57
dfox
8y

devRant Android users - if you are a user who can consistently reproduce a devRant app crash and wouldn't mind helping me please let me know. You can comment here or email me at david@devrant.io

I'm trying to get rid of a couple of remaining crashes that seem to be happening in the Android app but we've never really been able to reproduce any of them. Thanks!

Comments
  • 12
    An Android user and developer here.It hasn't been crashing on Android much.I have a crash or two when I came back from some other app.Also the feed activity refreshes itself sometimes when I switch back to devRant (that is very annoying ).

    Other than that it is awesome.

    Tell me if I can help in any other way.
  • 4
    Phone: Galaxy S5
    Android: 6.0.1
    Crashes: none
    Possible bugs: clicking notifs in notification center never takes me to rant which the notifs is about. (Notifs in app work fine)
  • 2
    @Batdroid thanks a bunch for the feedback. The crash when you open the app is more or less the one I'm referring to. But yeah, we've had the same experience where it's very hard to reproduce. The refreshing of the feed when you come back into the app is expected behavior. The idea there was to show new content if you've been gone for 15 mins or so. But maybe we should make that a setting possibly so you can turn it off if you don't like it.

    @ChappIO thanks! Notifications not taking you to the relevant rant was expected behavior right up until last night because of some technical limitations with Titanium :) Notifs should now take you directly to the relevant rant as of version 1.5.2.0. If they still don't in that please let me know, thanks!
  • 1
    @dfox Ah sweet, nice addition! I might reenable notification then :)
  • 3
    @dfox it be quite nice if we had a notification with a link to update if a new version is available
  • 2
    Just an usability question.

    why save image is under share menu? wouldn't it be more intuitive if it is placed under options of rant?
  • 3
    SG Note 2, 4.4.2 stock (because the pen won't work on cyano -_-)

    I experience a crash that is easily reproduced (probably on samsung devices only) if you do this:

    * start an app
    * go to notifications
    * go to a rant through notif
    * go back to notifs
    * go back to rant feed

    But there's the thing: sometimes it crashes straight away, but sometimes it just displays an empty rant feed. The crash then can be teiggered if you repeat the steps once again.

    Maybe it'd be better to change the behavior of "devRant" button at the top to _restart_ the feed rather than to just refresh/reload to get new rants. Or some other button to do that?
  • 1
    @KeyWeeUsr can you reproduce it right now on version 1.5.2? If so, if you you don't mind, I'd like to send you a dev build of the app to see if something I did stops it from happening. Your idea has actually crossed my mind. From what I can see, most if not all the crashes result from the feed itself, but more specifically, the pull-to-refresh module and something it's doing (it wraps the ListView).

    @1binary0 we'll take a look at that, no particular reason
  • 0
    Also, just to add, it's definitely not all Samsung devices. I have 3 test devices and can never reproduce it on any of them, and I also tried a number of times with the steps you provided.
  • 1
    @dfox No problem, keyweeusr@gmail.com or if, then put the link for e.g. dropbox here, so thay others can test too (and you update the apk) :)

    I updated the app yesterday, so it's probably the latest one.

    (I really wonder if that "send report" to google store actually works, because I sent quite a lot of them to many apps)
  • 0
    @KeyWeeUsr thanks, sent!
  • 1
    @dfox Nice, the crash isn't there (or so it seems), however the rants are still missing.
  • 1
    @dfox what about reseting the feed with a double-tap on the "devRant" button?

    Also, if you can, send me more about the bug (piece of code, log, api version, anything), so that I could bookmark it for the future apps. ^^
  • 2
    It crashes constantly on my phone too. It happens when I leave it in the background open too long I think. I tried to reproduce it, but couldn't. Maybe time is a factor. The system needed resources and killed something.
    I also have the empty feed problem from time to time.
    Nexus 6 with Nougat.
  • 0
    @KeyWeeUsr thanks for trying it. Hmm, that's very weird that nothing comes up. It's annoying because I have an emulator with your exact setup and can't reproduce :/ I'll have to look into it some more.

