Auto-detect and Fix Blue Iris Memory Leaks (2024)

I've developed an approach to automatically detect and fix Blue Iris memory leaks.

It requires the following:

On my system...

• I use N=6 minutes (10 log entries / checks per hour).
• I've found that restarting the Blue Iris service is usually sufficient to FIX a memory leak.
• Even if the action does not automatically fix the leak, I have still received a notification that I can investigate further.

The following screenshots illustrate two types of leaks detected:
'Continuous' type memory leaks...

'Step' type memory leaks...

The sections below describe how to set this up.
(it's not really as complicated as it may first appear.)

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'Write-to-a-file' actions

Required...

Key point: Schedule tab action sets are Schedule-specific.
You must repeat steps 1&2 for each Schedule you use (via the 'Now editing' control).

Optional...

1. Click the status icon (chart).
2. Select the 'Log' tab.

3. Click the 'Status Alerts...' button.

4. Click the 'Action set' button
5. Repeat Step 2 in the Required section above, replacing the Parameters field with %Y/%m/%d_%H:%M:%S,%014,%012,%017,"status_action"\n

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Customizing the PowerShell script

To use this script, simply extract the 'BI_memleak_fix.ps1' file from the attached zip file to your desktop, or scripts folder.
(Note: this folder must be present in the Windows environment PATH).
1. Open the script in a text editor.
2. Navigate the 'USER SETTINGS' section.

Each setting is fully described in script.
The settings fall in these categories. Only the first is required.

• [REQUIRED] Location & name of the CSV file in your filesystem.
• Customizable parameters for RAM leak detection.
• Opt in to taking action if a memory leak is detected.. by default, this is a BI service restart (a system reboot is optional)
• Opt in to logging the memory leak event to the Blue Iris logfile, add the BI server address, and add credentials (if needed).
• Opt in to sending a Pushover notification, add API keys, and specify preferences.

Extras in the ZIP file

• The *.csv files in the ZIP file can be used to demo the script from a PowerShell window.
• The *.png files in the ZIP file are charts illustrating the data in the *.csv files.

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Create/configure Task Scheduler task to run the PowerShell script

This topic is described in the comments at the top of the attached PowerShell script.

# HOW TO AUTOMATE THIS SCRIPT VIA TASK SCHEDULER# Open Task Scheduler and create an appropriately named task with two triggers and one action:# Task Scheduler# 'Triggers' tab:# 'At startup'# 'Daily' or 'One time' (e.g., at 12:05 AM, every 6 minutes)# (Note: I find 'One time' to be more reliable)# 'Actions' tab:# Program/script: powershell.exe# Add arguments: {your_powershell_scripts_path)\{script_file_name}.ps1

Tip#1: To make sure the Task Scheduler task is working...
1. Edit the PowerShell script to use one of the demo *.csv files (1, 2 or 3).
2. Also opt in to sending Pushover notifications.
3. Right-click the task, and select 'Run'.
Note: Once you've confirmed that the task is working, don't forget to edit the script, returning variables $path= and $fname back to the original CSV file.

Tip#2: If you are getting spammed with Pushover notifications, you do not need to delete the task.
Rather, right-click the task and select 'Disable'. Then debug the task and/or script.

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Using/Testing the PowerShell Script

To experiment with this script, simply
1. Extract the BI_memleak_fix.ps1 file from the attached zip file to your desktop, or scripts folder.
2. Run the script from a Admin PowerShell window.
The script can also be executed from an Admin cmd.exe window using a command like powershell.exe "C:\ps_scripts\BI_memleak_fix.ps1"

NOTE: If you've never used PowerShell on your Blue Iris PC, you may first to need to change its default security policy.
Open PowerShell in Administrator mode, and type the following, then hit the Enter key Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
(click <here> for a nice beginner's tutorial to using PowerShell).

The following screenshots illustrate the script's output (in a PowerShell window) using the extra *.csv files in the *.zip file.
1. No event detected.
2. 'Continuous' type leak event detected.
3. 'Step' type leak event detected.
4. 'Continuous' type leak event detected (2nd example).
5. Same as #4, triggering a Blue Iris service restart.