1 2 Previous Next 44 Replies Latest reply: Feb 1, 2009 2:54 AM by Stuart Haiz RSS

    Contribute start up time

    Stuart Haiz Community Member
      How long should I expect to wait for this to start up? All my other CS4 web premium apps load very quickly on my iMac 2.8GHz with 4GB RAM & over 400GB of free HDD space.

      I contacted Adobe tech about this & was referred to a KB article ( http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb405712&sliceId=2). I have been through everything except formatting my drive as all my other apps are working without issue & it seems a huge chore for one app that is not playing properly!

      When I load Contribute, I get the spinning beach ball for around 3-4 minutes & if I go to the app in the dock, right-clicking shows I can force quit. Application not responding is greyed out. Then, the status changes so I can quit, but the program is moving grindingly slowly...

      Any help, suggestions or comments appreciated.
        • 1. Re: Contribute start up time
          Mark Mallett Community Member
          I'm having the same problem here, a spinning beach ball that stops for about 2 seconds, then comes back, and keeps cycling this way.

          Something's changed because it wasn't doing this before. I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, deleting prefs etc. Nothing works.
          • 2. Re: Contribute start up time
            Stuart Haiz Community Member
            That's exactly what mine does - stops spinning, pause time during which I can't click anything, then the beach ball comes back!

            I have contacted Adobe about this but would appreciate it if you could let them know too.
            • 3. Re: Contribute start up time
              Bob Christenesen Community Member
              I'm running into the same issue on a new install v5.0. An endless spinning ball on what was supposed to be the first startup. I can't command, can't get to the Tour or Tutorial, can't Command anything. Can't even Quit without using either Activity Manager or the Dock shortcut. All I get is a frozen Startup screen.

              I've used the Adobe Support Advisor, repaired permissions, run Cocktail, rebooted, removed and reinstalled. All this on a MacBook Pro, running 10.5.5.

              Nothing. Nada.

              Now I remember why I stopped using v3.

              Any suggestions, either on a fix or a replacement application?
              • 4. Re: Contribute start up time
                Bob Christenesen Community Member
                Aha!

                When I installed Ct4, v5, it replaced an earlier trial version of Ct3. On the initial startup of v5, it went looking for a connection to a website that no longer exists. Endless search, spinning ball, frozen startup window.

                Finally, after 4 hours and all the steps reported earlier, I turned off my WiFi to disconnect from the Internet. With that, Contribute started as it should, noting the disconnected status but allowing me full use of the program (at least to the limits imposed by being disconnected.) So, I set "My Connections" to ignore the dead site, reset Airport to On, successfully connected to a good site, quit Ct4 and then restarted Ct4.

                Success.


                • 5. Re: Contribute start up time
                  Stuart Haiz Community Member
                  I downloaded the CS4 trial for Windows on my VMWare Fusion installation under WinXP.

                  This runs perfectly...

                  I'll try disconnecting wifi later & let you know. I too had a previous CS3 trial I had on OSX, maybe Adobe have some way of checking & clearing this off our systems along with the CS4 installation if that was the issue.

                  Thanks Bob.
                  • 6. Re: Contribute start up time
                    Stuart Haiz Community Member
                    Well, disconnecting my wifi lets Contribute open instantly. All the menus are immediately available & working although I obviously can't set up a new connection.

                    Restarting wifi put Contribute back in unusable mode again...
                    • 7. Re: Contribute start up time
                      Bob Christenesen Community Member
                      Sirius -- That's progress. In my case it wasn't the connection that was the underlying cause. It was the attempt to connect to a bad (no longer existent) site.

                      Suggestion, restart Ct with your Internet connection disconnected. Once you have Contribute actually up and running, go into "Home Pages" in the upper menu bar. Select the Adobe demonstration site; in my case it is "tutorial website.' select that. Shut Contribute down.

                      Restart Ct, still without an Internet connection. When it opens, see that it does in fact open to the tutorial site.

                      If it does, open your Internet connection and, if you have one, attempt to connect to a working site. It should work. More importantly, it should continue to work and to startup AS LONG AS it is looking at a good site, one that it can find.

                      The symptoms that you and I have had so much trouble with are the result of Contribute endlessly looking for a site that it cannot find or use. Once that issue is taken care of, it should startup normally.

                      Of course, it'd be nice if it let you know...
                      • 8. Re: Contribute start up time
                        Stuart Haiz Community Member
                        Hi Bob

                        Thanks for the help - when I am disconnected, I am unable to set up a new connection as it can't test the ftp.

                        My Home pages button is greyed out & in the View menu > Home pages I have no home pages.

