Smugmug uploader for Mac OS leaks memory
:: Monday, April 16th, 2007 @ 4:43:28 pm
:: Tags: Computers, Photo
In general, I am a big fan of SmugMug, a great photo sharing service. I use it to distribute photos and prints of events because I can set passwords, control pricing, and allow original file downloads.
Having said that, its standalone Mac OS X uploader leaks incredible amounts of memory. After I uploaded 45 high-resolution files, the app was hogging nearly 2GB of real memory (!). And after uploading 70-80 images, it quits unexpectedly.
A search on SmugMug’s forums reveals that this has been a known problem for quite some time. Uploader version 2.10 was released in late October of 2006, which means that the developers at SmugMug have had 6 months to fix the problem.
1.97 GB of real memory used? Seems reasonable.
As usual, Macs aren’t a priority.
Now, I’m trying SmugBrowser, a Firefox and Flock extension. Here’s what happened: the first 5 files I uploaded show “Failed” as the status, which isn’t a good sign. Then, Firefox crashed. I re-opened, and dragged 1.2GB of files into an album in the plug-in window, and it started uploading — maybe 20 files or so, in parallel. Then, Firefox crashed. I uninstalled SmugBrowser.
I’m going to use web-based universal uploader from now on.
Journal RSS 
Ugh, I am sorry you are having issues with the Mac Uploader. The Mac Uploader is developed out of house. It has had two different contracters over its life, and while I don’t have anything bad to say about either of them (they are good guys), we definitely learned that we want to build stuff in-house.
We have a version in internal testing right now that should have the memory leak fixed. Just trying to track down the last few small bugs before we actually release it. Because it is done via contract work, the turn around time is much higher unfortunately.
As for Macs not being a priority, well… thats not true. :) We haven’t built a custom uploader like this for Windows… so Mac users actually have more options with uploading than Windows users do (they only have the web-based universal uploader, not counting the ones other people have built). We all use Macs here, and all development is done with them in mind.
Shoot me an email (you can use the email I left this comment with) if you are interested in tinkering around with our release candidate for the new uploader.
Once again, sorry for the issues… but hopefully they will be resolved shortly.
Hey, Ben — thanks for the response and clarification! I would love to give the RC a try, and will shoot you an e-mail now.
[...] Smugmug uploader for Mac OS leaks memory [...]