A Warning about Neo
Answered
I was trying to find a way, using Neo, to address a question I saw on the forum and that involved doing some masking of an image and then adding a new image layer, using the same original image as that layer. Neo crashed, but what was more serious is that it would no longer run again. Every time I tried to start Neo it would crash before it opened.
I assumed that there was some bad information in one of it's files so I started removing files and folders from the Library folders that I thought might have caused the crash. None of that worked, including removing the Saved State file, and the only way I could get Neo working again was to remove every Neo file and folder and then do a "new" install. Unfortunately Neo does not have an uninstaller so removing the files and folders was a tedious process.
That whole process involved Neo being used as an external editor from the PhotoLine pixel editor so I tried the same thing using Neo as a stand-alone app and, yes, it all happened a second time, and I had to go through the entire removal and reinstall process again before I could get Neo working again.
Just a warning about using image layers. Be careful.
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Hi Michael,
I am sorry to hear about such experience.
Instead of reinstalling, please try the following steps:
- Hold down the Option key on your keyboard and start Luminar. Keep holding Option until you see a window with a list of available backups appear.
- Select a backup that was created before you encountered the issue with the library and click Restore from Backup.
Here is the video tutorial that may also be helpful: https://www.loom.com/share/2fad8457bbb34faa948ea766a002aad8 -
No. That did not work. I held down the Option key and started Neo, but all I got was another crash, although this time I saved the crash report. Neo never got started enough to even show the Neo splash screen. Just a new crash report.
I think you might want to remove the "Answered" flag as it might keep people from reading through the post and then finding that they had the exact same issue.
Here is some general information about what caused the crash, although I am not posting the entire crash report.
Process: Luminar Neo [869]
Path: /Applications/Luminar Neo.app/Contents/MacOS/Luminar Neo
Identifier: com.skylum.luminarneo
Version: 1.0.1 (10954)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]
User ID: 501
Date/Time: 2022-03-11 06:00:09.7387 -0700
OS Version: macOS 12.2.1 (21D62)
Report Version: 12
Bridge OS Version: 6.2 (19P744)
Anonymous UUID: 95D6E77D-8F24-BA03-2A7D-9927DC05ADCF
Time Awake Since Boot: 510 seconds
System Integrity Protection: enabled
Crashed Thread: 72 Dispatch queue: NSOperationQueue 0x7f883155d180 (QOS: UNSPECIFIED)
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 11 Segmentation fault: 11
Terminating Process: exc handler [869]
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Sorry to hear that the software still crashes. Please try reinstalling the app in the following way:
- Delete the app with AppCleaner. Download AppCleaner from here: http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner
Drag Luminar Neo from your Applications folder into the AppCleaner window. When removing Luminar, mark all the files and folders in the list, except for RTW788AXG3.com.skylum.luminarNeo. - Go to Pictures -> Luminar Neo Catalog and rename this folder (if you have created the Catalog in another Location, please navigate there and rename the Catalog folder).
- Open Luminar Neo Catalog folder, locate the file Luminar Neo Catalog.luminarneo and change its name too.
- Go to Application Support (launch Finder > Go > Go to Folder > paste /Library/Application Support/Skylum Software and delete Luminar Neo folder.
- Go to Terminal and paste: defaults delete com.skylum.luminarneo, then press Enter
- After that please install Luminar Neo back from the link below:
https://skylum.com/download/luminar-neo-paid
Please let me know how it works for you now.
- Delete the app with AppCleaner. Download AppCleaner from here: http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner
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I had not planned to do another of these crashes since I had already gone through the process 3 times, but while editing an image in Neo I tried adding a different image as a layer and boom, hit the problem again. So it is not just adding the same image as a layer, but adding a different image also causes the problem.
As far as your instructions, I got as far as the Terminal step when I found that the command you specified,
defaults delete com.skylum.luminarneo
generated a Terminal error - probably because I was in the wrong folder when I issued the command. You did not specify where Terminal should be when issuing the command, but I assume it is somewhere in the user Library folder. You probably want to update your instructions to specify the proper folder for the Terminal command.
Since I have my own search app I can find all of the Luminar Neo locations in the user Library and will remove them manually, as before. Here is the error:
2022-03-12 13:57:50.413 defaults[7117:231221]
Domain (com.skylum.luminarneo) not found.
Defaults have not been changed.
I am now going through the rest of the process and will post further when all of this is done. Then I plan to avoid causing this type of issue again, if possible.
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No. The process you specified did not work, although it might be because of the failed Terminal command. Since you specified that the RTW788AXG3.com.skylum.luminarNeo item should not be removed I did not remove it manually and when the reinstall was done the app crashed upon initial launch.
I will now remove all of the Neo folders and files as I did before and try again.
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OK. I (again) finished removing all of the Neo related folders and files in the Library and user/Library folders and successfully relaunched Neo. If this happens again (and I will try to avoid that) I will try removing all of the Neo files and folders except Neo itself and see if it will launch properly without the complete reinstall.
In the meantime there does appear to be a serious issue with the process of adding an image as a new layer since that is what caused all of this.
I have not filed a bug report because I did not want to add to the problems of the developers who might either be living in Ukraine or have family living there. They all have my best wishes and hopes that things turn out well for them.
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Hi Michael,
First of all, I want to thank you for supporting our team in these difficult times for us. Having such support from our users means a lot to us.
The issue you described in this thread is definitely something our support team and the devs should take a closer look at and investigate further.
We need to be able to reproduce the issue on our end in order to understand at which point it occurs. Please send us a screen recording of what you do in the software before encountering the issue. Here's how to record a screen on Mac:
https://support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player/record-your-screen-qtp97b08e666/mac
Here's how you can send us the file:
- Visit https://wetransfer.com/
- If it's your first time visiting this website, it might ask you to purchase a subscription. Simply select to proceed with the free version.
- Click Add your files.
- Select the file(s) on your computer.
- After you see all the files you need to send appear in the list, click the icon to the left of the Transfer button (the icon looks like a circle with three dots in it).
- In Send As select Link.
- Click Transfer.
- After the files have finished uploading, click Copy Link and paste it into your support request at https://skylum.com/support
Also, we'd be very grateful if you could send us your hardware configuration.
Click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner of your screen, click About This Mac, and take a screenshot of the window that opens. Check out this article (click this text to open the link) about making screenshots on Mac if you need help with that. Attach the screenshot to your reply to this email.
Here is the video tutorial on how to retrieve your system info: https://www.loom.com/share/4542009fcdb74570832982215caec9a1
We do our best to reply as soon as possible. However, due to the circumstances, it just may take a bit longer than usual. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hope for your understanding.
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