                        I can't find the tutorial site you mention listed, although using spotlight I can see a tutorialWelcome.htm file in my Ct folder. However, I can't use the Ct Browse... button to access this, only the file > open option & then I can't set it up as a site!

                        I have several website addresses I can use if only I could get it to start up properly!
                        • 9. Re: Contribute start up time
                          Bob Christenesen Community Member
                          When disconnected, can you click on "Contribute Tutorial" in the Help Menu at the very top of your Desktop?

                          Doing so should get you into the tutorial in the sideview panel.

                          If you get that far, click on the first item up "connect to a website"

                          Then, in the second to last paragraph is a hot link "click this link" to the tutorial website.

                          If you get that far, where it opens a new page "Welcome to the Contribute Tutorial"

                          That should allow you to set that site as your Home Page.

                          Then, resume in my earlier post.
                          • 10. Re: Contribute start up time
                            Stuart Haiz Community Member
                            Thanks Bob,

                            I've gone through all the steps you mentioned & after seeing Ct working with the tutorial site, noted that it was added to my Home Page button.

                            I closed Ct, opened it to check again & sure enough was able to click the tutorial website listed on the splash page to open it.

                            I closed Ct & reconnected my wifi...

                            Taa Daah!

                            Exactly the same - spinning beach ball. I don't know what the issue is, but after several restarts, force quits & system restarts I am finally able to create a connection to one of my own websites. The sluggish performance is still a real issue & it must be due to something being stored in my system files somewhere.

                            My trial installation on winxp is still running properly!
                            • 11. Re: Contribute start up time
                              sitedesign Community Member
                              tried checking "Don't show this again" and make the home screen go away.
                              • 12. Re: Contribute start up time
                                ThinkInk Community Member
                                I don't know if it has anything to do with the solution to your specific start up problem, but here are my scenario's in which it shows up or not:

                                Case 1:
                                1. computer is connected to an ethernet switch
                                2. ethernet switch is connected to modem/router
                                3. modem/router has NO connection to outside line
                                Result: spinning ball, no possibility to choose online or offline mode in Contribute, only solution is to
                                close the program down, there is no start-up possible.

                                Case 2:
                                1. computer is connected to an ethernet switch
                                2. ethernet switch is NOT connected to modem/router or the modem/router is off
                                Result: spinning ball, no possibility to choose online or offline mode in Contribute, only solution is to
                                close the program down, there is no start-up possible.

                                Case 3:
                                1. computer is directly connected to modem/router
                                3. modem/router has NO connection to outside line
                                Result: no spinning ball, and there is a possibility to choose online or offline mode in Contribute,
                                start-up is possible.

                                Case 4:
                                1. computer is connected to an ethernet switch
                                2. ethernet switch is connected to modem/router
                                3. modem/router has a connection to outside line
                                Result: no spinning ball, possibility to choose online or offline mode in Contribute, start-up possible.

                                Case 5:
                                1. computer is NOT connected to an ethernet switch
                                1. computer is NOT connected to a modem/router
                                Result: no spinning ball, possibility to choose online or offline mode in Contribute, start-up possible.

                                Conclusion: This spinning ball problem has something to do with the way Contribute connects to Adobe
                                online and gets problematic when it cannot connect, and the interpretation of when a connection is there
                                or not. When the progam notices a connection to a LAN it does not give the option to work offline, but at
                                the same time it can't connect to Adobe, cause there is no connection to the internet. This seems to be
                                the cause off the programs problem to start up at all.
                                • 13. Re: Contribute start up time
                                  Stuart Haiz Community Member
                                  ThinkInk

                                  Thank you for taking the time to post such a comprehensive breakdown of the potential issues. Your conclusion is absolutely correct in that it has something to do with the Adobe service - I have no fault with my Internet connection nor my network, being able to access files to & from my iMac to my Powerbook.

                                  I did discover however, that when the Adobe updater kicked in, the 5 latest updates to my CS4 software were downloaded but installation failed on ALL of them.

                                  I had gone from CS3 Design Premium to CS4 Web Premium, having downloaded & used previous trials & betas of Contribute CS3 & Fireworks CS4. Something, somewhere in this changing of software had caused a problem that no amount of uninstalling & reinstalling could fix. All my attempts at trashing & rebuilding prefs solved nothing, so in a last ditch attempt to resolve this, I decided to erase & reinstall Leopard. I know this was an extreme measure, but the failure of the Adobe updates concerned me & with the system backed up by Time Machine I felt it would be the best thing all round. (I'm a self-employed designer & need a reliable system to earn a living!)

                                  Well, after a whole day of rebuilding everything - I did not use Time Machine to restore my system as I didn't want to have my cloned & faulty system restored, just the files, I'm back. Guess what...

