Photo Mechanic 2026.1, build 9024 freezes on macOS 26.2

[mhobi]

Hello

I updated to Photo Mechanic 2026.1, build 9024 on macOS 26.2 and it freezed several times, just showing the spinning beachball. The only solution was to force quite the application. It always happened when browsing/scrolling through images in a folder. The number of images in the folder seemed the be irrelevant.

Now I downgraded to Photo Mechanic 2025.10, build 8858 and there are no more freezes. Wondering if I am the only one with this issue 😉

Thanks and regards
Michael

[Kirk Baker]

I'd like to see your Photo Mechanic log.  In Photo Mechanic go to the Help menu and choose "Reveal Support Data..." and moments later a Finder window will come forward with the zipped log file selected.  Use the 'Attachments and other options' link when you're composing your reply to this message and there you'll be able to upload your zipped PM log file.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[mhobi]

Hi Kirk

Thanks for checking.

Regards, Michael

[Kirk Baker]

Michael,

Thanks for the log file.  What kind of files do you have in the folder(s) that you're browsing?  Are any of them videos?  If so, what kind?  I'm seeing this error with both the 8858 and 9024 builds:

[Fri Feb-06-2026 17:05:12.898][17e2bf000][436491920] NRFBasicBMFF.cpp:778 BMFF QuickTime format error: bad key num for GetNthQTKey

Thanks,

-Kirk

[mhobi]

Hi Kirk

I did some more testing and the error message in the log appears when browsing a folder with a video file.
Attached is a video taken with my iPhone 17 Pro Max that is causing the error message in the log.

But I don't think that is causing the freeze, as I installed Photo Mechanic 2026.1, build 9024 again and was browsing a folder without videos and it froze again. Log file content is below and there are no video errors.

Thanks and regards
Michael

********************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
Photo Mechanic version 2026.1.0.0 build 9024 (0b5b31d)
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:20.773][170877000][435932032] [00000004470a66d0] Initializing DNS resolver
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.139][201eb2c40][435934848] PMDocumentController.mm:2796 macOS version: 26.2.0
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.140][201eb2c40][435934848] PMDocumentController.mm:2801 Current locale is: C
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.255][201eb2c40][435970576] PMCache.cpp:3273 cache: main thread startup
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.256][201eb2c40][435970672] PMCache.cpp:1425 cache: spawning 14 worker threads (14 cpus) ...
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.262][17350b000][435980064] PMCache.cpp:3213 cache: found 1859 disk cache entries, 1859 usable
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.265][201eb2c40][436202976] PMCache.cpp:667 PMCache::PMCacheWorker::set_memory_cache_size_limit_mb(4915 MB) [5153751040] bytes
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:21.265][201eb2c40][436202992] PMCache.cpp:682 PMCache::PMCacheWorker::set_disk_cache_size_limit_mb(1024 MB), reserve:512 MB
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:26:22.244][201eb2c40][436484992] PMApp.mm:1971 Sparkle will schedule an update check after delay: 86362.450091
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:29:09.944][201eb2c40][438852304] CBExceptionHandler.mm:123 An exception has occurred: NSUncaughtSystemExceptionException, why: Uncaught system exception: signal 11
userInfo:{
    NSStackTraceKey = "0x194f9b744  0x100ce9dc0  0x100cedf44  0x100cef5bc  0x100a1b914  0x1008feb28  0x1008fed44  0x100c74a04  0x10092ea8c  0x10094a690  0x1009306e8  0x1009304cc  0x1997b9f40  0x1997b9f68  0x19977ec18  0x19977f294  0x199496900  0x19a4874f8  0x199c08ed0  0x199b80274  0x199c08914  0x19a103264  0x199464a10  0x19949646c  0x100948d18  0x100948de4  0x10094aa6c  0x100932624  0x19a1d4750  0x19a1d40bc  0x199f0c860  0x10096c368  0x1999a46f4  0x19943b7a8  0x1994276dc  0x100925f38  0x194bc9d54";
}
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:29:09.945][201eb2c40][438849888] PMApp.mm:548 sendEvent: NSException 'Uncaught system exception: signal 11' caught
[Fri Feb-06-2026 19:29:29.706][170877000][446639232] [00000004470a66d0] RubyBridge: unexpected exception: SIGTERM
    <main>:779:in `sleep'
    <main>:779:in `run'
    eval:1:in `<main>'

[Kirk Baker]

Michael,

I did some more testing and the error message in the log appears when browsing a folder with a video file.
Attached is a video taken with my iPhone 17 Pro Max that is causing the error message in the log.

