# Staffpad Crashing



## KevPlaysSax (Nov 11, 2021)

For some reason, whenever I try to open this one specific project in staffpad, the app crashes. I tried duplicating it but the same thing happens with the duplicate. This isn't the first time it's happend to a project of mine, but I was able to export it's XML and put it into a new project. Unfortunately, trying to export this specific project also makes the app crash. 

The good news is that I can go to the print screen and send the pdf to myself, but that means that I have to rewrite my entire piece. 

Does anyone have any ideas on troubleshooting this situation? I'm using a 2018 IPad Pro


----------



## brandowalk (Nov 11, 2021)

Send to StaffPad help to see if they can open and fix it. They did this for me once with a corrupt file.


----------



## KevPlaysSax (Nov 11, 2021)

Thanks! I'll try that out.


----------



## PaulieDC (Nov 12, 2021)

It might just be the 4GB of ram that thing has. I struggle with 4GB on my iPhone 11 and iPad Air, not for StaffPad, just using the things normally... my iPad Pro M1 has 8Gb with NO issues with StaffPad.

HOWEVER, I found a great app that is a mandatory utility for 4GB iOS devices:









‎Smart Memory Pro - Check RAM & System Checker


‎√ Check system information such as: Memory (RAM) Usage, Disk Usage, CPU Usage, Network, Battery, and System Information... ------------------------------- [Thank you] ------------------------------- √ You will be surprised about all things which Smart Memory bring to you. √ We always works...



apps.apple.com





You tell it to Scan and what it really does is clear memory. Apple doesn't specifically allow developers to manage memory which is bizarre, but there have been a few apps over the years that appear to SHOW you system specs, but are really clearing memory for you. It's worth a shot, clear the field with the Scan button, then start StaffPad and see what happens. I bought the No-Ad version which also lets you adjust the memory clearing... i keep mine on "Very Deep".


----------



## KevPlaysSax (Nov 12, 2021)

PaulieDC said:


> It might just be the 4GB of ram that thing has. I struggle with 4GB on my iPhone 11 and iPad Air, not for StaffPad, just using the things normally... my iPad Pro M1 has 8Gb with NO issues with StaffPad.
> 
> HOWEVER, I found a great app that is a mandatory utility for 4GB iOS devices:
> 
> ...


Thanks. I’ll see if it helps at all.


----------



## jonnybutter (Nov 12, 2021)

I know you are talking about a corrupt file, but it feels like corruptions are part of the under-powered nature of the set up. Corruptions are crashy. For example, there are ‘micro-corruptions’ sometimes - single measures, or ranges of measures, get corrupted, and then sometimes uncorrupted. 

I have an iPad Pro from 2019 (6 GB of RAM) and StaffPad crashes pretty regularly on it too. Not constantly, just about once every couple sessions. It’s one of the drawbacks of SP right now. I rarely lose much data, it’s just kind of a PITA. Closing apps and restarting the ipad usually fixes it. Am interested the app Paulie cites, since maybe I can clear memory w/out shutting down. Bottom line is that StaffPad is a very powerful app that is doing a LOT under the hood, so the more power and ram you have the better. The new iPad pros are probably fantastic for SP, and that will only improve as Apple gets further with their own chips, and as the app itself improves (I hope).


----------



## PaulieDC (Nov 12, 2021)

jonnybutter said:


> ...The new iPad pros are probably fantastic for SP, and that will only improve as Apple gets further with their own chips, and as the app itself improves (I hope).


Very good point as well. I've not had a single crash on the new M1 iPad, but I don't think it's just the RAM, the Passmark overall CPU score for the 2018 iPad Pro is about 8,000 and the new M1 is 15,000... it may just be that StaffPad needs more horsepower.

Regarding corrupt files which can happen, would deleting the app and reinstalling help? Ugh, then you risk not getting all of your environment tweaks back, and having to start all over. I once had an iPad that was really troublesome with app crashes and the only thing that fixed it was a factory wipe/reset, then reinstalling all apps clean, not using an iCloud backup. I took screenshots of EVERYTHING before I did that. Sorry, just rambling/brainstorming!


----------



## jonnybutter (Nov 12, 2021)

PaulieDC said:


> it may just be that StaffPad needs more horsepower.


I think this is the bottom line, as well as fact that the iOS version is still relatively new. Windows users I think have a more stable experience, and maybe that’s because it has run on Windows forever (was written for windows). But I expect the iOS version to be great and probably superior to the windows one in pretty short order. I have come to resent Apple for many things in recent decades (!), but their new chip really is a nice piece of work.


----------



## PaulieDC (Nov 12, 2021)

I agree fully.


----------



## ssnowe (Nov 12, 2021)

You can see the crash log files for the errors on the ipad. 

Following a crash restart Staffpad, click on the Staffpad logo on the main screen and then click on the Staffpad logo on the next screen. You should then see a pop-up that says share logs. Ckick on Share Logs and then click on Save to Files. Pick a file location and save the files. 

You can then go to your saved location with the Files app and look at the contents of the files. They are named similar to net.staffpad.Staffpad.. Long press on the filename and select Quick Look to see the contents.

If you aren't computer savvy the contents may not make sense but if you spend a little time reading you may see the reason for the crash.


----------



## PaulieDC (Nov 12, 2021)

ssnowe said:


> You can see the crash log files for the errors on the ipad.
> 
> Following a crash restart Staffpad, click on the Staffpad logo on the main screen and then click on the Staffpad logo on the next screen. You should then see a pop-up that says share logs. Ckick on Share Logs and then click on Save to Files. Pick a file location and save the files.
> 
> ...


