it has been hit and miss for me too.
If I do not choose another library, 'default' crashes MM.
Go figure.

Surely you mean that "your media manager always crashes". Why on earth would you make an assumption that everyone else's crashes? Very strange.

Mine doesn't crash (running on 3 of my systems now).... and yes it is useful.

Do you have Vegas 6.0b?

Providing any additional detail on your crashes would certainly help in our efforts to offer troubleshooting advice.

You may also want to contact technical support. They have a new media manager diagnostic tool to aid troubleshooting and it sounds like you may be a good candidate.

If you'd rather try a few things on your own, this thread has troubleshooting tips:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=389571

Ya know, I sit down to learn a few things that I have not, until now, had the time to learn. I decide to learn about the Media Manager.

What happens? Seemingly, if you drag some media files to some tags Vegas doesn't like, you get a hard crash. I mean hard. I have not determined the common denominator other than it happens during a tag assignment/drag evolution.

I have crashed 4 times now when doing a tag dragging evolution.

I am running Vegas 6.0B.

It works for awhile until I hit the tag(s) of death. I do not know which ones they are.

This is ridiculous. There is no way this did not happen before release. I have a pristine operating system with all working perfectly, except for Vegas 6.0b. I have partition backups of my OS partitions so I can recover from errant software.

The log files shows:
-----
2005-06-06 19:51:44,812 [764] FATAL Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.AssemblyLoad [] - UI thread had an unhandled exception!
Exception: System.NullReferenceException
Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Source: System.Windows.Forms
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.EndInvoke(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.Kernel.Threading.WorkerBase.DoEndInvokes()

[Log Started]
2005-06-06 20:02:34,234 [2312] FATAL Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.RelationManager [] - Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.RelationWorker died unexpectedly.
Exception: Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.DataUniquenessException
Message: DataAccessMgr reporting a uniqueness violation.
Source: Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.SqlServerDataAccessMgr.ConvertException(SqlException se)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.SqlServerDataAccessMgr.Insert(Object obj)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.UnitOfWork.PerformDataAccessMgrWorkForCommit(UnitOfWorkCommitFeedback feedbackDelegate, Int32 commitAttempt)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.UnitOfWork.Commit(UnitOfWorkCommitFeedback feedbackDelegate)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.UnitOfWork.Commit()
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.RelationWorker.CreateRelation(RelationType type, String sources, String targetName, MediaLibraryChanges& changes)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.RelationWorker.DoWork(Object genericArg)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.Kernel.Threading.WorkerBase.DoWorkWrapper(Object genericArg)

Nested Exception

Exception: Sony.MediaSoftware.Kernel.Database.SqlUniquenessException
Message: Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'CN_UniqueRelations'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'relation'.
The statement has been terminated.(class 14 number 2627)

Nested Exception

Exception: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
Message: Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'CN_UniqueRelations'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'relation'.
The statement has been terminated.
Source: .Net SqlClient Data Provider
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteScalar()
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.SqlServerDataAccessMgr.Insert(Object obj)



2005-06-06 20:02:37,218 [2312] FATAL Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.AssemblyLoad [] - UI thread had an unhandled exception!
Exception: System.NullReferenceException
Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Source: System.Windows.Forms
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.EndInvoke(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.Kernel.Threading.WorkerBase.DoEndInvokes()
-----
So much for trying to learn about the Media Manager tonight. It looks like it could be handy...if it didn't crash.

This is my first ever recurrent Vegas crash since Vegas 4.0...on which I never had a single one...

****************************************
And here's another one that happened while creating a tag then dragging it to a new category while auto-previewing an audio clip:

Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.DataUniquenessException: DataAccessMgr reporting a uniqueness violation. ---> Sony.MediaSoftware.Kernel.Database.SqlUniquenessException: Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'CN_UniqueRelations'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'relation'.
The statement has been terminated.(class 14 number 2627) ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'CN_UniqueRelations'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'relation'.
The statement has been terminated.
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteScalar()
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.SqlServerDataAccessMgr.Insert(Object obj)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.SqlServerDataAccessMgr.ConvertException(SqlException se)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.SqlServerDataAccessMgr.Insert(Object obj)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.UnitOfWork.PerformDataAccessMgrWorkForCommit(UnitOfWorkCommitFeedback feedbackDelegate, Int32 commitAttempt)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.UnitOfWork.Commit(UnitOfWorkCommitFeedback feedbackDelegate)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.DataAccess.UnitOfWork.Commit()
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.RelationWorker.CreateRelation(RelationType type, String sources, String targetName, MediaLibraryChanges& changes)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.MediaMgr.RelationWorker.DoWork(Object genericArg)
at Sony.MediaSoftware.Kernel.Threading.WorkerBase.DoWorkWrapper(Object genericArg)

The End

We are researching this issue based on the info you provided. In the near term, to workaround both of these issues:

1. Delete existing media-usage relationships in your media library. This is available on the media manager options dialog on the Media Libray tab.

2. Disable saving media-usage relationships by going to the Options > Preferences dialog. On the General tab near the bottom of the list, clear the check box for "Save media-usage relationships in active media library."

Your work-around certainly has made the situation better.

Thanks!