But I don't think that is causing the freeze, as I installed Photo Mechanic 2026.1, build 9024 again and was browsing a folder without videos and it froze again. Log file content is below and there are no video errors.

OK.  Please list all of the file types in the folder that you're browsing that causes a freeze.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[mhobi]

Hi Kirk

After a lot of trial and error I think I figured it out 😉  As soon as a big (in pixels I guess) JPG is in the folder to browse, Photo Mechanic freezes.
I attached a panorama that causes the issue.

I hope this helps 😊

Thanks and regards
Michael

[Kirk Baker]

Michael,

And this is when the image is in the contact sheet and you're scrolling through it?  Are you using the loupe tool (magnifying glass cursor) and clicking on the image?

Or is this when moving through previews in the preview window?  And if so, when zooming or just when viewing the image sized to fit the preview pane?

Thanks,

-Kirk

[mhobi]

Hi Kirk

I created a folder with only that image in it. As soon as I click on this folder in the Navigator, Photo Mechanic freezes.
Or if the image is in a folder with many other images, as soon as I scroll in the folder and it reaches the image to display in the Contact Sheet, Photo Mechanic freezes.

Thanks and regards
Michael

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks.  I'll look into it and see what's going on.

-Kirk

[mhobi]

Hi Kirk

Thanks a lot for looking into it.

Regards, Michael

[Kirk Baker]

Michael,

Can you tell me more about your system?  What model, and how much memory (RAM) does it have?
Can you also post a screenshot showing the entire screen when it is frozen?

I downloaded your image and it causes no freezing (it renders very quickly) on my 2023 Apple Studio with 64GB RAM, and it has a M2 Max processor, with macOS Ventura.

One of our other staff members tried it on macOS Tahoe (2024 Mac Mini with 24GB RAM and a M4 processor) and it didn't hang in isolation or when mixed in with numerous (930) files of various formats.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[mhobi]

Hi Kirk

My system is a Macbook Pro with a M4 Pro and 48 GB RAM.

I upgraded again to Photo Mechanic 2026.1 to take a screenshot of the freeze and now suddenly the image renders correctly and no more freezes when viewing the pano image.

I still get freezes when viewing other folders, but have to invest more time to find a pattern.
Will let you know if I know more, seems I am the only one with this issue.

Thanks again for your help
Regards, Michael

[mhobi]

Hello

Unfortunately I couldn't narrow down the freezes very well. But here some observations: It froze when viewing certain large images in a Contact Sheet in the Navigator and I had to force-quite Photo Mechanic. When I removed those images from the folder and restarted Photo Mechanic, I could scroll through the folder, but when scrolling for some time, it froze again. Somehow it seems to happen after some time when scrolling through folders with many or large images in the Navigator. Like it is reaching some limit (memory, preview rendering, ?) and locks itself up.
Attached is an output of the Crash Reporter after force-quitting Photo Mechanic, maybe that helps.

Thanks and regards
Michael

[mhobi]

Hello

After further testing, I think it has something to do with panorama images I created with PTGui (https://www.ptgui.com). As soon as I scroll to an image that has been created with PTGui, Photo Mechanic 2026.1 freezes. Viewing the same images with Photo Mechanic 2025.10 is no problem.

I then tried several things and I noticed that when I change the EXIF data 'Device model' from '[LEICA Q3]' to 'LEICA Q3', the image shows correctly and Photo Mechanic doesn't freeze anymore.

Attached are the original image 'original.jpg' and the image 'changed_EXIF.jpg' with the changed EXIF data, and an image 'EXIF_difference.jpg' showing the EXIF difference.

I searched all my images having EXIF data 'Device model' as '[LEICA Q3]' and removed the brackets. Now the folders containing these images can be browsed without issues and the image display correctly in Photo Mechanic 😊

Not sure if this is just a problem on my machine, but maybe someone can reproduce it.

Thanks and regards
Michael