How do I prevent Eclipse from hanging on startup?

Question

I am using Eclipse 3.3 ("Europa"). Periodically, Eclipse takes an inordinately long time (perhaps forever) to start up. The only thing I can see in the Eclipse log is:

    !ENTRY org.eclipse.core.resources 2 10035 2008-10-16 09:47:34.801
    !MESSAGE The workspace exited with unsaved changes in the previous session; refreshing workspace to recover changes.

Googling reveals someone's suggestion that I remove the folder:

workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources\.root\.indexes

This does not appear to have helped.

Short of starting with a new workspace (something which I am not keen to do, as it takes me hours to set up all my projects again properly), is there a way to make Eclipse start up properly?

Heterophyllous

solution in this question worked for me :) – Canzonet

#7847859 – Uribe

One thing to be aware of - when Eclipse starts, builds or if you are using source control it compares the local directory to the repository, it scans the project directory(s). So if you are writing a lot of output files locally then Eclipse will have to scan it -even if it's in workspace/your_project/tmp. If the amount of files is really big (say you are simulating a database with local files) this could take some time. This will cause the kind of instabilities that people report here. Best to put data like that somewhere else. – Cloyd

Answer 1

This may not be an exact solution for your issue, but in my case, I tracked the files that Eclipse was polling against with SysInternals Procmon, and found that Eclipse was constantly polling a fairly large snapshot file for one of my projects. Removed that, and everything started up fine (albeit with the workspace in the state it was at the previous launch).

The file removed was:

<workspace>\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources\.projects\<project>\.markers.snap

Reciprocity

I also needed to remove the .markers.snap files for my projects to get Eclipse to start. – Structure

This file didn't exist on my version. – Brother

2011-06-08: Under Eclipse 3.6 (Helios), the corresponding file seems to be .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap . I killed that file and presto, Eclipse started up again. I just noticed this duplicates the answer by joj. – Nucleotide

Removing the .metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources\.projects\<project>\.markers.snap didn't work for me. I had to remove the .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap – Tweedsmuir

I too had to remove the .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap thanks Donny Kumia an 1.21 gigawatts – Zelazny

@Carl Smotricz Removing .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap worked for me. – Periclean

I didn't find .markers.snap, but when I deleted *.snap from every subdir of .metadata directory, Eclipse started just perfectly. I guess it's safe to delete .snap files. – Aquila

There is no .projects directory under \org.eclipse.core.resources – Ruskin

@Carl I have no .snap file under org.eclipse.core.resources – Ruskin

Is there a way to prevent eclipse from reaching a state where these files need to be deleted? It hangs on launch quite regularly. – Enteron

Worked for me in Juno, although I now have to do this every time. I never had an issue until I ran update software last week. – Ferrosilicon

Note that sometimes .metadata may be hidden. On Ubuntu press Ctrl + H, while in workspace directory, to see it. – Steinbach

On my Windows 7, it was .metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources\.projects\<project>\.markers – Gwenette

Just removing the .snap file as @1.21gigawatts, was enough for me to get it to work. – Melba

Is there a bug tracker issue we can follow or commit to in order to fix this, it keeps happening every time I restart my computer. – Lettering

@MikePatel url for handbook pls? ^_^ – Burgundy

With Eclipse-oxygen-4.7.3a, I removed .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.safetable/org.eclipse.core.resources - which unfortunately resulted in having to re-import from maven projects. – Nur

Answer 2

try:

1. cd to <workspace>\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources
2. remove the file *.snap (or .markers in Indigo)

Urbain

You're my god! BTW, what does this .snap normally do? – Kooky

This file existed for me, but .metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources.projects\.markers.snap mentioned on the other answer did not. I didn't seem to lose anything critical from my workspace by deleting this file. – Brother

@MichałPękała I also was wondering on the effect of deleting this file, I've found another question that answers a bit that:What are the snap files in eclipse – Geostatic

wow worked for me though my problem was not same but similar. Eclipse opens up and shows the code but as soon as I perform any action it goes into an infinite loop. I could have spent my life and could not figure out the problem. Thanks mate. – Honoria

Eclipse should be made to do this automatically on startup if/when it encounters an error. – Prem

this worked for me: off-topic.biz/en/… – Psychedelic

Joy, and happiness. I have Luna on Windows. – Krishnakrishnah

I feel like I've just won the lottery. Thank you! :) del /s /q *.snap in Windows command prompt – Herrah

Answer 3

In my case (Juno) I had to do this:

find $WORKSPACE_DIR/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects \
-name .indexes -exec rm -fr {} \;

That did the trick.

Initially I thought it was a problem with Mylyn (I experienced these freezes after I started using its generic web connector), but the problem appeared even after uninstalling the connector, and even deleting the .mylyn directories.