                                  Everything works including Contribute CS4!

                                  Thank you everyone for your help & advice. I'm still waiting for Adobe to respond & believe the issues were caused solely by the installers not doing a proper clean up, so Adobe - please take note.
                                  • 14. Re: Contribute start up time
                                    m gupta Community Member
                                    Hi All,
                                    There was a recent release of Safari on 26th Nov 2008 [Version 3.2.1] and Contribute seems to have the issue with the same i.e. taking a longer time to come up when the user launches it. We are investigating the issue, meanwhile following is the workaround and we will post more info as and when we find more details.

                                    Workaround:
                                    • Launch Contribute without any Network i.e. no LAN connection and Wireless disabled
                                    • Click on the "Don't show again" check box at the Contribute start page.
                                    • Enable the network and re-start Contribute, it will come up showing the index page of the connection instead of your start page.
                                    • In case you want to go the start page anytime please click "Contribute start page" icon on the top right hand side.

                                    Thanks,
                                    Manoj
                                    [Contribute Team]
                                    • 15. Re: Contribute start up time
                                      Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                      m gupta

                                      The same symptoms and solution apply to Firefox 3.0.4 so it's a wider issue than just Safari.
                                      • 16. Re: Contribute start up time
                                        Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                        My solution: After spending $199 and 31 hours working with Contribute to post a video to our website, I switched to the trial version of Fetch and got the job done in 45 minutes.
                                        • 17. Re: Contribute start up time
                                          Stuart Haiz Community Member
                                          Bob...

                                          Contribute is an oxymoron. I get it now!

                                          Actually, since my clean install, I have Firefox 3.0.4 & Safari 3.1.2 running under OSX 10.5.5 & Ct works. I installed my browsers BEFORE Ct was added.

                                          I only put it on my system so I could provide support to my clients when making changes to their own sites. The program has turned out to be a very costly installation for me in downtime.
                                          Still nothing from Adobe...
                                          • 18. Re: Contribute start up time
                                            Stuart Haiz Community Member
                                            This evening I installed the Safari 3.2.1 update...

                                            Contribute has reverted to being the digital equivalent of a sloth.
                                            • 19. Re: Contribute start up time
                                              Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                              Sirius 7

                                              Sloth, slug.

                                              Pour some salt on it and go have a margarita...
                                              I just hear back from Adobe Support today after sending them an urgent message on this on Sunday. They were of the opinion that the issue is probably a conflict with something else, or a OS system error.

                                              They directed me to a from 24-item checklist to resolve system errors.

                                              So, three days into an urgent problem, misdirection. Almost as though they didn't read my issue description.

                                              Jeez. I think I'll save a little salt for the rim of the glass and then toast Adobe. As in, toast... like bread.
                                              • 20. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                tafflink Community Member
                                                Just bought Contribute CS4 for Mac--what a disaster. Endless beach ball. The app is using 85-95% of my processor and ultimately goes "Not Responding." 3 calls to Adobe were a waste of time. Initially, they blamed my machine, then told me to "Run in Rosetta," now say I need to wait 1-2 days for follow-up from a senior technician.
                                                What a mistake.
                                                • 21. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                  Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                                  tafflink -- I suggest you save yourself a whole bunch of time, aggravation and energy. Read the comments in this string, then get a refund.
                                                  • 22. Contribute start up time
                                                    Mark Mallett Community Member
                                                    I've applied for my refund (twice now, since they totally lost the paperwork on the first).

                                                    I'll check back here. If they fix it, I'll take another careful second look.
                                                    • 23. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                      Stuart Haiz Community Member
                                                      I used Time Machine machine to restore my system pre-Safari & Ct is working again at full speed. This is even with Ps, Dw, Fl, Fw, Ai, Id & Ae open on my system.

                                                      I know that there was a security patch that showed up amongst the software updates too but I DID install that without the problems in Ct reproducing.

                                                      If anyone else is running Time Machine & installed Safari 3.2.1, restoring might be an option you want to explore.
                                                      • 24. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                        Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                                        Sirius 7 -- Thanks for the suggestion, but that isn't my cause. I haven't upgraded Safari 3.2.1 yet.
                                                        • 25. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                          Dominic Michael Adobe Employee
                                                          Hi Bob,
                                                          What is your current version of the safari running in your machine?

                                                          Thanks.
                                                          • 26. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                            Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                                            Dominic -- I have Safari 3.2 on the machine, but don't have it turned on. I use Firefox v3.0.4 running on 10.5.5 on a MacBook Pro 2.16 Duo
                                                            • 27. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                              Dominic Michael Adobe Employee
                                                              Hi Bob,
                                                              This problem is there from safari version 3.2.X. So please follow the workaround mentioned in this thread above.

