock On Quit, then just quit Safari before restarting and wait for the notifications from Espionage saying that all its folders have been locked.

Hope you find that explanation helpful, if not let me know!

Cheers,
Greg, Tao Effect
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: slash on December 08, 2010, 03:33:52 PM
Hey Greg, thanks for your time looking into this.

Unfortunately the situation is a bit different: It always takes 30seconds to unlock the "safari" folder after boot-up. On top of that, I always lock all folders before shut-down (and Safari is set to lock on quit as well).

For me, Espionage behaved like this since day 1 using it. At first I did not notice it, because the time it takes to unlock this one folder seems to increase every day. And then at first it did not bother me that it took 5 seconds to unlock. But waiting 30 seconds now before I can use Safari is not the most fun thing I can think of :/

I already have removed Safari from Espionage and then added it again - but that did not have any positive effect.

I am really clueless about what I can do.
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: greg on December 08, 2010, 08:12:02 PM
Quote from: "slash"I already have removed Safari from Espionage and then added it again - but that did not have any positive effect.

Hmm.. I was going to suggest trying just that. I am not sure why this is, it's certainly unusual. It could be for a variety of reasons. Some that come to mind include:


Not much to do about #1, so I would check #2 by having Activity Monitor open before you launch Safari, and sort the processes by CPU usage. See if during the unlock of the Safari folder the process "mds" or "mds-helper" is using up a bunch of CPU. If it is, that means Spotlight is holding it up. If that's not the case, check #3 by seeing if you have DriveGenius installed, or any anti-virus software as they're known to scan volumes when they mount and could be the cause of the holdup (the Activity Monitor trick may help identify that too).

(Activity Monitor is located in /Applications/Utilities).
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: slash on December 09, 2010, 11:56:11 AM
It's a 2010 13' MB Pro. It is only 3 months old and I did not install any Anti-Virus software, nor DriveGenius. I will restart now to check it with Activity Monitor.

Okay, just did that. Result: Activity Manager freezes during the unlock. So no data I could give you.

:(
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: greg on December 09, 2010, 04:00:01 PM
Next time it does that, send us a diagnostic report (http://www.taoeffect.com/other/TEDiagnosticTool.app.zip) shortly after and we'll have a look to see if we can figure anything out, just please make sure to mention this thread in the report comments.
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: slash on December 12, 2010, 09:12:37 AM
It's unfortunate to hear that you do not know what is wrong here. I do not want to install any diagnosis tools.

Backups are taking 5 minutes now for just 1 folder, this is ridiculous. If I quit Mail and the backup runs, this means I cannot reopen Mail for 10 minutes. I have already removed Safari from Espionage because i do not want to waste any more time figuring out what is wrong.

I have recommended this software so far to a lot of people, I will not do so any longer. Software like this has to be rock solid, I do not feel comfortable with it anymore.
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: greg on December 12, 2010, 09:32:49 AM
Quote from: "slash"It's unfortunate to hear that you do not know what is wrong here. I do not want to install any diagnosis tools.

Backups are taking 5 minutes now for just 1 folder, this is ridiculous. If I quit Mail and the backup runs, this means I cannot reopen Mail for 10 minutes. I have already removed Safari from Espionage because i do not want to waste any more time figuring out what is wrong.

I have recommended this software so far to a lot of people, I will not do so any longer. Software like this has to be rock solid, I do not feel comfortable with it anymore.

We greatly appreciate that you've recommended Espionage, and we hope we can live up to your recommendation of it. Software should be rock solid, and it is the ideal that we're striving for, but a lot of software, especially software like Espionage, is very difficult to get perfect, and you have to keep in mind that it doesn't always turn out to be Espionage's fault. This is the only report that we've received (so far) of this issue, so it may be a unique condition on your computer. Also, I don't think it's fair for you to expect us to fix the problem without knowing more information about what's going wrong. Running the diagnostic tool after you experience an issue like this, would definitely go a long way in helping us to correct it. Without such information it's like trying to hit a target across the room with your eyes closed.
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: slash on December 12, 2010, 09:45:43 AM
Sorry Greg, that is correct of course. I greatly appreciate the support and responsiveness here. It is also true that the software seems to be very solid, I did not fear loss of any data etc. Now that I have removed Safari and then had this issue with the backup, it just got on my nerves.

Is not normal that it takes 10 minutes to backup the Mail folders? Again, I have added it via the application template. Then after the 10 minutes it says I should back it up again because it cannot guarantee the integrity.

It's just that I have spent so much time in the past few month for it waiting to unlock, backing up 10 minutes, saying then after these 10 minutes I should please back it up again and thus being unable to use the app for another 10 minutes... it just tipped me off right now.
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: greg on December 12, 2010, 09:57:12 AM
Quote from: "slash"Sorry Greg, that is correct of course. I greatly appreciate the support and responsiveness here. It is also true that the software seems to be very solid, I did not fear loss of any data etc. Now that I have removed Safari and then had this issue with the backup, it just got on my nerves.

Is not normal that it takes 10 minutes to backup the Mail folders? Again, I have added it via the application template. Then after the 10 minutes it says I should back it up again because it cannot guarantee the integrity.

It's just that I have spent so much time in the past few month for it waiting to unlock, backing up 10 minutes, saying then after these 10 minutes I should please back it up again and thus being unable to use the app for another 10 minutes... it just tipped me off right now.

That is definitely not normal if you're using Espionage's built-in backups (which I assume you are based on your description).

Could you elaborate on your backup setup? Are you using an external drive as a backup destination, and if so, how is it connected?

Also, try deleting the entire EspionageBackups folder and then running the backups again. It will take a while to recreate but it's possible that once it does so the backups should completely successfully. Again though, if they do not, it would be very helpful for us to get a diagnostic report from you, as it could explain the source of the problem. If you decide to send one, please include a link to this thread in the comments of the report so we know where it came from.
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: slash on December 12, 2010, 10:02:42 AM
I am backing up to the Time Capsule drive. Using Espionages backup.

What data does your tool collect?
Title: Re: Safari unlock really slow
Post by: greg on December 12, 2010, 10:36:10 AM
Quote from: "slash"I am backing up to the Time Capsule drive. Using Espionages backup.

What data does your tool collect?

You can actually customize this using the checkboxes. By default it will send us the contents of the system and kernel logs, what processes are currently running in the background, and Espionage's database, which lets us know which folders are encrypted and how they're associated with any applications (but not what's inside of them).

How is your Time Capsule connected to your Mac, over the wireless network I'm assuming?