Man, THAT'S what we need to see!


----------



## Gingerbread (Nov 12, 2021)

I was using Staffpad on the 2017 iPad Pro which has 4gb of RAM. While it never crashed, it would often hiccup and pause, which got very frustrating. Using the app that PaulieDC mentioned, I found Staffpad was causing RAM usage to spike to 96%. It was a severe memory bottleneck.

I bought a new iPad Pro a few weeks ago with 8gb RAM and M1 chip, and Staffpad is working like a dream now. I conclude Staffpad just fundamentally requires more RAM than 4gb to operate smoothly.


----------



## mopsiflopsi (Nov 12, 2021)

Is it just me or does StaffPad crash more frequently in a piece with trills? I have been practicing trills and textures lately and it feels a lot less stable than before.


----------



## Jett Hitt (Nov 13, 2021)

I have a few problems with crashing on the 2020 iPad Pro, but not often. To avoid this, I can mostly restart my iPad before I start working and restrict myself to StaffPad.

The grim reality is that most of my crashes are due to memory. So if I am having trouble with 6GB of RAM, lesser devices are going to suffer more noticeably. I fear that we're at that juncture where StaffPad will either have to leave a lot of older devices behind, or we'll be hobbled by the lowest common denominator.

It will be interesting to see where this next update takes us. Will users will be forced to upgrade their equipment to keep up with StaffPad's demands, or are we going to play the Windows game where we try to make it backward compatible for everyone with a tablet? I suspect that economics will dictate the latter, but I hope not.

As long as my 2020 iPad Pro keeps churning along, I will hold off on an upgrade, but if I were upgrading, the 1TB iPad Pro with 16GB of RAM is what I'd choose, given the memory issues we're seeing. Unfortunately, that's a pretty serious chunk of change.


----------



## mopsiflopsi (Nov 13, 2021)

I’m starting to suspect trills somehow introduce a memory leak kind of situation. The below passage, when played back to back 6-7 times, typically crashes the app right on the trill. The same does not happen when I remove the trill mark. Submitted it to StaffPad support for investigation.


----------



## Al Soloviev (Nov 19, 2021)

Staffpad on Surface Pro 7 doesn't launch on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22504. After undoing to the previous build it works fine.


----------



## bitbrain (Dec 23, 2021)

Did you ever get that project to open again, KevPlaysSax? I just saved the last draft of a project and it crashed immediately and won't reopen. I tried duplicating it to no avail, and it crashes whenever I try to export it in any other format. I contacted support for help, but I don't know if support will get back to me before Christmas, and unfortunately, the project is a Christmas gift!


----------



## zqekd (Dec 23, 2021)

bitbrain said:


> Did you ever get that project to open again, KevPlaysSax? I just saved the last draft of a project and it crashed immediately and won't reopen. I tried duplicating it to no avail, and it crashes whenever I try to export it in any other format. I contacted support for help, but I don't know if support will get back to me before Christmas, and unfortunately, the project is a Christmas gift!


If you are on a Surface, reboot the Surface, make sure to only start Staffpad and nothing else, then try loading your project. Try turning off wifi/networking before starting Surface.

If you are on an ipad, shut the ipad down completely (Settings/General/Shut Down), restart ipad, and then start only Staffpad, then try opening your project. If you use a keyboard with your ipad, detach it before starting Staffpad. Also try turn off wifi/networking before starting Staffpad.

Hopefully this helps.


----------



## bitbrain (Dec 23, 2021)

zqekd said:


> If you are on a Surface, reboot the Surface, make sure to only start Staffpad and nothing else, then try loading your project. Try turning off wifi/networking before starting Surface.
> 
> If you are on an ipad, shut the ipad down completely (Settings/General/Shut Down), restart ipad, and then start only Staffpad, then try opening your project. If you use a keyboard with your ipad, detach it before starting Staffpad. Also try turn off wifi/networking before starting Staffpad.
> 
> Hopefully this helps.


Thanks for the recommendations. I tried all of those things already and nothing helped. It is the only file that won't open. I can open all of my other files, including quite large ones, without issue.


----------



## zqekd (Dec 23, 2021)

Nuts, that is frustrating.

At the Staffpad home screen, click on Staffpad. In the window that pops up click on Staffpad again. In that window select "Clear Caches". Try to load your score.

If that fails try going into Store/Downloads and Updates, Turn off "Automatically Install Updates", and then delete one or more of the instruments you have in your score (you should be able to reinstall them again later).

Then try to load your score (theoretically, if you have exceeded memory with the score, when you delete a purchased instrument the score won't try to load a non-existant instrument and memory requirement should drop).

Another thing you could try is install Staffpad Reader and see if it can open your score.

In the future (I know this is totally useless right now) you could turn on Versions (clock symbol) so you could always go back in time. That and you also manually duplicate the score as you are working through it (three dots ... on score page, select Duplicate).

In theory you could try Duplicating the broken score and then see if one of the duplicates will open (could be some type of file corruption thing going on).

Another thing to try is to go to the home screen, click on the three dots for the score and then click on Share. In Share try exporting to MusicXML, MIDI, or PDF and maybe you can work from there.


----------



## jadi (Dec 24, 2021)

My suggestion, send your file over to StaffPad. I think they can fix it. They once did this for one of my files.


----------

