Initial collection import stalls for hours loading Comic Vine issue targets for large series (MAD)

[paulmorabito]

Component

Import / Collection Import

Description

Summary
A fresh collection import can stall for hours in File Matching while Pullbox loads Comic Vine issue targets for a large series, specifically MAD. The import remains active in background work and keeps its active-import lock, but does not move to the next series or expose a useful underlying Comic Vine/API error.

I upgraded to the current release after first encountering the issue. The newer version improves the UI by showing the import as background work and allowing the Review/Reconcile screens to remain usable, but the underlying MAD issue-target load still does not complete.

A single large/complex series should not be able to indefinitely block a collection import. The importer needs clearer diagnostics and a per-series skip/defer/timeout mechanism.

Environment
Pullbox version after upgrade: 1.2.1
Deployment: Docker Compose
Host OS: Linux

• Existing-library scan/import
• Comic Vine configured and its scheduled health check reports healthy
• Filesystem, database, system, and download-client health checks report healthy

Library/import size

At the time of the stalled import:

Metric	Value
Files discovered	1,765
Series discovered	147
Series matched	129
No Match	17
Conflicts	6

The affected series include a large MAD run with several hundred issues.

Steps to Reproduce

1. do an import of existing comics library at /comics

Expected Behavior

Pullbox should either:

1. Load the Comic Vine issue targets and continue matching files.
2. Fail the affected series within a reasonable, visible timeout and report the actual cause, such as HTTP status, timeout, rate limit, retry/backoff state, selected Comic Vine volume ID, and pagination progress.
3. Defer/skip only the affected series and continue reconciling the rest of the collection.
4. Provide a user-facing action to skip, defer, retry, or manually select a series match without blocking the whole import.

A long-running metadata lookup for one title should not indefinitely hold the active-import lock and postpone normal background work such as download monitoring and completed-download processing.

Actual Behavior

The scan reaches File Matching and becomes stuck loading Comic Vine issue targets for MAD.

The UI reports an active background job similar to:

Background work
Activity: 1 active
Folder import: Working

Still loading issue targets for MAD (7762s elapsed)... Large series can take a few minutes.
Overall: 80%
File Matching: MAD 45%
ETA: 60 hr 4 min remaining

7762 seconds is approximately 2 hours and 9 minutes. The current series remains MAD, and the ETA becomes unrealistic/multi-day.

Restarting the Pullbox container safely recovered and auto-resumed the persisted job, but did not resolve the underlying issue-target bottleneck. Canceling and restarting also makes the same issue reoccur.

Pullbox Version

1.2.1

Deployment Method

Docker

Operating System

Debian 13

Diagnostic Package

pullbox-diagnostic-20260829-195405.zip

Screenshots

No response