Edit: I also managed to restart eclipse by deleting just one file:

rm $WORKSPACE_DIR/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.e4.workbench/workbench.xmi

That worked fine, without any indexes involved. Only the workbech, which I personally don't mind that much.

Cassock

How did you determine that the .indexes files were the source of the problem? – Africa

Trial/error, I am afraid. I suspected it was Mylyn fault, so I started with the .mylyn directory to no avail. Then I read somewhere about eclipse locking while indexing, so I went for those. – Cassock

Deleting .markers files didn't work for me, but deleting .indexes and workbench.xmi got my workspace loading again. – Lurk

Tried a lot of stuff and deleting that workbench.xmi did it for me thanks! – Scheldt

Deleting $WORKSPACE_DIR/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.e4.workbench/workbench.xmi worked for me too (I am running eclipse Mars) – Computerize

Nenad's way worked for me too. I am using the StatET plugin and when trying to start Eclipse it kept freezing at "Loading de.walware.statet.r.core", and .log said "Conflicting handlers for de.walware.statet.nico.commands...." In any case deleting workbench.xmi worked. I am using Mars.2. – Incubate

amazing! totally saved me! Many thanks. Other suggestions did not work for me. – Ishtar

@NathanielWaisbrot You saved my life. I have Juno (ADT) and when I found myself in this "frozen/hung" situation, nothing seemed to help: Deleting .snap didn't help. Deleting .indexes didn't help. But when I deleted workbench.xmi, my Eclipse returned to life (i.e. without losing any projects or their information). Thank you. – Joinville

Answer 4

You can try to start Eclipse first with the -clean option.

On Windows you can add the -clean option to your shortcut for eclipse. On Linux you can simply add it when starting Eclipse from the command line.

Jestinejesting

With my issue on windows (similar if not identical to the question askers') this did not resolve the issue. – Legalism

One of the more harmless solutions you should try first. – Wehrle

Answer 5

This one works for me:

Another, and a bit better workaround which apparently works:

1. Close Eclipse.
2. Temporary move offending project somewhere out of the workspace.
3. Start Eclipse, wait for workspace to load (it should).
4. Close Eclipse again.
5. Move the project back to workspace.

Source: Eclipse hangs while opening workspace after upgrading to GWT 2.0/Google app engine 1.2.8

Graphitize

Thanks @Hendy ! this is the only solution worked for me in Eclipse Luna. – Ensemble

It does the trick although being a nasty solution for every time eclipse has to be started. Thanks anyways :) – Kranz

As a side note, I had to open a different eclipse version, load the workspace, close it, and then open once again the one I really wanted to use. – Arnelle

Eclipse indeed starts "unfrozen" at step #3 but without any project. Moving the project(s) back as in step 5 without moving back .metadata, comes up with an empty Project Explorer pane. Moving back .metadata, restores the frozen/hung behavior. Thus, doesn't work in my situation. The only thing that really helped is #208343 – Joinville

Answer 6

I used eclipse -clean -clearPersistedState and that worked for me.

Warning: This may remove all projects from the workspace.

Extractor

Note: This will reset your workspace perspective(s) as well. – Elbrus

It worked but in my case it removed all the projects too. – Pease

My eclipse was freezing on startup. I did eclipse -clean without -cleanPersistedState. My eclipse started correctly and with the projects intact. – Ustkamenogorsk

Answer 7

I had a similar problem with a rather large workspace in 3.5 and no .snap-files anywhere to be seen. "Windows -> Preferences -> General -> Startup and Shutdown -> Refresh workspace on startup" seems to be a workspace-related setting and so I couldn't change it for the workspace that was causing the hang.

Running eclipse with the command line parameter -refresh and then changing the setting seems to do the trick.

Tantara

This was the way I got it to work. the -refresh bit was the key for me. Thanks! – Spathe

-clean alone did not help, I had to run -refresh, too – Tupi

Answer 8

I also had luck with removing the *.snap files. Mine were located in a different directory than mentioned in the posts (below).

<eclipse workspace>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects

Consequently, the following unix cmd did the trick:

find <eclipse_workspace>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects  -name "*.snap" -exec rm -f {} \;

Cataclysmic

Answer 9

I tried all of the answers in this thread, and none of them worked for me -- not the snap files, not moving the projects, none of them.

What did work, oddly, was moving all projects and the .metadata folder somewhere else, starting Eclipse, closing it, and then moving them all back.

Barreto

Answer 10

Since I don't have a .snao or .prefs file in .metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources folder (running on OS X), what did the trick for me was copy the .project folder to old.project, start Eclipse, and check

Windows -> Preferences -> General -> Startup and Shutdown -> Refresh workspace on startup

as proposed by matt b. After that, I closed Eclipse, renamed the folder old.projects back to .projects and after that everything worked fine again.

