PM Licensing Helper

[KBishop]

I am on am Mac Pro 6.1 with the latest of v5 of PhotoMechanic. OS 10.12.5 and am experiencing random reboots and crashes of the computer.

On several occasions, not every time, PMLicensingHelper has been part of the diagnostic log.

Might not be the cause but the result.  Not sure but wondered if others have seen this.

Here is the top of the log.  I have had similar crashes that noted Firefox.

Just a month after my AppleCare expired so I am looking for help anywhere I can get it.

All the hardware suites the tI have used test out fine so I am really leaning to a software problem.  Just showed up in the past week or so.

Kevin

Process:               PMLicensingHelper [2212]
Path:                  /Applications/Photo Mechanic 5.app/Contents/MacOS/PMLicensingHelper
Identifier:            PMLicensingHelper
Version:               
Code Type:             X86 (Native)
Parent Process:        launchd [1]
Responsible:           PMLicensingHelper [2212]
User ID:               0

Date/Time:             2017-07-13 17:49:05.912 -0700
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.12.5 (16F73)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        2C743AC6-81F4-2132-CF9D-D563FC804FC0


Time Awake Since Boot: 5900 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        0

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (Code Signature Invalid)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Terminated: 15
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xf
Terminating Process:   launchd [1]

[Kirk Baker]

I am on am Mac Pro 6.1 with the latest of v5 of PhotoMechanic. OS 10.12.5 and am experiencing random reboots and crashes of the computer.

On several occasions, not every time, PMLicensingHelper has been part of the diagnostic log.

Might not be the cause but the result.  Not sure but wondered if others have seen this.

Here is the top of the log.  I have had similar crashes that noted Firefox.

Just a month after my AppleCare expired so I am looking for help anywhere I can get it.

All the hardware suites the tI have used test out fine so I am really leaning to a software problem.  Just showed up in the past week or so.

Kevin

Process:               PMLicensingHelper [2212]
Path:                  /Applications/Photo Mechanic 5.app/Contents/MacOS/PMLicensingHelper
Identifier:            PMLicensingHelper
Version:               
Code Type:             X86 (Native)
Parent Process:        launchd [1]
Responsible:           PMLicensingHelper [2212]
User ID:               0

Date/Time:             2017-07-13 17:49:05.912 -0700
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.12.5 (16F73)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        2C743AC6-81F4-2132-CF9D-D563FC804FC0


Time Awake Since Boot: 5900 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        0

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (Code Signature Invalid)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Terminated: 15
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xf
Terminating Process:   launchd [1]

PMLicensingHelper is only ever used when activating or deactivating Photo Mechanic.  Are you repeatedly activating/deactivating Photo Mechanic on your system?

Generally, random crashes as you describe are caused by bad memory (RAM) or by motherboard problems or possibly by a failing hard drive (bad Virtual Memory paging).

-Kirk

-Kirk

[KBishop]

I have had to reload a couple of times.  PMLicensingHelp had to be run a couple of times during reloads from backup.

I originally thought hardware as well but a whole heap of different test suites say no.  (repeatedly)  I have looked through logs until my eyes are weary.   Finally, I started letting console run and watch what happened.   Most of the errors had to do with iCloud services.  I am testing after turning them all off.  So far it is stable but then again, it has had stable periods of a few hours.  It seems that until too many things come in conflict, it is able to handle the errors.  It would appear that that PMLicensingHelp was the victim here and not the perpetrator.  I just put this out here to see if you had seen any problems.  One more thing I can eliminate.  I am beginning to wish I had not upgraded to Sierra and waited for 10.12.6.  There are others out there seeing these problems with the sloppy code from Apple.  Most often folks find it is slowing their Macs.  I am just one of the lucky ones.

I did not really think it was your software.

Thanks Kirk.  I know you are always on top of things and could tell me quickly either way.  I am really leaning toward the iCloud mess after seeing all the errors in Console.  (a sprinkling, more like a crowd, of Mac OS errors spiced with Unix errors)  They just disappeared when I logged out of iCloud.  Will it stay stable after this?  Time will tell.  Early on it was looking like Flash in browsers but that did not pan out either.

Most likely, the system is fault tolerant enough with most systems but maybe my particular antivirus and the remote control software I use that both seem to phone home a lot put it over the edge.  It behaves like memory leaks in old Dos systems where it has finally had enough and locks.  (not that I am old or anything)  Reboot and it works fine for a while until it goes Popeye again.  (I had all I can 'stans. I can't 'stans no more)

Other programs have shown up a few times in the logs.  I have had to eliminate them as well. 

Thanks,

Kevin

[Kirk Baker]

I always recommend that if you use your computer professionally that you not be an early adopter.  Personally, I always lag a full version behind Apple's latest and greatest.  This has served me well for two decades.

My $0.02...

-Kirk

[KBishop]

I am usually a .3 or .4 adopter.  I was running fine on .4 and it broke on the most recent .5.  Go figure.  It has been running now about 5 hours without crashing.  Best I have seen all day and maybe a couple of days.

I said before that it behaved like a memory leak.  For the benefit of others that will read this, it was not as memory pressure would not go up.

So far, icloud looks like the winner.  (or loser)  I hope that it is messaging or calendar because I sure could use mail on that machine.  I can do mail via a browser or on my trusty (but slow) MBP 2009 running El Capitan.

Thanks Kirk. 

Kevin

[KBishop]

I did some restoration work in Photoshop today.  Since I shut down iCloud, I have not had an issue.  About 13 hours uptime now since last reboot.  I guess my Apple fan-boy streak was getting in the way of my problems solving. 

Kevin

[Kirk Baker]

Kevin,

That's good to hear that you've found a way to restore stability to your system.

-Kirk

[KBishop]

Now if only Apple was as good at support as Camera Bits.

K