Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing an issue with OpenShot, such as a freeze, crash, or error message, there are many different techniques which can be useful for troubleshooting the issue.

Windows 11 Unresponsive

If you experience a freeze on Windows 11, this is a known issue with PyQt5 and Windows 11, related to the accessibility features in Qt. This is triggered by pressing Ctrl+C in OpenShot (only on Windows 11). OpenShot will become unresponsive and a memory leak is also present (i.e. the longer OpenShot is unresponsive, the larger your memory leak will become until OpenShot finally crashes or the user kills the process).

A simple work-around is to avoid Ctrl+C on Windows 11, and instead use the right-click Copy/Paste menus. Another work-around is to remap your “Copy” from Ctrl+C to something else, for example Alt+C. You can change your keyboard mappings in the OpenShot Preferences. See Keyboard.

Windows Debugging with GDB

If you are experiencing a crash or freeze with OpenShot in Windows 10/11, the following step by step instructions will help you determine the cause of the crash. These instructions will display a stack trace of OpenShot’s source code, at the location of the crash. This information can be extremely useful for our development team, and very useful to attach to bug reports (for a quicker resolution).

Install the Latest Daily Build

Before attaching a debugger, please download the latest version of OpenShot: https://www.openshot.org/download#daily. Install this version of OpenShot to the default location: C:\Program Files\OpenShot Video Editor\. For details instructions on debugging OpenShot on Windows, please see this wiki.

Install MSYS2

The Windows version of OpenShot is compiled using an environment called MSYS2. In order to attach the GDB debugger to our executable, openshot-qt.exe, you must first install MSYS2. This step is only required once.

1. Download & Install MSYS2: http://www.msys2.org/

2. Run MSYS2 MinGW x64 command prompt (for example: C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64)

3. Update all packages (Copy/Paste the following command):

   pacman -Syu
   

4. Install GDB debugger (Copy/Paste the following command):

   pacman -S --needed --disable-download-timeout mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
   

Launch OpenShot with GDB Debugger

Run MSYS2 MinGW x64 command prompt (for example: C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64)

Update the PATH (Copy/Paste the following commands):

export PATH="/c/Program Files/OpenShot Video Editor/lib:$PATH"
export PATH="/c/Program Files/OpenShot Video Editor/lib/PyQt5:$PATH"

Load OpenShot into the GDB debugger (Copy/Paste the following commands):

cd "/c/Program Files/OpenShot Video Editor"/
gdb openshot-qt.exe

Launch OpenShot from GDB prompt (Copy/Paste the following command):

run --debug

Print Debugging Info

Once OpenShot has launched successfully with GDB attached, all you need to do is trigger a crash or freeze in OpenShot. When a crash occurs, switch back to the MSYS2 MinGW64 terminal and run one of the following commands (by typing it and pressing ENTER). Usually, the first command to enter is bt, which stands for backtrace. More commands are listed below.

(gdb) run            (launch openshot-qt.exe)
(gdb) CTRL + C       (to manually break out   OR   wait for a crash / segmentation fault)
(gdb) bt             (Print stack trace for the current thread #)
(gdb) info threads   (to view all threads, and what they are doing. Look for `__lll_lock_wait` for Mutex/deadlocks)
(gdb) thread 35      (Switch to thread number, for example thread 35)

High DPI / 4K Monitors

OpenShot Video Editor provides robust support for High DPI (Dots Per Inch) monitors, ensuring that the interface looks sharp and is easily readable on displays with various DPI settings. This support is particularly helpful on 4K monitors and other high-resolution displays.

Per Monitor DPI Awareness

OpenShot is DPI aware on a per-monitor basis, meaning it can adjust its scaling dynamically depending on the DPI settings of each connected monitor. This helps provide a consistent experience across different displays.

DPI Scaling on Windows

On Windows, OpenShot rounds the scaling factor to the nearest whole value to maintain visual integrity. This helps avoid visual artifacts in the UI and keeps interface elements crisp and well-aligned. Due to this rounding, some scaling options can lead to larger fonts and UI elements than expected.

• 125% scaling rounds to 100%

• 150% scaling rounds to 200%

Workarounds for Fine-Grained Adjustment

While rounding helps maintain a clean interface, there are workarounds for users who require more precise control over scaling. These methods are not recommended due to potential visual artifacts:

• QT_SCALE_FACTOR_ROUNDING_POLICY=PassThrough

  • Setting this environment variable can disable rounding and allow more precise scaling.

  • Note: This may cause visual artifacts, particularly in the timeline, and is not recommended.

• QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1.25 (or similar value)

  • Manually setting the scale factor can provide finer adjustments to the font and UI scaling.

  • This can also be set via Preferences (User Interface Scale), but expect border/line issues on Windows with fractional scales.

  • Note: This method can also lead to visual artifacts and make OpenShot harder to use.

For more info on adjusting these environment variables, please visit https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/wiki/OpenShot-UI-too-large.