Unchartered

Answer 11

I did this:

1. cd to .metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources
2. remove the file .snap
3. Noticed the Progress tab was doing something every few seconds..it seemed stuck
4. Exit eclipse (DO NOT FILE|RESTART HERE OR YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO STEP 1 AGAIN)
5. Open eclipse again.

Using -refresh or -clean when starting eclipse did not help.

Brother

Answer 12

On Mac OS X, you start Eclipse by double clicking the Eclipse application. If you need to pass arguments to Eclipse, you'll have to edit the eclipse.ini file inside the Eclipse application bundle: select the Eclipse application bundle icon while holding down the Control Key. This will present you with a popup menu. Select "Show Package Contents" in the popup menu. Locate eclipse.ini file in the Contents/MacOS sub-folder and open it with your favorite text editor to edit the command line options.

add: "-clean" and "-refresh" to the beginning of the file, for example:

-clean
-refresh
-startup
../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20130327-1440.jar
--launcher.library

Moke

This worked for me for Eclipse Luna, on OSX 10.10.3 (Yosemite). Thanks Oded! – Formalize

Answer 13

Check that the Workspace Launcher hasn't opened on your TV or some other second monitor. It happened to me. The symptoms look the same as the problem described.

Virulent

Answer 14

Windows -> Preferences -> General -> Startup and Shutdown

Is Refresh workspace on startup checked?

Ethylethylate

That might be a tidge hard to assess when the Eclipse workspace won't open in the first place. – Legalism

That's not a very helpful comment, @rpierce as you can always specify a different workspace on startup (providing you haven't configured Eclipse to default to a specific workspace at startup, of course!). **You can always set SHOW_WORKSPACE_SELECTION_DIALOG=false in org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs to undo this, if you have set a default ** On the assumption that you can start up with a different workspace, check the 'Refresh workspace on startup' checkbox, then restart Eclipse and switch back to your original workspace. That should nudge things along. – Mo

@user924272: Well <shrug> 9 people disagreed with your assessment regarding my comment. Nevertheless, I will gladly admit that your comment is more useful... and may indeed provide the sort of information that matt b could have included in his answer that would have made it a better answer. But now the information you've provided is here, and everyone can benefit! – Legalism

Answer 15

I just had problems with Eclipse starting up. It was fixed by deleting this file:

rm org.eclipse.core.resources.prefs

I found in .settings

Regressive

Answer 16

UFT causing issues with RDz (Eclipse based) after install These suggestions will allow to work around this situation even with the environment variables in place and with corresponding values.

Note: Conflicting application will not be recognized in a java context because it is being excluded from the java support mechanism.

1. Impact: Excludes Add-ins support from hooking to conflicting application executable via Windows Registry Editor Requirement: The application must be started by an EXE file, except Java.exe/Javaw.exe/jpnlauncher.exe

Instructions:

a. Locate the executable filename of the application conflicting with add-in(s) support. Either use the Task Manager or the Microsoft Process Explorer.

b. Open Windows Registry Editor.

c. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mercury Interactive\JavaAgent\Modules For 32bits applications on Windows x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mercury Interactive\JavaAgent\Modules

d. Create a DWORD value with the name of the conflicting software executable filenmae and set the value to 0.

Roose

Answer 17

Removing *.snap (mine is *.markers), --clean-data or move workspace folder seems all did not work for me.

As my eclipse stopped working after I installed and switched my keyborad input to HIME, I went back to fctix and it worked.

Oust

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review – Aright

@VishvaDave Isn't the question asking a solution to the problem that Eclipse got stuck? I think we are facing the same problem, and the answer worked in my case. – Oust

Answer 18

I had no snap files. Going through the help menu installation list, at least 90% of my plugins had the uninstall button deactivated so I could not handle it through there. Under startup/shutdown most of plugins were not listed. Instead, I had to manually remove items from my plugins folder. Wow, the startup time is much faster for me now. So if everything else does not work and you have plugins that are disposable, this could be the ultimate solution to use.

Kissel

Answer 19

Unfortunately, none of these solutions worked for me. I ended up having to create a new workspace, then imported the existing projects into the new workspace. Unfortunately, you lose your preferences when doing so (so, remember to export your settings anytime you change them!)

Cranmer

Answer 20

I had a very similar problem with eclipse (Juno) on Fedora 18. In the middle of debugging an Android session, eclipse ended the debug session. I attempted to restart eclipse but it kept haning at the splash screen. I tried the various suggestions above with no success. Finally, I checked the adb service (android debug bridge):

# adb devices
List of devices attached 
XXXXXX offline

I know the android device was still connected but it reported it offline. I disconnected the device and shut down the adb service:

# adb kill-server

Then I waited a few seconds and re-started the adb service:

# adb start-server

And plugged my android back in. After that, eclipse started up just fine.

