Darktable Won't Open

[loueyjay]

Describe the bug

Darktable won't open. A black command box flashes up for a second before disappearing, and then nothing happens. I've tried opening using darktable.exe, uninstalling/reinstalling, still can't get it to open.

Steps to reproduce

1. Click Darktable in Start Menu
2. Darktable should open
3. Empty command box opens before closing after 1 second
4. Nothing happens

Expected behavior

Open

Logfile | Screenshot | Screencast

========================================
version: darktable 3.8.1
start: 2024:04:07 11:05:27

ERROR : cannot open database

version: darktable 3.8.1
start: 2024:04:07 11:15:52

ERROR : cannot open database

Commit

No response

Where did you obtain darktable from?

downloaded from www.darktable.org

darktable version

4.6.1

What OS are you using?

Windows

What is the version of your OS?

10.0.19045 Build 19045

Describe your system?

Lenovo, bit of an old laptop but was all working fine until 2 days ago.

Are you using OpenCL GPU in darktable?

None

If yes, what is the GPU card and driver?

na

Please provide additional context if applicable. You can attach files too, but might need to rename to .txt or .zip

na

[gi-man]

The short log file says: darktable 3.8.1 but then you list 4.6.1 as your version. What is the real installed version?

Can you go to cmd and navigate to the darktable folder and type darktable --version? Post the output. Then do the same with darktable-cltest.

[loueyjay]

Sorry I uninstalled old version after that log file, since installed the latest version:

C:\Program Files\darktable\bin>darktable --version
this is darktable 4.6.1
Copyright (C) 2012-2024 Johannes Hanika and other contributors.

Compile options:
Bit depth -> 64 bit
Debug -> DISABLED
SSE2 optimizations -> ENABLED
OpenMP -> ENABLED
OpenCL -> ENABLED
Lua -> ENABLED - API version 9.2.0
Colord -> DISABLED
gPhoto2 -> ENABLED
GMIC -> ENABLED - Compressed LUTs are supported
GraphicsMagick -> ENABLED
ImageMagick -> DISABLED
libavif -> ENABLED
libheif -> ENABLED
libjxl -> ENABLED
OpenJPEG -> ENABLED
OpenEXR -> ENABLED
WebP -> ENABLED

See https://www.darktable.org/resources/ for detailed documentation.
See https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/new/choose to report bugs.
Lua support enabled

darktable-cltest:

darktable 4.6.1
Copyright (C) 2012-2024 Johannes Hanika and other contributors.

Compile options:
Bit depth -> 64 bit
Debug -> DISABLED
SSE2 optimizations -> ENABLED
OpenMP -> ENABLED
OpenCL -> ENABLED
Lua -> ENABLED - API version 9.2.0
Colord -> DISABLED
gPhoto2 -> ENABLED
GMIC -> ENABLED - Compressed LUTs are supported
GraphicsMagick -> ENABLED
ImageMagick -> DISABLED
libavif -> ENABLED
libheif -> ENABLED
libjxl -> ENABLED
OpenJPEG -> ENABLED
OpenEXR -> ENABLED
WebP -> ENABLED

See https://www.darktable.org/resources/ for detailed documentation.
See https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/new/choose to report bugs.

 0.2410 [dt_get_sysresource_level] switched to 1 as `default'
 0.2444   total mem:       3954MB
 0.2467   mipmap cache:    494MB
 0.2486   available mem:   1977MB
 0.2505   singlebuff:      30MB
 0.2682 [opencl_init] opencl disabled via darktable preferences
 0.2743 [opencl_init] opencl library 'OpenCL.dll' found on your system and loaded, preference 'default path'
 0.3987 [opencl_init] found 1 platform
 0.3996 [check platform] platform 'Intel(R) OpenCL' with key 'clplatform_intelropencl' is NOT active

[opencl_init] found 0 device
0.4030 [opencl_init] FINALLY: opencl is NOT AVAILABLE and NOT ENABLED.

[gi-man]

Ok, you are in the latest version and it is not an openCL issue. Can you use cmd to start darktable with darktable -d common to generate a log? Please use pastebin or attach a txt file.

[loueyjay]

Ok, what should I type? I'm new to cmd. I've got C:\Program Files\darktable\

[gi-man]

The same as you did here:
C:\Program Files\darktable\bin>darktable --version

but with
C:\Program Files\darktable\bin>darktable -d common

The logfile is saved in a hard to reach spot in windows. See here for logfile location: https://www.darktable.org/about/faq/#faq-windows-logs

[loueyjay]

darktable-log.txt

Not sure C:\Program Files\darktable\bin>darktable -d common worked as nothing seemed to happen. Found the log though

[gi-man]

It looks like your data.db file is corrupted.

Go to C:\Users\louey\AppData\Local\darktable and rename the current data.db to data.old. Then you will find other data snp file in there. Those are snapshot/backups that datktable makes at some frequency. Copy those to a safe place and then rename the latest one to data.db.

[loueyjay]

Ok, just the data snp files or library snp files too?

[gi-man]

Let's try data only first. That's the one currently giving you an issue. If then we get library, then we can deal with it.

[loueyjay]

Ok done

[gi-man]

So it is working? We can close the issue?

[loueyjay]

No darktable still not opening sorry. I copied the data.db files to my documents, should I delete them from original location?

[gi-man]

Delete or rename to data.old. Then rename a snap one to data.db

[loueyjay]

Ye still not opening

[gi-man]

So, let's do the d common again to see if we get a different msg.

[loueyjay]

darktable-log.txt

[gi-man]

Hmm, same message. Do you have an antivirus that could be blocking darktable?

[loueyjay]

I haven't changed any antivirus software, but only the last 2 days I've had this problem.

Is there anything else I can try?

[gi-man]

Can you temporarily disable your antivirus to test? The other option is to try a data snp that is older to also test.

If it was working 2 days ago, and restoring the older data.db doesn't fix it, then it points to something in windows changing.

[loueyjay]

I did the same for the lib files & got this message when trying to open darktable

[gi-man]

Press upgrade. This means that this version of data.db is older.

If it continues to give you problems, I think you should look into a recent windows update or antivirus blocking darktable.