[Bug]: macOS Nextcloud Finder extension stops running, causing right-click menu to stop working

[briankendall]

⚠️ Before submitting, please verify the following: ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or a configuration issue.
• This issue is not already reported on Github (I've searched it).
• Nextcloud Server and Desktop Client are up to date. See Server Maintenance and Release Schedule and Desktop Releases for supported versions.
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct

Bug description

This is a follow up to #4277 and #4459. I've opted to open a new issue as the previous issues were about a different crash that has since been fixed.

On a regular basis, sometimes multiple times per day, Nextcloud's Finder extension will stop running, causing the right-click menu to stop working. In order to get Finder integration working again, I need to restart Nextcloud.

I say "stop running" because macOS does not consider it to be crashing. There is no dialog box opening reporting a crashed process, and there is no crash log listed in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. Nonetheless, if I check the list of running processes Nextcloud Extensions is not running. So it may be the case that the extension is erroneous "quitting normally" on its own, though it is possible that it is crashing and macOS is simply considering it a normal exit for some reason.

Steps to reproduce

Unfortunately I have found no consistent way to trigger this issue, but will update if I find one. However it will inevitably happen after Nextcloud has been running for several hours, though on occasion it has taken over a day to occur.

Expected behavior

Obviously the Finder extension should continue running.

Which files are affected by this bug

N/A

Operating system

Mac OS

Which version of the operating system you are running.

macOS 10.14.6

Package

Other

Nextcloud Server version

22.2.10

Nextcloud Desktop Client version

3.6.2git (build 12294)

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

Updated to a major version (ex. 3.3.6 to 3.4.0)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

Are you using an external user-backend?

• Default internal user-backend
• LDAP/ Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Nextcloud Server logs

N/A

Additional info

I'm a professional macOS and Qt developer, and would be happy to help debug this. I think the best initial approach to fixing this would be to attach a debugger to the Nextcloud Extensions and checking to see if a) it is actually crashing, or b) at least figure out what's triggering it to quit. However I don't offhandedly know how to do that since this project is a Qt project built using cmake. (I'm already familiar with using a debugger in Xcode and Qt Creator.) If someone could advise about how to do that, I'd be happy to do some debugging.

[claucambra]

Hi @briankendall I have been unable to reproduce these crashes personally, so any extra information from you would be super appreciated

There are a couple of ways you can gleam some logs for what is going on, as we have some logging in the finder extension:

• You can grab NSLogs in the terminal with log show --process "FinderSyncExt"
• You can check for crash reports in Console.app

[briankendall]

Here is the log from FinderSyncExt (and possibly a few other processes as well) shortly before it crashed. The first column is pid.