Device

Answer 21

no need to delete entire metadata file. just try deleting the .snap file from org.eclipse.core.resources on your workspace folder

ex. E:\workspaceFolder\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources

Algoid

Answer 22

Watch out for zero-byte .plugin files in the {WORKSPACE-DIR}/.metadata/.plugins folder. I just deleted one in there and it fixed my freezing issues.

Issus

Answer 23

What worked for me was this-- On Ubuntu

1. Ctrl+F1
2. ps -e
3. kill -9 for process ids of eclipse, java and adb

Quarterage

Answer 24

In my case similar symptoms were caused by some rogue git repository with a ton of junk system files.

Universal remedy, as mentioned above, is to use Process Monitor to discover offending files. It's useful to set the following 2-line filter:

• Process Name is eclipse.exe
• Process Name is javaw.exe

Hittel

Answer 25

I had a similar problem after I updated eclipse on Mavericks. Eventually I found that in the eclipse plugins directory the com.google.gdt.eclipse.login jar had version numbers at the end. I removed the version number from the name and it all started fine :)

Upheave

Answer 26

Also look at http://www.lazylab.org/197/eclipse/eclipse-hanging-on-startup-repair-corrupt-workspace/

99% Recommended Solution works.... (i.e. Removing .snap file) But if it did not worked then we have to try to remove indexes folder and further workbench folder.

Kantar

Answer 27

This may help

In your eclipse,

1) Go to Help

2) Click Eclipse marketplace

3) search - optimizer

install "optimizer for eclipse"

Match

Answer 28

In Ubuntu eclipse -clean -refresh worked for me for Eclipse 3.8.1

Misusage

Answer 29

It can also be caused by this bug, if you're having Eclipse 4.5/4.6, an Eclipse Xtext plugin version older than v2.9.0, and a particular workspace configuration.

The workaround would be to create a new workspace and import the existing projects.

Kanara

Answer 30

Well, I had similar behaviour while starting eclipse over X11. I forgot to tick the enable X11 forwarding in my putty.

Scorpaenid

Answer 31

In my case deleting the .metadata folder of the workspace worked. I am using Eclipse Luna service Release 2.

Eyeopener

Answer 32

my solution is to remove this dir:

workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.e4.workbench

what is did was first remove (move it to a save place) all from .metadata. eclipse started all new (all my settings gone). then i added bit by bit back into the .metadata dir until it dit not work again. this way i found i only had to remove this dir. And now Eclipse started with all my settings still in place.

it seems that in the file in this dir the windows which should be opened on startup are listed and some how it could not find one off them so it hung. why i'm unclear because the file which in complained about in the logging was on my filesystem.

Delanie

Answer 33

My freeze on startup issue seemed to be related to the proxy settings. I saw the username\password dialog on startup, but Eclipse froze whenever I tried to click ok, cancel, or even just click away from the dialog. For a time, I was seeing this authentication pop-up with no freeze issue.

To fix it, I started eclipse using a different workspace, which thankfully didn't freeze on me. Then I went to Window --> Preferences --> General --> Network Connections. I edited my HTTP Proxy entry and unchecked "Requires Authentication". Then I started my original problematic workspace, which launched this time without freezing. Success!

I had no further issues when I re-opened my workspace, and was able to re-enable authentication without having a problem. I didn't see the username\password pop-up anymore on start-up, so there's a chance my authentication info was FUBAR at the time.

Using: MyEclipse, Version: 2016 CI 7, Build id: 14.0.0-20160923

Shaefer

Answer 34

I did a lot of these solutions and none seemed to work for me. What finally did work was to restart my Mac. Duh. I noticed that my jconsole also seemed to be stuck which made me immediately go for a restart because it seemed to be Java related as opposed to Eclipse specifically.

Ventriculus

Answer 35

JAVA VERSION COULD BE PROBLEM:

I tried few answers given above. But it didnot work. But meanwhile I was trying them it clicked to me that I switched the java version for some other stuff & forgot to switch back.

Once I jumped back to the previous version. Eclipse started working for me.

Humanitarian

Answer 36

The freezing / deadlock can also be caused by this bug on GTK3 + Xorg

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=568859

Can be workarounded by using Wayland session, although in my case Eclipse fails to detect reasonable font for some reason and looks like this:

Related:

https://www.reddit.com/r/swaywm/comments/bkzeo7/font_rendering_really_bad_and_rough_in_gtk3/

https://www.reddit.com/r/swaywm/comments/kmd3d1/webkit_gtk_font_rendering_on_wayland/

Bastille