Google Drive crashing on Sierra?

[johannnn]

Updated Sierra (2016 MB), just downloaded Google Drive.

Every time I right click and go into Preferences (to change the selective sync option), that window hangs and when I try to close the window, the icon in the menubar disappear. Checking the Activity Monitor.app suggest that Google Drive actually crashes.

Surely I can't be the only one running Google Drive here? Anyone else with this issue?

 

[johannnn]

Solved, seems that files/folders starting with an emoji was the problem. Not the first software that bugs out when it sees an emoji. Still kind of sad that developers are so slow integrating new things.

 

[LisaS.]

poobear, I'm glad you solved this problem, but how exactly did you solve it? What are the steps you took? I have this same thing, and I'm not aware that I have any files or folders that start with emojis. What should I do? I've tried completely uninstalling, trashing cache and press files, etc. Not much is mentioned about this problem on the web. Please help! TIA!

 

[kiwipeso1]

The filesystem is only unicode capable, not emoji capable.
This may be a good idea to use the web version of google drive and rename the files and folders.

 

[LisaS.]

Thanks for your reply, kiwipeso1! I was using the web version of Drive, but now I need to use the desktop version so that I can sync my HDD folders automatically...AND the desktop version is the one that has the Preferences control window/dialog. I can't set Prefs using the web. And I don't seem to have files/folders that begin with emojis. It's so frustrating that I use the desktop menu to open the Prefs window, then I can't change the "sync only some folders" button. Mine's stuck on "all" and it won't let me change...the selection stays on "all." And I can't even go to the other two tabs at all. The whole window is just useless. Don't know what to do next. More ideas? Thanks again for taking time to respond!

 

[johannnn]

- Make sure you have the latest version of Google Drive. If unsure, download from the Google website.
- Move everything out from Google Drive (e.g. to Desktop)
- See if Google Drive now works ok
- Put in some test files and see if it will works
- If still works, put in all your files in small pieces and check when it stops working

For me, it was clear that it stopped working when filenames had emojis.
I have no problem with emojis in other places in macOS, such as iCloud Drive or iCloud mailboxes.
But now I never have emojis in file names, as I use a bunch of third party apps and I don't want to run into a similar problem in the future.

 

[LisaS.]

Thanks so much for your reply, poobear! After a complete uninstall and reboot, I did download the latest Drive installer directly from the Google website. It made no difference; I still had the exact same issue. I will try what you have suggested, although it may be painful given that I've got massive amounts of stuff in there...mostly very high res jpg and tiff images. It'll take me a while. So frustrating! Thanks again for your input; much appreciated!

 

[johannnn]

Thanks so much for your reply, poobear! After a complete uninstall and reboot, I did download the latest Drive installer directly from the Google website. It made no difference; I still had the exact same issue. I will try what you have suggested, although it may be painful given that I've got massive amounts of stuff in there...mostly very high res jpg and tiff images. It'll take me a while. So frustrating! Thanks again for your input; much appreciated!

Moving all files away from Google Drive is just one click and drag. I think it's an important step since it will tell you whether the problem is with your files or something else on your computer.

 

[kiwipeso1]

Thanks for your reply, kiwipeso1! I was using the web version of Drive, but now I need to use the desktop version so that I can sync my HDD folders automatically...AND the desktop version is the one that has the Preferences control window/dialog. I can't set Prefs using the web. And I don't seem to have files/folders that begin with emojis. It's so frustrating that I use the desktop menu to open the Prefs window, then I can't change the "sync only some folders" button. Mine's stuck on "all" and it won't let me change...the selection stays on "all." And I can't even go to the other two tabs at all. The whole window is just useless. Don't know what to do next. More ideas? Thanks again for taking time to respond!

Although I don't use local storage for drive, I think you'll find that the web version doesn't have the choice to sync some, so it will be stuck on sync all due to the web version. At least that is what it appears to be on the web version, which is considered to be the master version due to always being up to date.
(I don't use the mac app, as I only download or sync a few selected documents from my google drive accounts.)

