MakeMKV now fails to complete BluRay backup every time

[George314]

I have successfully used the successive versions of MakeMKV for Mac OS X and OS until recently. Now the backup will invariably proceed to about the middle of the disk and then fail. I procured a new BluRay player and the problem persists. What could be wrong?

[Lovely Rita]

It would be help troubleshooting if you posted the logs (error messages).

[Woodstock]

The backup will stop if it encounters a read error, which will show in the logs, as mentioned. The most common cause of read errors is fingerprints and other contamination on the disk... There's even a topic about this: https://makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15055

[George314]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will endeavor to record the error messages next time .
The discs I am having trouble backing up are new and squeaky clean, with no visible scratches. I made many successful backups, including discs that had some micro-scratches. Then, as I mentioned, I could not finish a single backup.

[rivey]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will endeavor to record the error messages next time .
The discs I am having trouble backing up are new and squeaky clean, with no visible scratches. I made many successful backups, including discs that had some micro-scratches. Then, as I mentioned, I could not finish a single backup.

When I first started ripping discs last year, I had a whole pile of DVD's and Blu-ray's to rip. Most were dirty with fingerprints and scratches. I wound up cleaning them and I was able to rip all but one of them. That one had a gouge on the disc and it was beyond repair. Then I started buying new UHD discs and was having problems. I now clean every disc I buy even if they look perfect and since then, not a single problem. I have a bottle of disc cleaner from dvdDR. It is basically a solution of 50/50 distilled water and rubbing alcohol. I will be making my own mixture when this bottle runs out.

What I am saying is that I have found the little things can make a big difference. Even though a disc looks perfect, just a little have can make a difference. Please try this as well as the data dumps. It may not help but since I now do this to every disc I buy, I have had no more problems. Knock on wood. Good Luck and keep us posted.

[George314]

Thanks again to all who replied or thought about replying. This is a screenshot of the error message.

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 11.48.03 PM.png (38.26 KiB) Viewed 24811 times

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I actually see the same behavior. I used to have a 90% success rate a couple of years ago, now I am down below 50%. And these are with brand new discs. I guess it could be my drive failing, so I will be looking back to this thread when I upgrade, to see if there's something else going on. At least Woodstock mentioned in another thread that my errors indicated that the problem was with dual layer discs.

[Woodstock]

The problem with doing "backups" vs. open the disk and save each title as an MKV file, is that ANY read failure causes the entire backup to be tagged as "Failed".

Saving as individual files, only titles where there was a read error fail.

Yorgo posted If you're experiencing rip errors, please read here first! as a consolidated checklist of things that cause failures on fresh-from-the-package disks.

Yes, it is possible you are having a drive issue. But the overwhelming probability is simply a contaminated disk. Contaminated disks can affect the focus of the laser trying to move between layers.

My solution, besides cleaning? I have 3 internal BD drives (in different computers), 1 external BD drive, and 2 external DVD drives. It makes it a lot easier to figure out if an error is drive-related or disk-related.

[George314]

Thanks for all the links and suggestions.

I washed the poor disk with mild soap and put it through its paces again in my new BluRay reader. This time I made note of the read speeds. Through the first 25% of the disk, read speeds were at 8.5 M/s. Then for the next 25%, they zigzagged wildly, ending up in the hundreds of K/s, at which point I shut down the backup. Clicking on the red hand did nothing, so I shut down the program with Command-Option-Escape.

I know nothing about BluRays, but the idea that some of them have two layers and the second layer is hard to read makes sense.

There was a mention of a BluRay reader that plugs into a different power source than the computer, and I wonder if somebody has a comment on that.

[rivey]

Thanks for all the links and suggestions.
There was a mention of a BluRay reader that plugs into a different power source than the computer, and I wonder if somebody has a comment on that.

Is your blu-ray player a stand alone unit or is it built into your mac? If it is a stand alone, does it only plug into the computer with a usb plug or does it have a separate power plug?

[George314]

It is a stand-alone unit with just one USB 3 port and no others.

[Woodstock]

If it is plugged into a USB3 port, it should have enough power. It's USB2 ports that tend to have power issues.

Speed issues generally appear in the log as a "tracking" or "seek" error, followed by messages about the device not being ready or available, eventually coming back online for a while.

This can ALSO happen with some drives that stop responding to the operating system while they're trying to read a sector that has an error.

[serano33]

It is a stand-alone unit with just one USB 3 port and no others.