For some time now, we have been seeing crashes of FileMaker Server 13 when using container fields that are being populated with PDF files.  The crashes are infrequent, random, and quite frustrating.  I am posting again to see if anyone has any input into this, had any success in resolving this issue, etc.  FileMaker's support has been unsuccessful in resolving the issue to-date.  I do know numerous other folks are experiencing the same issue.

 

What we're running:

OS X Server 10.8 (supported OS as per FileMaker's web site)

FileMaker Server 13v4

 

What happens:

FileMaker Server occasionally crashes when PDFs are being inserted into container fields

 

Suspicions:

We suspect the issue is caused by the thumbnail generation for PDF files.  We have tried with both temporary and permanent storage, but crashes still continue.  Not sure if disabling thumbnail creation alltogether keeps it from happening.  It also seems that FMGo may be part of the equation - not sure 100% if the crashes have happened in a pure FileMaker Pro client environment.

 

Thanks for any corroborating info folks can provide, etc.  Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this together.

 

- John

This is a pretty big "known" and unresolved issue with FMS on OS X...

 

There are multiple threads on the FileMaker support forum with this same issue:

 

http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/8adabe24db

http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/d3853db796

 

by the way You have even replied in some of them yourself and in this thread: https://fmdev.filemaker.com/message/158031

 

I don't think there is any news about it yet.

Yeap, just trying to bubble it to the top and see if people had any further input they could provide regarding their experiences with it.  I'm trying to correlate as many folks' data as I can to see if any patterns can be found with the issues.

 

- John

We've just started storing PDFs in container fields ourselves, and haven't had this issue, YET! How badly does FileMaker Server crash? What do you have to do to restore normal service?

Totally crashes out and throws a crashlog.  Requires a restart of the machine to get it working again.

 

- John

Yep a total restart is usually the best option. Just restarting the FileMaker Server seems to result in a less stable server causing quicker crashes, but then again that could just be confirmation bias. 

 

To be honest though we've been coming to the conclusion that FileMaker Server 13 on Mac OS X has too many issues and should preferably not be used. The Windows version has fewer issues and is much stabler. Ofcourse there is not always a choice..

I'm not sure writing off the OS X version is necessary.  This is the only problem we have at this point with FileMaker Server 13.  Best thing to do would be for all of us to lean on FMI to get it fixed once and for all.

 

- John