IINA.app windows sometimes not showing

[alt-tab-macos-bot]

This issue was opened by a bot after a user submitted feedback through the in-app form.

Message:

The video player app IINA cannot be displayed.

I cannot reproduce it every time. But in most cases, when I "quickly" open a video from the welcome screen of IINA instead of double clicking the video file, the problem will occur.

Debug profile

• App version: 6.22.1
• App preferences:
  • MSAppCenter310AppCenterUserDefaultsMigratedKey: 1
  • MSAppCenter310CrashesUserDefaultsMigratedKey: 1
  • MSAppCenterAppDidReceiveMemoryWarning: 1
  • MSAppCenterInstallId: 4CFD0D3F-9FC0-41E6-AB8C-21970D41ADF2
  • MSAppCenterPastDevices: {length = 1134, bytes = 0x62706c69 73743030 d4010203 04050607 ... 00000000 0000037c }
  • MSAppCenterSessionIdHistory: {length = 452, bytes = 0x62706c69 73743030 d4010203 04050607 ... 00000000 0000014e }
  • MSAppCenterUserIdHistory: {length = 447, bytes = 0x62706c69 73743030 d4010203 04050607 ... 00000000 00000149 }
  • NSStatusItem Visible Item-0: 0
  • SUHasLaunchedBefore: 1
  • SULastCheckTime: 2021-07-11 21:39:34 +0000
  • appsToShow: 0
  • crashPolicy: 0
  • dontShowBlacklist:
  • fadeOutAnimation: true
  • hideColoredCircles: true
  • hideThumbnails: false
  • hideWindowlessApps: true
  • iconSize: 26
  • maxHeightOnScreen: 66
  • menubarIcon: 3
  • mouseHoverEnabled: false
  • preferencesVersion: 6.22.1
  • rowsCount: 4
  • shortcutStyle: 1
  • showHiddenWindows: 0
  • showMinimizedWindows: 1
  • updatePolicy: 1
  • windowMaxWidthInRow: 30
• Applications: 41
• Windows: 3
  • {isFullscreen: false, isWindowlessApp: false, isMinimized: false, isHidden: false, isTabbed: false, isOnAllSpaces: false, shouldShowTheUser: true, spaceId: 4, spaceIndex: 1}
  • {isFullscreen: false, isWindowlessApp: false, isMinimized: false, isHidden: false, isTabbed: false, isOnAllSpaces: false, shouldShowTheUser: true, spaceId: 4, spaceIndex: 1}
  • {isFullscreen: false, isWindowlessApp: false, isMinimized: true, isHidden: false, isTabbed: false, isOnAllSpaces: false, shouldShowTheUser: false, spaceId: 4, spaceIndex: 1}
• OS version: Version 10.15.7 (Build 19H1217)
• OS architecture: x86_64
• Locale: en_US (current)
• Spaces: 1
• Dark mode: Light
• "Displays have separate Spaces": checked
• Hardware model: MacBookPro12,1
• Screens: 1
  • {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, width: 1440.0, height: 900.0}
• CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5257U CPU @ 2.70GHz
• Memory size: 8.59 GB
• Active CPU count: 4
• Current CPU frequency: 2.7 Ghz
• Resource utilization:
  • CPU: 0.4%
  • Memory: 75M
  • Threads count: 17

[lwouis]

I couldn't reproduce the issue. I'm suspecting that the OP is opening the video directly in fullscreen, and that the issue they encounter is #1002.

No contact info, so closing this

[theSiJin]

Thanks for the response. I reported the issue and I'd like to share more details.

Firstly, this is not a duplicate because the application is not opened in fullscreen.

I can (almost) reproduce the issue as follows:

1. In settings of IINA, select "show welcome window" in General -> Behavior -> At launch. (Not necessary, but makes the process easier)
2. Quit the IINA app completely.
3. Open the IINA app. So far Alt-tab can detect the IINA welcome window correctly.
4. Open a video. Now sometimes Alt-tab can detect IINA and sometimes not.
5. If IINA is correctly detected, close (and don't quit) the IINA, and repeat step 3 & 4.

Not sure if it is related, but one observation is that when IINA open a video, it seems that the application will close the welcome window and open the video in a new one.

I took a video on the reproduction. Alt-tab can detect IINA for the first time of launch, but failed in the second time.

Screen.Recording.2021-08-21.at.9.02.16.PM.mp4

[lwouis]

I tried like 10 times, and it always shows for me. I notice that for me opening a video is way faster than on your video. The player opens faster and resizes to the video size in a faster animation. See how it looks like on my system:

iina.mov

I note that we both use IINA 1.1.2. Which macOS version are you on?

[theSiJin]

The system is 10.15.7 on an early 2015 13-inch MBP (sadly it is slow). It is probably the reason that I personally cannot always reproduce the bug on my machine because it is fast sometimes and slow otherwise. I have searched around and haven't found anyone else having the same problem, so I don't think it is a common bug with IINA or alt-tab either.

Edited: The debug profile in the thread is from my machine. Feel free to use it as reference.

[lwouis]

The only thing I could imagine is that something like #481 (comment) is at play: that the IINA window is first spawned in a state that AltTab discriminates as "not an actual window". Then later it's updated to be an actual window. Depending on how long it stays in this invalid state before being an actual window, and depending on the timing of AltTab accessibility call finishing, it could explain why it sometimes doesn't show.

What we could do is simply whitelist all windows from IINA, like we did for Books.app. @theSiJin if all windows from IINA are indeed windows (not pop-ups, or HUDs, etc), then I could add it to the whitelist and ship a new release that would stop checking if IINA's windows are actual windows and just show anything window-like. It may fix the issue for you. What do you think?

[theSiJin]

It sounds good. But frankly speaking I'm not a developer, and I'm not 100% certain that all windows from IINA are indeed windows. Appreciate for your help. I can provide you more feedback after the fix.

[p8128n]

I have noticed IINA does not show up if Alttab is already running and I open a new IINA window with the 'float on top' option set on. If I turn off 'float on top' and relaunch Alttab it then shows up.

[lwouis]

Indeed, I tested with this preference:

And AltTab notices the window is level == 2 (floating). AltTab doesn't show floating windows on purpose. See the comment in the source code: "filter out iStats Pro and other top-level pop-overs, and floating windows".

@theSiJin did you perhaps change some preferences of IINA? I tried to reproduce the issue in this ticket with the default preferences, but if you changed some on your side, it may be why I can't reproduce. This setting on the screenshot above for instance directly prevents windows to show in AltTab. Maybe there are others.

Regardless, I will whitelist IINA in the next AltTab release. This will make it so any window/popup/etc from IINA will show in AltTab.

[theSiJin]

Yes, I checked the Always float on top while playing box all the time. The new version solved the issue. Great thanks!