Phantom windows, freezes in modal dialogs

[Jens]

I have encountered a nasty situation where something is amiss with the display of FileMaker windows. It only occurs in a multi-file solution that I have upgraded from FMP 4 to FMP 9 through FMP 8.5. It does not occurs with 8.5, only 9.

Here is what happens:

After doing a search, e.g., a certain window, basically the same each time, pop up front, i.e. not the window that the search takes place in. Dimming of the title bar also occurs and then the window you see on screen is not the window shown as the active window in the Windows menu.

This is irritating, but I hope you will never experience what happens when modal dialogs are open: In ScriptMaker, in Define Database, etc., a total system freeze occurs, which locks up everything … Force Quit, Dock, you name it - only the power button works. What I think is taking place is that FileMaker shifts to the phantom window and makes it impossible to leave the modal window, this creating system confusion. I have not seen this occurs with a FileMaker Message, but I imagine it could happen.

I am rebuilding the files that FileMaker against my will shifts to, hoping in this way to get rid of the problem.

Luckily, this problem does not occurs with FileMaker Advanced 8.5 - otherwise I wouldn't know how to go about it!

[Hare]

Have you installed the compatibility patch for v9 - Leopard?

[Jens]

Thanks, Hare: Yes, I have. I run 9.0v3. - Jens

[Hare]

hard to say... I have not seen this behaviour. Do you have one machine with v9/leopard or multiple? If one, I'd suggest doing a reinstall of filemaker (and perhaps of the system). If multiple machines,... the file could be corrupt. Create a simple test file and see if the problem persists.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Jens]

Yes, it IS hard to say, but the same behaviour occurs on other machines running the same solution, so I don't think reinstalling would solve the problem. I should try it out on Windows, though - the project is important enough to switch to Windows (at least for a while)!

The whole thing has to be rebuilt from scratch, eventually ….

[Hare]

I'd be wary of corruption in this case - even though I'm wondering a bit about the issue being apparent only using v9 and I can't say from personal experience if this behaviour is consistent with file damage.

Nevertheless, if there is file corruption you should deal with it.

- backup the suspected damaged file

- recover the file

- Create an empty clone of a known-good backup

- import the restored records in the clone

Here's an extended description of the recovery procedure (it differs from the above): knowledge base

[Jens]

Thanks for your patience, Hare!

During the weekend, I tried Windows XP, running a FMP trial: no problems with windows switching by themselves.

I then installed FMA 9.1 and 9.3 on Mac OS 10.4.11: no problems with windows here either. I had determined to revert to 10.4.11, but then:

This morning the 10.5.3 upgrade came, and as far as I can see no problems with windows there!

I know it is a rather stiff accusation, but is my problem not OS-related? I have 38 windows open in my solution, last time I had the time to count. Would other solutions having this large a number of windows open (surely a rare event), run into the same problems?

I am afraid I won't have time to test this - I have to catch up, having lost countless hours trying to solve this problem over the last months.

Jens

[Hare]

It would appear that it is indeed an OS related problem fixed by 10.5.3. See knowledge base .