                                                              Thanks.
                                                              • 28. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                Stuart Haiz Community Member
                                                                Bob - what do you mean you have it on the machine but not turned on? If Safari version shows as 3.2.1 when you go to Finder > Get Info with Safari selected, then you have this version installed, whether you use it or not.

                                                                Adobe have not fixed Ct to work properly with this version of Safari installed on the system. This is the issue.
                                                                • 29. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                  Bob Christenesen Community Member
                                                                  Dominic -- Please be more specific. What is the problem between Safari 3.2.x and CT? Does it occur when the Safari is v 3.2 and not used? Finally, which workaround, above? There are now several.

                                                                  Finally, my CT is now running just fine. In the meantime, though, I've discovered Fetch, a much more friendly solution.

                                                                  Sirius 7 -- I think you're right about it being an Adobe issue.
                                                                  • 30. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                    sitedesign Community Member
                                                                    Whether Safari is launched or not it doesn't matter as Contribute embedded browser uses Safari.

                                                                    Contribute CS4 and CS3 both have problems with the recent release of Safari 3.2.x, may be some security update has broken it.

                                                                    It works fine with Safari 3.1.x
                                                                    • 31. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                      tafflink Community Member
                                                                      Here is the latest from Adboe Support, received yesterday-----


                                                                      There was an updated report from Engineering. There was a recent release
                                                                      of Safari on 26th Nov 2008 [Version 3.2.1] and Contribute seems to have
                                                                      the issue with the same i.e. taking a longer time to come up when the
                                                                      user launches it. We are investigating the issue, meanwhile following is
                                                                      the workaround and we will post more info as and when we find more
                                                                      details.

                                                                      Workaround:
                                                                      • Launch Contribute without any Network i.e. no LAN connection and
                                                                      Wireless disabled
                                                                      • Click on the "Don't show again" check box at the Contribute start
                                                                      page.
                                                                      • Enable the network and re-start Contribute, it will come up showing
                                                                      the index page of the connection instead of your start page.
                                                                      • In case you want to go the start page anytime please click "Contribute
                                                                      start page" icon on the top right hand side.

                                                                      I’ll be waiting for your reply.

                                                                      Best regards,

                                                                      Sid
                                                                      Senior Technical Support Engineer
                                                                      Adobe Systems, Inc.
                                                                      • 32. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                        mIIwaukee Community Member
                                                                        Well... this didn't help me much. Still slow. And to think I actually recommended contribute to clients, now they're not so happy with me and it's hard to support them.
                                                                        • 33. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                          Stuart Haiz Community Member
                                                                          Adobe support finally got back to me, but guess what - NO mention of the issues with Safari!

                                                                          They suggested I format my HD.
                                                                          • 34. Contribute start up time
                                                                            mIIwaukee Community Member
                                                                            In SafarI I turned off java, javascript and plug-ins, upped database storage to 50mb. Then I made sure Safari was my default browser (which I don't like to use)

                                                                            Arg, even that really didnt' do anything!
                                                                            • 35. Contribute start up time
                                                                              MacMuis Community Member
                                                                              Hello,

                                                                              I did all the things that Sid sugested and in the mean time got a massive update on all my Adobe products (around 700MB because of Master Collection). The only thing that makes Contribute workable is the new plugin for Firefox. I can edit all the sites that I administer through Firefox now. What a relieve.
                                                                              However, Contribute itself STILL doesn't work as it should, and it annoys me enourmously! Especially because one of my clients is way up in tears because she cannot manages her own website. The Firefox work around does not help her because she's still working in Contribute 4 (which seems to be a different version to Contribute CS4)
                                                                              On one of my other computers I still have Contribute 3, no problems there. I now wish I never bought the upgrade. Thanks Adobe!
                                                                              Ingrid
                                                                              • 36. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                                tafflink Community Member
                                                                                I am shocked that Adobe, a big-time software company, has developed a fix for this problem after all this time. It's as if they're in denial, telling people to check their hard drives, etc. I have lost all respect for them.
                                                                                • 37. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                                  m gupta Community Member
                                                                                  Hi All,
                                                                                  For the workaround please refer the tech note at http://www.adobe.com/go/kb408112


                                                                                  • 38. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                                    tafflink Community Member
                                                                                    This workaround does not work for me--same problems: beachball + "Connection to this web site disabled due to error."

                                                                                    Is this working for everybody else??
                                                                                    • 39. Re: Contribute start up time
                                                                                      McCane.John Community Member
                                                                                      I just uninstalled Flash player and Contribute works fine without using any work around.
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