    @LoveBytes does it still crash on 1.5.2.0? I talked to another Nexus 6 user who thought 1.5.2 might have fixed the issue you described. If it is still happening on that, would you be willing to try my dev build? Thanks.
  • 1
    @dfox I'll try to reproduce it during the week. If it happens again I'll write the conditions in the report feedback.
  • 0
  • 1
    On note5. Say once in every 10 times when I open the app, devRant logo appears then the feed stays empty.
  • 2
    I don't have crashes, but I have weird startup thing.
    When I open the app it opens for a millisecond
    Closes then reopens fully.
    Idk maybe it's a nougat bug.
  • 0
    @mohamedghr thanks, can you please describe the behavior a bit more? Does it show the loader (icon bouncing) and then just show nothing? Does it stay loading for about 10 seconds? That would indicate a request timeout and would be a different issue. Also, what app version and device/Android version are you using?
  • 2
    @n1had I think that might be a "native crash" report that I've seen a number of times in crash reports that only happens on the Nexus 6P and 5X. The crash report literally contains like 0 useful information which makes it really difficult to figure out :/

    Do you still experience that on v1.5.2? I haven't seen any of this "native crash" error in the reports for 1.5.2 yet.
  • 2
    Well, I haven't read all the above bugs but count this one too.
    OS: MIUI 8 (based on Android 5.5)
    Bugs: I don't get any notifications until I open the app.
  • 2
    @dfox I am on Android 7 Pixel C.In Multiwindow mode;It crashes,Does not show feed,Menu in the navigation drawer overflows,Pull down to refresh doesn't work

    Is it an anomaly or the app is not meant for API 24 yet?Thanks.
  • 1
    @dfox .. the bouncing icon goes on for few seconds then it disappears and I get the empty feed screen. I am on android 6.0.1 and devRant 1.5.2.0.
  • 0
    @Dirkj143 Confirmed, try something like doubletapping when reproducing.
  • 0
    @bdhobare we haven't done any testing on mutli window mode, so I'm not surprised it doesn't work. We'll have to look at that.

    @mohamedghr is that all the time? How easy is it to reproduce?

    @Dirkj143 a video would be appreciated, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Thanks!
  • 1
    @dfox .. not all the time. As I said, every once in a while.. I will fill up the report or comment back here if it happens again.
  • 1
    @dfox one more bug. Scroll through many posts of your list and then get to the last loaded item quickly.The refresh thing won't work->scroll a bit up and then scroll down slowly ->now the refresh line shows up.
  • 3
    Android user, have a repeating bugs. 1.if app is open and left running in back ground for some time and I return to the app from home screen it crashes and requires relaunching. 2. The in app notification stays even if opened in notification drop tab and only way to clear is to go to the in app notification. 3. //user suggestion// app should be able to Orient in quarter angles. As the bottom portion of my screen doesn't work.

    Phone: OnePlus 1
  • 2
    @dfox the feed refreshes for me when I tab out of the app and back in (aka, 5 seconds out of the app)
  • 1
    @dfox add a conditional if you've been gone 5 minutes then refresh...not if you just swap apps for a second
  • 1
    Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 (I9500)
    Android Version: 4.4.2
    Android Build: Omega Custom ROM v27 - Touch Wiz Based ROM

    1. When launching the app sometimes it shows the screen shot of either of the last opened apps in the recent app list before showing the app itself. Like google play store or the Instagram app for example

    2. The main feed sometimes goes wack and shows posts which are 50 or 90 days old in order

    3. I sometimes get the empty main feed bug happening as well

    4. Sometimes it takes the app forever to save a pic to the gallery for some reason

    All the above are very hard to replicate and are not a major inconveniences to be honest.

    I have just updated to the latest version today as I do manual updates a opposed to automatic and the new version seems to be very snappy and quick.

    I haven't noticed any of the above yet but bear in mind I am very busy these days and hardly spend anytime on devRant.

    Will report back with other bugs I notice.

    Thanks for looking after us @dfox
  • 3
    @dfox
    No Crash issue, but sometimes i have a loading issue. rants i Open are not loading, the page remains black and doesn't show any content. Often it is sufficient to go Back and Open the rant again, but sometimes I have to restart the app.
    It occurs when I have a Bad connection for a few seconds or my WiFi connection lost and switched to Mobile Data and to WiFi again. possible it is a Problem occured by this switching? i don't know. Thank you for any help!
  • 1
    @dfox One plus One
    CyanogenMod 13.1.2

    At your service if needed
  • 1
    @dfox Hey, i didn't receive any notification outside the App. I'm on the latest App Version.

    Nexus 5x with PureNexus
    Android 6.0.1
  • 2
    @dfox I have observed the same thing mentioned by @n1had. When I open devRant it shows the splash screen, the app crashes (woth no indication from Android) but instantly opens the splash again and loads the feed afterwards.

