8. First Aid

Safe Mode

Additionally, there are some bugs we are aware of.  You can find these in the release notes of your version.
 

Resetting your profile

If your bird fell out of the tree or got a broken wing and you're not sure why or how it happened, your best bet is to just lay a new egg and get a new bird. We know this can be tough, especially if you've had a lot of good times with your bird or spent many hours teaching it to say Polly wants a cracker. But even the best birds need to fly away home sometimes.
  
What we're trying to say is that if Songbird encounters strange problems , (i.e. crashing or not even starting), it is recommended that you try creating a new profile (using the Profile Manager) and attempt to reproduce the problem before filing bugs.  This usually solves the problem.

To access the Profile Manager:

• On Windows, start using "Songbird (Profile Manager)" shortcut created in your Start Menu or by running:  songbird.exe -p

• On Linux, from a shell execute the songbird command with the -p flag, such as:  /home/username/Songbird/songbird -p

• On Mac OS X, in a Terminal window run: /Applications/Songbird.app/Contents/MacOS/songbird -ProfileManager &

  ✓  Uninstalling Songbird does not delete your profile, you must use the Profile Manager or follow these steps to get a fresh start.

Common Problems and their Fixes

• Unable to edit metadata:
  • Make sure you have write permission on the file. Also, Songbird can not edit the metadata of wma and mp4 files.
• Media core error: Resource not found:
  • The file you are trying to play was either moved or deleted. Try locating it and re-importing it.
    
• No sound in Windows Vista / 7:
  • In some cases, Vista mutes Songbird. Left click the sound icon in the task bar, select 'Mixer' to see if Vista muted Songbird.
• Songbird has an error which states that xvidcore.dll isn't found
  • Xvid is a video codec which allows XVID encoded movies to play. It is usually installed as part of a separate codec pack (such as K-Lite). The best solution is to install the latest version of XVID from the official XVID website.
• Songbird comes into focus after each song change:
  • This is LyricMaster's doing. Click the "Notifications Enabled" bar at the top to suspend notifications.
    
• I get a Media core error when trying to play M4A/AIFF files in Windows. 
  • To playback any M4A or AIFF file (even those which are unprotected) the Songbird Quicktime extension and Quicktime (or Quicktime alternative) need to be installed.
• Songbird crashes on startup or/and never loads on Ubuntu Linux.
  • A workaround is to uninstall "libvisual-0.4-plugins" via synaptic, or by running "sudo apt-get remove libvisual-0.4-plugins" in the terminal. libvisual is generally used for virtualisation effects in media players.
  • More information can be found at the Get Satisfaction topic.
  • Or you could be running into a similar issue with the gstreamer python package, you can find the possible workarounds here.
• A link to a Icecast/Shoutcast stream wont play, and I'm instead asked to open/save it.
  • This is generally caused because there is a bug in 1.4b2 (and earlier), where Songbird doesn't realise its a stream. The solution is to append .m3u to the name. An example is:
    
    1. A link such as http://streams.site.somewhere:8000/radio should be changed to http://streams.site.somewhere:8000/radio.m3u
    2. To open the stream, go to the file menu, open location, and paste the link.

• When upgrading Songbird, the installer goes into an endless loop asking me to "remove the previous version"
  
  • This is caused by an issue in 1.3 Beta 1. The solution is to manually uninstall 1.3.
  • More information can be found in the Get Satisfaction thread.
• Unable to uninstall Songbird in Windows
  
  • Sometimes the nightlies or beta builds have a problem with uninstallation, or the songbird directory has been deleted manually by the end user (incorrectly). The solution is to follow the guide on Get Satisfaction to manually uninstall songbird
• On Windows, Vista/7, when starting Songbird, aero is disabled, and the themes all change to basic themes
  
  • This is generally caused by quicktime compatibility issues with your video card drivers.
  • First try to install the latest video card drivers directly from your manufacturers website.
  • Secondly, ensure you are running the latest version of Quicktime alternative or Quicktime.
  • Finally, if all else fails, go to quicktime control panel (under control panel), the advanced section, and enabling safemode (and apply the settings). If doing so fixes the problem, you may wish to disable safe mode again, and try disabling the directx options one at a time.
  • More information may be found on Get Satisfaction
• Running Songbird-bin in linux shows errors loading shared libraries or/and libjemalloc.so
  • To run properly, Songbird uses the "songbird" binary/executable file, NOT "songbird-bin".
• Audio CD's don't show in the service pane when I insert one
  
  • To use CD Ripping in Windows, first ensure you are using Songbird 1.4.0 or later. Please note, other operating systems are currently not yet officially supported.
  • Ensure you are using the latest version of Songbird, and the latest patches for your operating system installed.
  • Check that the CD Rip addon is installed and isn't disabled.
  • If you are using a 64bit operating system, you must manually install the 64bit GearWorks drivers for CD ripping to work (the 32bit ones installed during installation isn't compatible with 64bit). This will be fixed in the future.

Bug reports and Get Satisfaction

When you have a problem that you are not sure about, the first thing we recommend doing is searching Get Satisfaction to see if someone else has had your problem  before. Most likely you will find useful information there.  If you have found a bug or would like to submit a feature request, submit it through Get Satisfaction. We do our best to track down more information about your issue or in the case of a feature request we try to draw attention to great ideas in order to help them gain some momentum.
You can also go straight to Bugzilla to file your bug or feature request.  Take a look through the Common Duplicates to see if your issue is already on our radar and if it's not check out our suggestions on how to write a good bug before getting started.

1. Go to the "people" box in the upper right hand corner of the bug;
2. Add your email in the "add cc" box;
3. Scroll down and hit commit.