Folding Forum

This seems like an inane question, but how do I temporarily pause/suspend a work unit, and then pick up where I left off?

My setup: 2014 Macbook Air, still on 10.14.6 Mojave, standard F@H installation with the Mac installer.

Here is why I ask: I am confused by what it says on my Local Web Configuration page. There is a big button that says "Stop Folding". When I press that button, it gives me this choice: "Would you like to stop folding now or finish the current work unit, get the points, then stop?". Then I have two buttons: "Finish up, then stop", or just "Stop".

THIS IS CONFUSING. The configuration page also says I have 3.37 days left on my current work unit, and then I will earn 1360 points. If I hit the green button, do I have to wait 3 days before I can be sure I finish the work and get credit? That's what it seems to say.

My motivation is my daughter sometimes needs to borrow the Mac to do a skype call for school. I don't want F@A to interfere. Is the stop button the right way to pause?

Also, will F@H only run under my login? or also under hers?

Welcome to the F@H Forum YodelDoggy,

In Web Control, you will have to choose "Stop Folding" and then "Stop" to pause folding. Once done, you can then manually resume Folding. If you open up FAHControl (if you have installed it), then you can Pause/Fold using the buttons.

When you download a new WU, it will display the maximum time which is 99.9% of the time incorrect. It will display the right information once you have done 4% of the WU.

When it comes to F@H, in most cases, it would not interfere with other applications since it runs at idle/low priority. Thus, you can test it out and see what works for you. Generally speaking, you can leave it running without issues. However, folding while on battery would cause the battery to deplete very fast so you can set it to pause when on battery (which should be the default configuration).

I am not sure of the default behavior on macOS so someone else will be able to answer that

Under a default install, folding can run while any user is logged on. Any user should also be able to use Web Control or FAHControl to start and stop folding. The actual folding is done by processes running in the background under user 'nobody' which is a predefined limited privilege account.

Web Control and FAHControl communicate with the background process FAHClient which handles the actual starting, stopping, downloading and uploading of WUs. The default settings for a laptop will pause WUs whenever the laptop is running on battery whether or not someone is logged on.

As mentioned, the estimated time to complete a WU will not be accurate right after starting, especially if the WU being processed is the first from a particular project number. After completing a few percent the estimates will be accurate, sooner if the WU comes from a project number that has been processed before.