Watchdog error System.IO.IOException

[benji]

Client: windows 1.8.1-128. (I’ve also seen this issue with 1.8.0 clients)
Intel Stick - Windows 10 Home

Server: 1.8.1

I’m finding players sitting in a state where it isn’t playing anything. When I open Watchdog, it contains the error below. It is randomly occurring.

System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file ‘C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Xibo Library\status.json’ because it is being used by another process.
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
at System.IO.FileStream…ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access)
at XiboClientWatchdog.Watcher.Run()

[alex]

Is there any consequence to that message? Ie does anything stop working as a result?

The part of the screen you highlight shows last log status so I’d assume there was an error accessing that file, but the watchdog should continue working regardless.

[benji]

I’m finding devices sitting on a blank screen, like you see in the screenshot above. But it sounds like it’s not tied to this Watchdog error.

[alex]

The Player status screen should give you more information on why the screen is black. Bring it up by pressing i

[michael]

@benji

Windows 10 Home

Having Same error on Windows 10 Players, it happens randomly.
Is there any solution??

[DanBW]

Can you post a screenshot of your Status page? You can do this by clicking i on your keyboard while the Xibo player is running.

Can you also confirm the Player version you are running?

Many Thanks.

[michael]

Hi,
The screen shot is this. I cannot get full size, because the error goes away when I connect the pc.

And this is the screenshot taken from cms.

When the error comes out, the windows bar shown, even there is a error, watchdog should not show error like this.
Thanks

[DanBW]

Thank you for the screenshots. can you send a screenshot of the Status page? As mentioned previously, you can access the Status page by clicking the i key on your keyboard while Xibo is running.

Many Thanks.

[michael]

Dear Dan,
Status page says nothing, because the error is shown by Watchdog, and it goes away when you click somewhere. Sorry cannot get more info for you.

This a full error message from Watchdog:
System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file ‘C:\YDS\status.json’ because it is being used by another process.
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
at System.IO.FileStream…ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access)
at XiboClientWatchdog.Watcher.Run()

This is the screenshot from Status page:

[michael]

Alex, having same issue on some player every 2-3 days.
Watchdog gives the error “status.json is used by another process” .

Player Info page sshot here;

[michael]

Hello,
is there any update on this problem? Still having randomly on my lots of clients. This is big problem for me.
Thanks
Michael

[Bluebell]

Me too
This is annoying!
please do something about this.
Windows is way too stupid for making it to hide this kind of errors.
I am wondering,
why this is shown in the first place, screen looks very ugly while this is shown and goes nowhere with out rebooting it or restarting the player application.

[michael]

I hide notification baloon for xibo watchdog in windows. This hides notification so there wont be a iny baloon.

[Bluebell]

Michael,
How?
can you please explain?

[michael]

Icon notification setting from windows

[Bluebell]

Thanks Michael!
I am aware of this but the problem with it is,
we cannot hide the icon because we do not have CTRL+ALT+DEL for bringing up task manager, we need to somehow be able to terminate the WatchDog when required.

I am afraid the best solution would be to fix this issue.

[michael]

You dont need CTRL+ALT+DEL for bringing up task manager. Right Click any icon in right area of screen, left of datetime windows.

Or

Copy the following line, and paste it any explorer window.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items

you will see all control panel items, click “Notification Area Icons”

And find the XiboClientWatchdog and change the option to “Hide icon and Notifications” as the picture.

Or you can download the source code and disable the notification code, and recompile.

I hope this helps

Best,

Michael

[Bluebell]

Thanks for the detailed info!
However,
i still believe the best way is to fix the problem. Hiding the problem temporarily is okay but it is unfortunately not a solution.

Best regards

[JSchwa]

I have also been having this issue for a while now. I recently upgraded the players and server to 2.0, but the screens still go black after a while. Have there been any developments on this?

[DanBW]

I’m sorry to hear that this issue persists.

Jschwa mentioned recently that they are also experiencing the same issue on CMS 2 and Windows Player version 2. Can you provide a screenshot of the Error that appears on your screen please when the screen is black? Is it the same as the error other users above have reported?

Many Thanks.