Stuck Background Job silently blocks later copy/move operations with no indication

[GUIguy]

Subject: A stuck Background Job silently blocks later copy/move operations with no indication

I ran into a confusing situation today that I think is worth a UI fix.

A "Custom Move" job (moving 4 items into an O&O Software folder) got stuck "In progress" and never completed - it sat that way for 3+ hours. I didn't know it was stuck, because nothing in the main UI showed it.

While it was stuck, every copy/move I initiated afterward - including plain drag-and-drop into a folder - appeared to simply do nothing. No error, no dialog, no status bar message. The file just didn't show up at the destination. I spent a long troubleshooting session chasing other explanations (Controlled Folder Access, antivirus allow-lists, UIPI elevation mismatches, hidden confirmation dialogs) before opening Background Jobs and finding the stuck job at the top, with six of my subsequent copy attempts sitting behind it as "Pending," going back hours.

So the actual root cause was the one hung job silently blocking the whole queue behind it - nothing was wrong with permissions, security software, or drag-and-drop at all.

Two things that would have saved me a lot of time:
1. Some visible indication in the main window when a background job has been "In progress" far longer than expected (a stalled/stuck state), rather than it just sitting there indefinitely with no flag.
2. Some visible indication when a new copy/move is added to the queue rather than run immediately - right now the only way to discover that is to already know to go open Background Jobs, which isn't obvious when the symptom looks exactly like a silent permissions failure.

Happy to provide more detail if useful. Great program otherwise - this one just cost me a very long afternoon of troubleshooting the wrong things.

Thanks,

[admin]

No status bar message? The status bar shows an animated icon while there is a background process. Or didn't it?

[GUIguy]

If you mean that small blue and white barber pole animation then yes it was there but extremely hard to notice. It was grinding away but I didn't see it originally

When a stuck job is stopping everything else from happening I need something more obvious and in my face

[admin]

Any idea why it was stuck?

[GUIguy]

If I knew, I'd have a Nobel Prize!

No, don't have any idea. Probably something that I did wrong as is usually the case.

[admin]

FYI, if background jobs are ongoing, the status bar offers a button (if Window | Show Status Bar Buttons is on) that opens a dialog listing all background jobs and their states.