 

[mkimitch]

The filesystem is only unicode capable, not emoji capable.
This may be a good idea to use the web version of google drive and rename the files and folders.

Emojis are unicode characters.

http://unicode.org/emoji/

 

[kiwipeso1]

Emojis are unicode characters.

http://unicode.org/emoji/

Ok, if you really prefer a dull, pedantic programmer's mansplaination, I will provide an answer in the style of a fellow software engineer who goes into such detail that run well past time in meetings :
( No offence meant if he is reading this thread though).

Emojis are unicode characters which execute graphical code when displayed, this breaks expected historical norms from filename display code dating back from the first graphical user interfaces of the 70s.
As such behaviour is not expected to happen with standard IO files, this is counted as an exploitation bug and not a feature to be reliably act in a predictable fashion.
Therefore, filenames with emoji in them are probably not going to have full support for error free file transfer until all operating systems support the emoji characters within the filename string.
This would probably become a supported feature no earlier than 2020 for conventional computers due to timeframe before macbook pro touchbar has an equivalent feature on sufficient PCs to be supported by Windows and Linux distros.
It is almost certain that it won't ship with High Sierra, however it may become possible once APFS is deployed as a part of a point upgrade to High Sierra.

Although in my opinion, this would be more likely to take more work than it would seem, as once this is implemented, then everytime emojis are added to the standard, a new set of emoji must be added as a possible filesystem character and backported to the still supported versions of MacOS, which leaves older versions of MacOS vulnerable to crashing if they receive a filename with emoji or new emoji unsupported in the obsolete version of MacOS.

To be clear, this would result in a minor amount of havoc for people with older macs who may end up not being able to run specific files at all simply because the filename is incompatible, and would break a convention since HFS in 1986.

TLDR; yes it is possible for future versions of operating systems to support emoji filenames, they do not now support it for reasons listed above, and if they did support emoji in the filesystem then there would be major problems with obsolete versions of MacOS being vulnerable to crashing just on individual files.
In other words, it would be a cheap way to crash an older computer without any effort.

 

[mkimitch]

Ok, if you really prefer a dull, pedantic programmer's mansplaination, I will provide an answer in the style of a fellow software engineer who goes into such detail that run well past time in meetings :
( No offence meant if he is reading this thread though).

Emojis are unicode characters which execute graphical code when displayed, this breaks expected historical norms from filename display code dating back from the first graphical user interfaces of the 70s.
As such behaviour is not expected to happen with standard IO files, this is counted as an exploitation bug and not a feature to be reliably act in a predictable fashion.
Therefore, filenames with emoji in them are probably not going to have full support for error free file transfer until all operating systems support the emoji characters within the filename string.
This would probably become a supported feature no earlier than 2020 for conventional computers due to timeframe before macbook pro touchbar has an equivalent feature on sufficient PCs to be supported by Windows and Linux distros.
It is almost certain that it won't ship with High Sierra, however it may become possible once APFS is deployed as a part of a point upgrade to High Sierra.

Although in my opinion, this would be more likely to take more work than it would seem, as once this is implemented, then everytime emojis are added to the standard, a new set of emoji must be added as a possible filesystem character and backported to the still supported versions of MacOS, which leaves older versions of MacOS vulnerable to crashing if they receive a filename with emoji or new emoji unsupported in the obsolete version of MacOS.

To be clear, this would result in a minor amount of havoc for people with older macs who may end up not being able to run specific files at all simply because the filename is incompatible, and would break a convention since HFS in 1986.

TLDR; yes it is possible for future versions of operating systems to support emoji filenames, they do not now support it for reasons listed above, and if they did support emoji in the filesystem then there would be major problems with obsolete versions of MacOS being vulnerable to crashing just on individual files.
In other words, it would be a cheap way to crash an older computer without any effort.

Consider me mansplained.

Although, I've been using emojis in my file names for quite a while now (maybe a year?) and it wasn't until recently that Google Drive—and now "Backup and Sync By Google," since they've changed the app they use—started consistently crashing on me. I'm going to give the omitting emojis from filenames thing a go, though; I'm convinced enough to try it.