Why is my Macbook having constant issues with FG?

[edebert]

I have a Macbook running 10.14.6 with a 3.1 Ghz processor and 16GB memory. I have purposely not upgraded to Catalina because it won't run FG apparently, but now I cannot connect to my GM's game. Most recently, I cleared the cache after the recent update, and now when I go to connect, I get the orange Downloading bar which progresses almost to the end, and then stops... and never, ever finishes loading.

I have checked and unchecked the box in settings. I have reloaded FG. I have restarted my computer. I have had my GM email me the cache files and manually added them to the files. And nothing changes. I just keeps saying "downloading file" and never actually finishes. Please help me fix this problem, because this has been ongoing for months and at this point, I'm ready to write off FG forever. It's extremely frustrating to spend hours every month just trying to get the platform to work. Please help.

[Granamere]

Welcome. Sorry you are having a problem.

Are you running Classic or Unity? Have you upgraded to the latest version? I would click update just to be sure and make sure your DM has as well. If you are a higher version than he is might have interesting effects. For Unity you should make sure you both have updated. Have you tried to connect to anyone else hosting a game? Are other players able to connect to your DM?

You might want to ask your dm to start a fresh campaign and see if you can connect into it also. Just as a test.

[edebert]

Thank you for a quick response. I believe we are in Classic v. 3.3.11. My GM is waiting until next month when Unity makes it out of beta to migrate us all there. Everyone else can connect (though most are on Windows machines, but my GM runs using a Mac), though one has trouble getting maps and images to download. We had this issue a month ago and I manually uploaded the cache files my GM emailed me, and it worked until this update.

We are currently gaming now (well, everyone but me who is intermittently offering commentary and RP), but I will test whether I can connect to one other campaign I have played intermittently in the past.

[Granamere]

I have sent you an message on here if you want to try connecting to my session. I will leave it up for awhile for you to test.

[edebert]

Thank you; I will try now.

[Granamere]

I see you connected. I do have the 5e rules enabled so if you want to can try downloading them. I see it says connection lost. Waiting for reconnect. You are disconnected now.

OK back to connected.

[edebert]

Sorry, I was just connecting to see if it would connect. I'll try again. - and in the time to type this, I'm back in your game. Everything is working fine, and I can load modules. Took a minute for the PHB, but generally fast.

For our Starfinder game, I can't even get the game screen to open; it just sticks on the downloading files screen with the alias.

My GM's session ended, so we're going to try to troubleshoot my connection to his server. Thank you for showing me that my Mac can indeed connect still. I know my GM likes to tinker with sets and test new stuff as it comes out; do you think it's possible just too many files are involved?

[Granamere]

Well at least you know your client is working. To be clear I am just a normal player like you on here. I try and help people as I can.

My guess is something in your cache might be corrupted. If it was me I would try renaming the cache directory for your game. Then see if you can connect to your DM when no one else is connected. Most peoples upload speed is much slower than there download speed. If it is just the two of you maybe you can get everything down and be good. I would not delete just rename it, for testing. Unless it works then delete the renamed one. :)

Also some of the real pro support people will check this thread and might have some better answers.

Classic is a 32 bit application. If he has a ton of shared images that might play into problems with memory usage. He might want to check and remove ones that are not needed to be shared anymore.

[edebert]

Thank you; I'll give it a shot.

I switch between two games, one on Roll20 and one on FG. I like both experiences and FG is far 'prettier' and automates a lot more, but it also gives me more headaches. I'd like to keep using it, but it's so frustrating to keep running into this problem. I'm hoping the upcoming switch to Unity will be smoother. Thanks again.

[Granamere]

FYI this is a great community. If you run into any problems please post them. Someone will help. Also the devs regularly read these boards and want to see the problems people are having and will jump in to help. If you check the threads there are tons the devs ask people to upload files so they can look at the problem personally. Please do not feel you are alone.

Also another great resource is https://fantasygroundscollege.net/.

The Fantasy Grounds discord link is
https://discord.gg/hsRyKR

The Fantasy Grounds College discord link is
https://discord.com/invite/Ew6nYyw

[edebert]

Thank you. I've lurked occasionally and noticed it does seem rather cordial. I did some searching here when I first ran into issues with my Mac, and found solutions that were helpful. It's just been a very frustrating evening. I won't even go into how when I run FG and Discord simultaneously, it will crash my Mac after about 20-30 minutes, so I run discord on my iPad to play.

[edebert]

Update: The issue appears to have been caused by a corrupted file on the GM's server. One of the other players experienced issues with images/maps loading from that source and one other had some lag. Another was perfectly fine though (and one who was absent was usually fine too). My GM first created a new Starfinder game, and I connected fine. He then unloaded most of the material from the original game, and I was able to connect in mere seconds. He then added back in the files and everything came up alright. WE'll run another test tomorrow with more of his game fully loaded. But he thinks it was a corrupt file on his end.

[Granamere]

Awesome! Glad to hear you are back to gaming!