Power outage and now Vivaldi won't start

[g_bartsch]

This is ridiculous. I built a new W11 machine (specs in signature) and installed Vivaldi snapshot and and had the problem of it crashing on startup. I eventually ran Revo Uninstaller and removed every trace of Vivaldi and installed stable and laboriously built Vivaldi again with setting, Workspaces, tabs, etc.

I have been using it without any crashes for a few months. It worked fine.

The other day our neighborhood had a power outage and despite having a UPS I could not shut down the machine running Vivaldi because it's currently headless and I access it by remotes desktop and when the power was cut the network died. So WILHELM shut down unnaturally while Vivaldi was running when the UPS ran out of power.

When power was restored Vivaldi kept on crashing on startup just like it did when I first built Vivaldi stable. This was soul crushing because of the amount of work I put into building the install AND because it had been starting perfectly for months.

I cleared the sessions and tabs and Vivaldi started. I restored the sessions and tabs and Vivaldi crashed on start. I cleared the sessions and tabs AGAIN and Vivaldi started. I restored the sessions and tabs AGAIN and Vivaldi crashed on start. So I was sure the sessions were corrupted and the cause was the power outage and improper shut-down.

I began the laborious task of rebuilding my workspaces and tabs being careful to quit Vivaldi periodically and save the sessions and tabs in case Vivaldi began crashing and I would have to roll back.

At this point after all the problems I've had over the years with Vivaldi doing this precise thing on different machines I'm traumatized and don't trust Vivaldi. Something is flaky with this program. I am not superstitious but maybe witchcraft or the occult is causing Vivaldi to crash on startup.

So I kept building and saving sessions without crashes till I began to feel confident the problem was solved.

Today I tried to start Vivaldi and it crashed. I swapped in older sessions and tabs at Vivaldi crashed randomly on start. I went back a few instances to when Vivaldi hadn't crashed while building but it kept crashing randomly.

Obviously something else is going on.

I thought I observed more crashes on start if I had been opening different tabs rather than leaving the same tab open before quitting Vivaldi but that didn't hold true always.

When Vivaldi would start after numerous attempts the window was never maximized as it was upon shutdown. And it was always in some random place. This leads me to believe Vivaldi is having problems at some point during the screen drawing process. So I try to have the simplest page open when I close Vivaldi but this doesn't stop Vivaldi from crashing sometimes.

This is really unbelievable.

I've included a link to a video showing what happens. After the crash 2 processing are left running for a while till they disappear. Can they be helpful in determining the cause of the crash?

I try to use Process Monitor to figure out what's happening but haven't been able to pin down the cause yet.

Can anyone suggest what to try or how to file a descriptive bug report?

Thank you,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1szl0KZXPuJq9kTiXpuvIlJZqQaRLDAxD/view?usp=sharing

[mib2berlin]

@g_bartsch
Hi, I guess not only the sessions are corrupted, the whole profile is. I would not trust such an install anymore and in my opinion it makes no sense to trouble shoot this.
If you use sync it takes a few minutes to get a working Vivaldi, even all open tabs are on the sync server.
You have to choose a different device name then.
Backup your important data not in the software or the system.
I had a powerloss a few years ago and could restore the complete Windows install with all software and everything in 15 minutes.

Cheers, mib

[g_bartsch]

@mib2berlin Thank you. I'll need to learn about sync and how to use it and what it can do. I really know nothing about it.

[mib2berlin]

@g_bartsch
It does not replace a backup but it send data of Vivaldi like bookmarks, passwords, notes, history and many settings encrypted to a Vivaldi server.
If you have to setup a new system for example, connect to the sync server and you get your data back in minutes.

https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tools/sync/

[g_bartsch]

@mib2berlin You are right; the profile was FUBAR.

Since it was hosed I backed up the most important files and deleted everything from the Vivaldi directory in appdata and copied over the entire Application and User Data from a system image and a non-crashing instance was restored.

I didn't know you can wholesale copy that data around but I'm glad that works!

