The app is not responding or is slow
Wait first. Windows marks a window as "Not Responding" after only five seconds without a response. Long work takes more time. Most often the window starts responding again on its own. If it has not responded within a few minutes, close the program through Task Manager. Then start it again. Attach the logs\app.log file from the program folder to your support request. Without it, there is nothing to name the cause by.
What to check first
- Look at the "CPU", "CPU temp", "RAM" and "Disk" gauges at the bottom of the window. An amber gauge means the value has gone beyond normal. This is not a fault, and the amber color does not pause the work. The "CPU" gauge has no amber state. The app pauses later and by other numbers: 99% of the disk used, 95% of memory used, 85 °C on the processor. The reason for the pause is shown in the status line next to the "Start" button.
- Check the free space on the disk where the app saves the created videos.
- Close other programs that heavily load the processor and memory. That is a video editor, a game or a browser with dozens of tabs.
The window turned white and does not respond to clicks
Windows considers a window frozen if it does not respond to clicks for more than five seconds. The window then turns white. Windows adds "(Not Responding)" to the program name in the taskbar and in Task Manager. The window has no title bar of its own. The program records each such case in the logs\hangs folder as hang_*.txt files.
- Wait. The window starts responding again as soon as the long work is over.
- Do not click the window many times. Windows will offer to close the program by force. The work will then stop.
- If the window still does not respond, open Task Manager. End the
Video Unique Booster.exeprocess. Start the program again. - Send the
logs\app.logfile and the files from thelogs\hangsfolder to support. Describe what you were doing when it froze.
The program takes long to start
At launch the program checks the activation key on the server. So the launch depends on the connection. If the server does not respond, the splash screen shows "Reconnecting to the server..." with the attempt number. Attempts continue for up to seven minutes. Then the "Could not activate the key" window opens.
- Check the internet connection. If you have a proxy set up, check it too.
- Wait for the attempts to end. A splash screen with an attempt number means the program is working. It is not frozen.
- If the "Could not activate the key" window appears, fix the connection. Then start the program again. The key is covered on the Activation page.
At launch the app also checks for an update of the video download module. This check is turned off by the expert setting "Disable update checks for the video download module". Together with it, the program stops downloading the auxiliary JavaScript engine. Without this engine, YouTube may return an incomplete set of video qualities or refuse the download. The module itself will have to be updated manually. To do this, press the circular arrow at the bottom of the "Sources" section.
A project takes long to open
Opening a project restores all its settings in the window. Along with them, it imports the project's videos again into the "Imported videos" section: the app opens each file, checks that it is readable and its rotation, and creates thumbnails. This takes time.
Two options in the global settings speed up video import:
- "Skip downloading video thumbnails". The program stops creating thumbnails. The time to import videos into the app drops by 50%.
- "Skip the video check on import". The app no longer checks the rotation of each video. The price: it will not offer to fix a video shot rotated. The file readability check stays in any case.
Both settings concern importing videos into the app. They do not concern video creation.
Work is noticeably slower than usual
The project complexity counter (for example, "×1.00") adds up the complexity of all enabled settings. The higher it is, the lower the video creation speed. The counter can be clicked. A table of settings with their complexity opens. It shows which setting loads the device the most.
The "CPU:" panel shows whether the program has enough processor. The ✅ icon - all is well. The ⚠️ icon - you need to act. To open the panel, click the "CPU", "CPU temp", "RAM" and "Disk" gauges at the bottom of the window.
| Where ⚠️ is | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Overall load | The processor is not fully loaded | Add threads in the "Export" section and restart video creation |
| VUB load | The speed is below what the device can do | Close other apps or add threads |
| Third-party apps | Processes of other apps are loading the processor | Close them through Task Manager |
| Temperature | High processor temperature, overheating is possible | Check the device cooling |
Some settings slow video creation by their nature. These are "Stabilization", "File compression" set to "Maximum" and "Limit logical processors per thread". The AV1 codec (libaom) belongs here too. It encodes 90 times longer than H.264. The work can be moved to the cloud. Then the cloud creates the video, not your processor. What stays on the device is uploading, downloading finished copies, calculating checksums and the similarity check. The difference is covered on the Video creation on the device and in the cloud page.
