Suggested spellings no longer function under Mojave

[warrenao]

The failure to load spelling suggestions has not been corrected with macOS Mojave 10.14.1.

The failure cutoff consistently begins to appear in any document with around 8000 or more words.

[sameagleusa]

I'm also having this issue, running Mojave 10.14.3.

[KB]

I cannot reproduce this problem, I'm afraid. Are there any particular steps I need to take?

[warrenao]

I cannot reproduce this problem, I'm afraid. Are there any particular steps I need to take?

For me, it begins manifesting when a file exceeds 8000-9000 words in length. The exact word count appears to be inconsistent, but by 9K, suggestions are no longer functional.

[Dewlally]

I also have this problem running Scrivener 3.1.2 on Mojave 10.14.4. Suggested spellings work fine in all other apps I've tried.

As others have commented, the problem only occurs in Scrivener docs with longer word counts. If I cut and paste a section of text into a smaller doc the problem goes away.

There is a significant delay in the pull down menu appearing when the problem occurs.

[warrenao]

I don't know if it's related, but there is a significant delay in the pull down menu appearing in Scrivener compared with other apps such as Safari or Pages.

Yup. I always know when the suggestions are going to fail in Scrivener, because of the delay in that popup's appearance. When the suggestions work normally (word count is less than about 8K - 9K words), the popup appears quite quickly, populated with a list of suggestions. When it fails (as soon as the word count reaches the top limit), there is always a delay before the popup appears.

The most maddening part is I can't nail down the exact word count before failure occurs. I've seen it creep as high as near 9K. But it's bound to begin failing with any WC above 8K, and once it reaches that failure point, it fails with 100% consistency thereafter in that document.

And yes, it's still a problem with 10.14.4.

[Dewlally]

The most maddening part is I can't nail down the exact word count before failure occurs. I've seen it creep as high as near 9K. But it's bound to begin failing with any WC above 8K, and once it reaches that failure point, it fails with 100% consistency thereafter in that document.

Have you checked to see if it's triggered by character count rather than word count?

[warrenao]

Have you checked to see if it's triggered by character count rather than word count?

That was one of my thoughts as well. To the best of my recollection, char count doesn't seem to be the specific trigger either. I wouldn't expect char count to be the operative difference here, since spell checkers look at words, not letters.

Nor does incidence of error seem to be the cause; if I have, say, 5 "redline" errors in a document, or 50, doesn't make a difference once the WC has passed that hazy line between 8K and 9K words. It either works with total consistency, or it fails with total consistency. Once it starts failing in a document, it does't work there again unless WC is reduced below some arbitrary and hard-to-nail-down threshold.

However, if ~8K words represents a chunk of memory, I could see there coming a point where it reaches 8192 discrete memory units (by whatever measure is being applied), and somehow overflowing the boundaries of a variable set aside to retain the text to be parsed (or a function designed to handle the text).

macOS is moving rapidly toward 64-bit architecture everywhere, and now warns users when we load a 32-bit app, telling us it won't be supported on later OS releases.

I wonder if there's some 32-bit architecture being referenced on the back end with Scrivener's spell checker, and that's ultimately the reason it's having trouble now. At some time in the past, I seem to recall Scrivener made use of Java. If that's still happening, and if it's a 32-bit version of some embedded Java library, and particularly if that library somehow gets involved in the spelling or document-parsing handoff, well, who knows what might happen?

[scshrugged]

Don’t know if this will help KB or anyone else, but this symptom was also discussed at Apple Support Communities as having occurred in Apple Pages. The last poster (March 30) says that it was corrected for them in Pages version 8, build 6194. I know Pages is in a black box, but maybe the similar word count trigger is a clue. (It’s claimed that bug reports have been filed.)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8633284

[Dewlally]

Some more info on this bug in the hope that it might help sort it:

On the project I'm working on the problem only occurs with documents that are inside the "draft" section of the binder. I still get suggested spellings for all of the documents outside of the draft section, including documents in the "research" section of the binder. And if I drag a document or a folder of documents out of the draft section, I am able to get suggested spellings for the text in that doc or folder. But, if I drag it back into drafts, the problem reappears.

[warrenao]

On the project I'm working on the problem only occurs with documents that are inside the "draft" section of the binder.

This looked really interesting, so I tried it too. Unfortunately I can't report the same. Spelling popup suggestions fail whether or not a document is in the "Drafts" folder, any time my word count breaks an (as yet) undetermined quantity above 8000 words.

Scriv 3.1.2 (10882), purchased directly from L&L, not as a download from the App Store; macOS 10.14.4.

[Dewlally]

This looked really interesting, so I tried it too. Unfortunately I can't report the same..

It's a shame warrenao can't replicate this. I've been experimenting with it a bit more and I now realise that – on my iMac – the issue only occurs when documents in the draft folder are spooled together so that they can be viewed and edited as one long document. If I use split view and open up a draft folder doc on its own in the second window, I get suggested spellings, but I can't get suggested spellings for the same word in the same doc in the spooled view in the other window.

When I copied the project onto my MacBook (running the same version of the OS and Scrivener), the issue disappeared, which suggests the problem must have something to do with my iMac setup. So I tried booting the iMac in Safe Mode to see if that helped – it didn't!

I also tried turning off all the functions in the iMac's "Services" menu (since they differ from the services I use on my MacBook) but that didn't help either.

[ThisHereIsPete]

Don’t know if this will help KB or anyone else, but this symptom was also discussed at Apple Support Communities as having occurred in Apple Pages. The last poster (March 30) says that it was corrected for them in Pages version 8, build 6194. I know Pages is in a black box, but maybe the similar word count trigger is a clue. (It’s claimed that bug reports have been filed.)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8633284

I can confirm that it the bug appears to have been fixed in the last update of Pages, but is still prevalent in Scrivener.

[KB]

I haven't been able to reproduce this even in documents with thousands of words of text. Does anyone have a sample project that shows the issue in a document 100% of the time?
Thanks and all the best,
Keith

[ThisHereIsPete]

Hi Keith.

I made a quick document using the default novel template and pasting in the text from Great Expectations. I tried to upload a file but the forum wont allow it (file size too big)*, so here's a gif illustrating the problem:

SpellingTest.gif (535.29 KiB) Viewed 1308 times

If I right click on a misspelt word on an individual scrivening, I get spelling suggestions. If I do the same in scriveneings mode (ie, click on the manuscript icon or the top folder) I get no suggestions.

This happens 100% of the time and on two different Macs running Mojave (High Sierra is fine).

*UPDATE: I managed to attach the file by stripping out the front matter, templates etc.