[hellochap]

@g_bartsch hi! I still haven't managed fix mine to this day. I may download the newest version now and see if it's fixed since I last posted. Mine crashed from download. I never actually got to even get it to work. I tried opening it now and it actually opened, and I searched one thing in surprise that it worked and then 2 seconds after the tab loaded it crashed. And now it crashes instantly on trying to open like it did before.

[hellochap]

@hellochap I just updated and still no luck. Nothing changed.

[DoctorG]

@hellochap Seems saved sessions got broken
Try to rename in Vivldi profile subfolder Defaultthe folder Sessions to Sessions.OLD
Then start Vivaldi

Yes, i know, all tabs and workspaces are gone now.

[hellochap]

@DoctorG I tried that and nothing seems to have changed. This has been a problem ever since I first downloaded Vivaldi by the way. It has never worked before.

[Ayespy]

@hellochap That would indicate something on your system is actively blocking Vivaldi from starting.

[g_bartsch]

@hellochap If you have nothing to lose, download RevoUnistaller and use it to remove Vivaldi and all leftovers. Then delete any remnants of Vivaldi from:

C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\

Then reboot.

Then install Vivaldi stable.

[jrkl75]

The weirdest part of this I find is Vivaldi crashing on a freshly installed Windows. I'm running Vivaldi on multiple machines and never/ever seen this kind of behavior. Surely it crashed, but it was always due to a bug that got fixed later on. I've been using it for 2 or 3 years now and never seen such behavior you're showing in the video.

In this case your system is corrupted somewhere/somehow (dependancy file???). Have you tried a "sfc/scannow"? Could this be caused by a program that's running in the background? Have you checked Windows log / Event Viewer when you start Vivaldi?

If you have the time I highly suggest to reinstall windows and see if it still occurs. I am actually amazed to see this kind of behavior.

[DoctorG]

@hellochap You should try to repair Windows first:
Open Command Line app as Administrator
Run these commands each:

sfc.exe /scannow
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
shutdown -g -t 0 

[CristiNeagu]

@mib2berlin I think I'm in the same boat, with frequent crashes and then getting the loading bar waiting for Vivaldi to close even though there's no associated processes running.

Btw, if anyone is struggling with Vivaldi not starting in this manner, I found that the only way to get back into my session is by opening a private window (I have it pinned to my taskbar, so I right click and "New private window"). Then use the top left menu to open a new window. This should open your previous session and, depending on how messed up things are, your sessions might either be intact or all of your tabs might be dumped into the main window. Hey, at least you got Vivaldi started and all your tabs are still there.

Either way, the question I was going to ask is: Is there a written procedure anywhere about the best way to make a clean profile and reload all the data (including the session with all tabs) in it?

[Ayespy]

@CristiNeagu Do you use the built-in mail client?

[mib2berlin]

@CristiNeagu
Hi, there is no procedure to do this.
I test alot and often reset my profile, I don`t care about sessions because all I have in sessions/workspaces is also saved as bookmarks.
Doing "Save all tabs as Bookmarks" and export is the only way to restore 100%.
A not starting Vivaldi is often casused by broken session files.
What you can do is rename your profile folder ot better move it to a save place.
Start Vivaldi once to create a new clean profile, then delete the existing Sessions folder and copy it over from your backup.
If this work you can copy the file Preferences over and so forth. This is a very important file, it include all settings, workspace names, e-mail settings and much more.
If this file is corupt you have to do many things manually again.
I use sync for all other data but you can copy over important files like Login Data for passwords, History, Bookmarks, etc..

Cheers, mib

[Ayespy]

@mib2berlin There is a procedure for this, but it's not good for someone who uses the mail client.
refresh your profile

[mib2berlin]

@Ayespy
Ah yes, there is yours, I meant an officially way from the Vivaldi team.
In my tests copy over the Preference file solve the e-mail problem but I have to test this again.
EDIT: You have to copy the folder Mail too, of course.
This work.

Cheers, mib

[CristiNeagu]

@Ayespy Not specifically. I only use RSS, which I suppose shows up in the same interface.

[perrysantosjr]

In the 'Sessions' folder, I deleted all files except Apps_* and Session_* files, then Open vivaldi