The program paused the work: disk, overheating, memory
While resource monitoring is on, the program checks the device before creating each video. The app pauses the work on its own. The ring around the "Start" button turns amber. The reason for the pause is shown in the status line.
Pause and resume thresholds
Each reason has two numbers. The first pauses the work, the second lifts the pause. You do not need to press anything to resume. The measurement is repeated, and the pause lifts on its own.
| Value | Pause at | Resume at |
|---|---|---|
| Disk space | 99% used or more | less than 99% used |
| RAM | 95% used or more | less than 95% used |
| A thread ran out of memory | a thread failed for lack of memory | 85% used or less, and no threads on the device |
| Processor temperature | 85 °C and above | 65 °C and below |
Each reason has its own status line.
| What the status line shows | Reason | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Waiting for disk space" | 99% of the disk used | Free up space or choose another save folder |
| "Paused, CPU overheated - waiting for it to cool to 65°C" | 85 °C and above | Wait for it to cool down, check the cooling |
| "Paused, memory N% used - waiting for it to free up" | 95% of memory used | Close other programs, reduce the number of threads |
| "Paused, not enough memory - waiting for it to free up" | not enough memory for a new thread | Close other programs, reduce the number of threads |
Threads that are already running keep working during the pause. A pause on memory and temperature concerns only the threads on the device. The cloud keeps creating videos from the queue in the meantime. This happens if the project has cloud threads set and there are credits on the balance. If you create videos only on the device, the work is paused. A disk pause is a different case: it pauses both the threads on the device and the download of finished videos from the cloud.
The program shows pause notifications on the desktop. They are turned off one by one in the global settings: "Disable notifications when the disk is full", "Disable notifications on processor overheating", "Disable notifications on high memory usage".
An amber gauge and a pause are not the same thing
The gauge turns yellow before the pause. The amber color does not pause the work. It is spare time for you to free up resources yourself.
| Value | The gauge turns amber | The pause starts |
|---|---|---|
| Disk space | 96% used or more | 99% used or more |
| RAM | 91% used or more | 95% used or more |
| Processor temperature | 85 °C and above | 85 °C and above |
| Processor load | never | there is no pause by this value |
The gauges, the details panel, the notification texts and the thresholds of the "Check before start" sheet are covered on the Device resource monitoring page.
Where the work log is
The app keeps its files next to the executable. By default this is the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Video Unique Booster folder.
| File | What it holds |
|---|---|
logs\app.log | The work log. The file size is up to 5 MB, after that the program keeps it as a backup. There are three backup files |
logs\hangs\hang_*.txt | Records of the window having stopped responding |
logs\hangs\crash.txt | A record of the program crashing |
logs\resource_monitor.txt | The device state during video creation. Present when the "Log device state to a file during video creation" setting is on |
If there is no logs folder next to the app, the log is in %TEMP%\TekoSoftware\logs.
Detailed log. Next to the executable there is debug.cmd. It starts the program with a detailed log. Repeat in this mode whatever did not work right. Then attach the logs\app.log file. The steps are on the Installation page.
Ready-made buttons. In the "ClipSave" window, the "Copy log" button copies the log to the clipboard. In warning and error windows there is a copy icon to the right of the text. It copies the whole message, together with service information for support. The support page is opened by the "Support" item in the menu. The menu itself is opened by a button at the top of the window, next to the app icon.
FAQ
Can I close the program through Task Manager?
Yes, if the window still does not respond and there is no other way left. The work that was running at that moment will stop. Those videos will have to be created again.
Why did the "CPU", "CPU temp", "RAM" and "Disk" gauges at the bottom of the window disappear?
The gauges are visible only during video creation. If the program is not creating anything, there should be no gauges. If they also disappeared during work, they were removed by the "Disable device resource monitoring" setting. This setting removes the checks, the pauses and the notifications. That concerns the disk, processor overheating and memory. New threads start faster after that. But you will have to watch the resources manually.
What is the "video creation watchdog" and when is it turned off?
It is protection against a frozen video creation. The watchdog stops a frozen video creation on its own. The expert setting "Disable the video creation watchdog" is needed in one case. That is the case when the watchdog stops your real, very long video creation. Without the watchdog, a frozen video creation has to be stopped manually.
Will updating the program help?
Sometimes, yes. A new version removes some of the causes of freezing. Check whether you have the latest version installed. If a new version is not offered, open the Updates page.