Mac Upload Problem (Initial Delay)

[agraddy]

Hi,

First I just want to say thanks to everyone on these forums. I've been a longtime lurker who has been greatly helped by this forum.

Unfortunately, I've come across an issue that I can't seem to find a solution to, can't find any search results that match, and wanted to see if anybody else had experienced the problem/had a solution.

I've built a flash uploader for a client in AS3. It works great on Windows, however it has some issues on my client's Mac computers (it's been a verified problem on three different Mac computers). When I test it on my Mac, I don't have any problems at all (my Mac and my client's Mac are both 10.5.2 and my client has uninstalled and updated to the latest Flash plugin 9.0.124).

It seems that when my client tries to upload a large file (over 10mb), the Flash player stalls for about 15-20 seconds before the upload begins. This seems to occur on every flash uploader my client uses (for instance, the one at sendspace.com performs the exact same way as the uploader I created for them). The major problem is that my client is reporting that sometimes the PROGRESS events just stop and the whole upload stalls (I'm not sure if the PROGRESS event stops or if the COMPLETE event is never called - yes, we are returning data for the COMPLETE event so that is not the problem).

I think everything is related to the 15-20 second lag or delay that the client is experiencing as soon as the FileReference.upload() method is called.

My first question is has anybody using a Mac experienced 15-20 second delays when they try to upload large files (I'm new to the Mac platform, but my Mac doesn't delay at all)?

My second question is does anybody know why this is happening or has experienced this issue before?

[Krilnon]

Have you tried something like the method mentioned in this article?: http://blog.hy-brid.com/flash/22/flash-filereference-uploading-larger-files-a-script-in-this-movie-is-causing-flash-player-to-run-slowly/

It doesn't address the exact same situation that you are dealing with, but it sounds fairly similar and I haven't heard of the specific issue that you mentioned before.

[agraddy]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, the problem isn't with the script timing out. The problem occurs as soon as FileReference.upload() is called. The way the client described the problem, it almost sounds like the ram takes a major hit while the flash player is trying to setup the transfer of the large file. Low ram is not an issue on the client's computer.

I'm new to Macs so I wanted to make sure that a major pause at the initial upload was not par for the course. I've been trying to find a solution for this problem for over a week.

[Zaid_W1red]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, the problem isn't with the script timing out. The problem occurs as soon as FileReference.upload() is called. The way the client described the problem, it almost sounds like the ram takes a major hit while the flash player is trying to setup the transfer of the large file. Low ram is not an issue on the client's computer.

I'm new to Macs so I wanted to make sure that a major pause at the initial upload was not par for the course. I've been trying to find a solution for this problem for over a week.

Are any of these machines movable? ie could you take one off site to try on your own connection?

have you tried installing alternate browsers or using test user accounts to make sure that its not a settings issue?

Just some suggestions :D

[agraddy]

Thanks for the suggestions.

It appears to affect both browsers (Safari and Firefox). One of the machines is a laptop and I am actually waiting on a result of using a different network.


have you tried installing alternate browsers or using test user accounts to make sure that its not a settings issue?It does not appear to be server related because the behavior is the same whether uploading to the dev server or uploading to a uploader found on the web.

If you were referring to test user accounts on the Mac computer itself, I don't think that could be the problem because it has occurred on three separate Mac computers (2 macs at one company and 1 mac in another company).

All three Macs are in the same office building but 2 macs are on one network and the other mac is on a totally different network. I'm wondering if there is some issue with the office building - right now I am waiting on the results of having one of the macs attempt an upload using a connection outside the building.

[magcius]

It may be a permissions issue. It may be that on the network that is set up, the users of the network do not have permission to upload files. Try catching for an error (SecurityError or IOError maybe)... See the exceptions thrown here:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/flash/net/FileReference.html#upload()

[agraddy]

Thanks for the link magcius. I think I will setup to capture all the possible errors (I never noticed the MemoryError before although I don't think that is the problem because we are only dealing with 15mb files).

I should point out that smaller files do upload on the Mac (and apparently the larger files do upload they just do not show any progress). And Windows machines on the exact same network as the Macs do not have any problems uploading the files. So it doesn't appear to be a network permissions error.

[agraddy]

I just wanted to give an update for anyone who happens to run into this same issue. After working back and forth with the client, apparently the issue only affected one machine (I was originally under the impression that it affected multiple machines). We are not really sure what the problem is with that one machine, but it definitely has an issue. The bug has not been able to be reproduced on other Macs.