95771   default 13:59:48.208888 -0500   FinderSyncExt   27366555: RECEIVED OUT-OF-SEQUENCE NOTIFICATION: 100 vs 104, 640, <private>
97386   default 14:00:45.389431 -0500   FinderSyncExtension Current system appearance, (HLTB: 1), (SLS: 0)
97385   default 14:00:45.389910 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Current system appearance, (HLTB: 1), (SLS: 0)
97386   default 14:00:45.392751 -0500   FinderSyncExtension Post-registration system appearance: (HLTB: 1)
97385   default 14:00:45.392954 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Post-registration system appearance: (HLTB: 1)
97385   default 14:00:45.515379 -0500   FinderSyncExt   NSApp cache appearance:
-NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance: 0
-appearance: (null)
-effectiveAppearance: <NSCompositeAppearance: 0x7f92b2f087c0
 (
    "<NSAquaAppearance: 0x7f92b2f079e0>",
    "<NSSystemAppearance: 0x7f92b2f08080>"
)>
97385   default 14:00:45.573603 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Socket path: /Users/user2/Library/Group Containers/com.nextcloud.desktopclient/.socket
97385   default 14:00:45.573700 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Init line processor with delegate.
97385   default 14:00:45.573748 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Initiating local socket client.
97385   default 14:00:45.573830 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Checking is connected: NO
97385   default 14:00:45.573895 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Opening local socket...
97385   default 14:00:45.573969 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Local socket opened. Connecting to '/Users/user2/Library/Group Containers/com.nextcloud.desktopclient/.socket' ...
97385   default 14:00:45.574117 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Connected to socket. Setting up dispatch sources...
97385   default 14:00:45.574178 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Starting to read from socket
97385   default 14:00:45.574235 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Checking is connected: YES
97385   default 14:00:45.574300 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Writing to out buffer: 'GET_STRINGS:
'
97385   default 14:00:45.574335 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Out buffer now 13 bytes
97385   default 14:00:45.574361 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Resuming write dispatch source.
97385   default 14:00:45.574436 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Checking is connected: YES
97385   default 14:00:45.574499 -0500   FinderSyncExt   About to write 13 bytes from outbuffer to socket.
97385   default 14:00:45.574598 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Wrote 13 bytes to socket. Line written was: 'GET_STRINGS:
'
97385   default 14:00:45.574659 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Out buffer cleared. Now count is 0 bytes.
97385   default 14:00:45.574699 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Out buffer has been emptied, suspending write dispatch source.
97385   default 14:00:45.575157 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Checking is connected: YES
97385   default 14:00:45.575209 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Reading from socket.
97385   default 14:00:45.575254 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Read 371 bytes from socket.
97385   default 14:00:45.575320 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing in buffer. In buffer length 371
97385   default 14:00:45.575405 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: REGISTER_PATH:/Users/user2/Sync/Apps/1Password
97385   default 14:00:45.575480 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: REGISTER_PATH
97385   default 14:00:45.575580 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: GET_STRINGS:BEGIN
97385   default 14:00:45.575625 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: GET_STRINGS
97385   default 14:00:45.575709 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: STRING:SHARE_MENU_TITLE:Share options
97385   default 14:00:45.575795 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: STRING
97385   default 14:00:45.575937 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: STRING:FILE_ACTIVITY_MENU_TITLE:Activity
97385   default 14:00:45.575978 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: STRING
97385   default 14:00:45.575978 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Registering path /Users/user2/Sync/Apps/1Password
97385   default 14:00:45.576082 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: STRING:CONTEXT_MENU_TITLE:Nextcloud
97385   default 14:00:45.576127 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: STRING
97385   default 14:00:45.576186 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Setting string SHARE_MENU_TITLE to value Share options
97385   default 14:00:45.576205 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: STRING:COPY_PRIVATE_LINK_MENU_TITLE:Copy private link to clipboard
97385   default 14:00:45.576248 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Setting string FILE_ACTIVITY_MENU_TITLE to value Activity
97385   default 14:00:45.576276 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: STRING
97385   default 14:00:45.576295 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Setting string CONTEXT_MENU_TITLE to value Nextcloud
97385   default 14:00:45.576351 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: STRING:EMAIL_PRIVATE_LINK_MENU_TITLE:Send private link by email …
97385   default 14:00:45.576365 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Setting string COPY_PRIVATE_LINK_MENU_TITLE to value Copy private link to clipboard
97385   default 14:00:45.576381 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: STRING
97385   default 14:00:45.576448 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Setting string EMAIL_PRIVATE_LINK_MENU_TITLE to value Send private link by email …
97385   default 14:00:45.576473 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: STRING:CONTEXT_MENU_ICON:Nextcloud-macOS
97385   default 14:00:45.576517 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: STRING
97385   default 14:00:45.576560 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Processing line: GET_STRINGS:END
97385   default 14:00:45.576561 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Setting string CONTEXT_MENU_ICON to value Nextcloud-macOS
97385   default 14:00:45.576613 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Command: GET_STRINGS
97385   default 14:00:45.576645 -0500   FinderSyncExt   No separator found. Stopping.
97385   default 14:00:45.576704 -0500   FinderSyncExt   Read -1 bytes from socket.
97385   default 14:00:45.576748 -0500   FinderSyncExt   No error and no data. Stopping.
97386   default 14:00:55.388914 -0500   FinderSyncExtension LSExceptions shared instance invalidated for timeout.
97385   default 14:00:55.388914 -0500   FinderSyncExt   LSExceptions shared instance invalidated for timeout.

There is no crash log in ~/Library/Logs/DiagonsticReports, but FinderSyncExt is no longer running and the Nextcloud Finder integration has once again stopped working.

[briankendall]

I've just checked the logs after a few more crashes, and I've concluded that nothing in particular is being printed when the crash occurs, since in a few cases there was nothing printed at all between the last line of output when the extension was working, and when it crashed.

[claucambra]

That's a shame. I've tried several times but I haven't been able to reproduce this issue at all. If there is not crash report in Console.app and nothing strange in the logging output for the finder sync extension I suspect the system is doing something weird here

[briankendall]

I'd like to see if I can attach a debugger to the Finder extension process. I'll probably have to build Nextcloud Desktop from source to do that. Not sure when I'll have a chance. But if you have any advice for how to do that, please do pass it on.

[claucambra]

Couple of notes:

• You'll need to link to OpenSSL and QtKeychain when you run CMake (and on Apple Silicon you will need to build Qt 5 as well)
• You will need to toggle the flag to build the application bundle, run ninja install, and make sure you codesign the app bundle

[github-actions]

This issue has been marked as "needs info" 4 weeks ago. Please take a look again and try to provide the information requested, otherwise the issue will be automatically closed in 2 weeks. Thank you!

[briankendall]

I just upgraded the Nextcloud Desktop 3.7.1 and will check to see if the bug is still present there. I haven't yet had a chance to debug this though since life and work has kept me quite busy!