    I use an Asus Zenfone 2 with Android 5.0.
  • 3
    Same crashing here. Email on the way
  • 1
    @dfox Had consistent crashes after long activity on the app, supposedly when it needed restarting again. Not seen in 1.5.2.0 yet. I did choose "send feedback" at nearly every crash, I'm not sure if these get all the way back to the dev?
  • 1
    @dfox I've nexus 6p and I'm running version 1.5.2.0 I too experience crash when devrant stays open for 15 minutes or more without usage. I'm able to reproduce the crash/empty feed as @KeyWeeUsr suggested. I did a logcat dump of it. could share that if you want.
  • 1
    @dfox, Oh yeah, sorry for the bad report, I'm drunk: nexus 5X, only since Nougat.
  • 3
    Clarifying a bit more.
    Running a OnePlus X, Android 6.0.1 with September security updates. (Resurrection Remix ROM)
    I am rooted, not that that should make any difference.
    App crashes without a notice after splash screen, upon tapping the icon again it launches fine.
  • 3
    Hey everyone - thanks a bunch for all the feedback. There's a lot here so I think instead of trying to debug each item with the feed I'm just going to change how clearing it out works on Android since my theory is that's where most of the errors are coming from.

    If you can consistently reproduce a feed crash or blank feed (not due to 10 second timeout) on your Android device, and are willing to try a test build, please email me at david@devrant.io. Help with this is much appreciated.

    Thanks everyone!
  • 3
    @alandemaria I have exactly that on Nexus 5 running nougat (no matter which ROM)
  • 2
    @dfox yes I do still have that on the latest version
  • 0
    @dfox New version bug;

    1. I get more than one notifications for the same update happening to the posts I am subscribed to

    frequency; every so often
    How to recreate; I have no clue.

    2. 2 out of 5 times when I click on the notifications in the notification drag down menu of android the app quits with the message; unfortunately "devRant" app closed down, please try again. I have to then launch the app over again before I can view the notification inside the app. The app closing also clears all the notifications I had showing on the notification drag down menu when I have a few.
  • 2
    I don't know if it has been reported already ( the post is really long already ) but, on nexus 6p with android 7, every time the app stays the background for a while, when i get back into it, it crashes and then it reopens and works fine.

    Every time ! To reproduce, just open devrant, then open another 5-10 apps and after 10 min open devrant again and this will happen ( at least for me )
  • 2
    Thanks everyone! With the help of many of you, I think I've identified where the main crash is coming from.

    The main crash seems to be when the app is brought to the foreground after being in the background for a while, like many have pointed out. The good news is that seems to be the cause and I can now reproduce on one of the simulators.

    The bad news: it also seems to be an unfixed Titanium Appcelerator bug, which is discussed in this ticket: https://jira.appcelerator.org/plugi...

    It seems one of the users on the ticket pinpointed it to what's actually happening. Basically the OS kills the devRant activity because it's low on memory. At the point when the app gets opened, Titanium does this thing where it detects the activity was killed, and initiates a restart of the app. Annoying, but not exactly a crash, yet. Apparently, now, that Titanium restart code isn't working on some devices which is where the crash is coming from.
  • 2
    So since Titanium is open source, and the commenter on that ticket pointed out where the issue in the Titanium codebase is, I can attempt to fix the restart code in Titanium. I'm not that familiar with the Titanium codebase, but I'm hoping I can just hack together the restart code to stop it from crashing.

    If anyone has any ideas why the restart code causes crashes, I'd love to hear, but I think this is a nuance of Titanium so it might be hard for people not familiar to figure out. But if any Android experts want to take a look, it would be greatly appreciated. I can give some more info if anyone is interested.
  • 1
    @dfox It crashed twice in the last hour. I've sent the crash logs.
  • 1
    @LoveBytes during that time (leading up to the crash) was it backgrounded and then you opened up one or more apps that consume a decent amount of memory? I just want to make sure the cause of what you're seeing is what I think it is with the OS killing off the app.
  • 1
    @dfox Yeah, I played a game in the meantime and opened multiple apps.
  • 3
    @dfox I have to admit that I am a resources monitoring freak on pretty much any device. I go to crazy lengths making sure that I have the most available resources to do my routine tasks with the least amount of hick ups.

    I use the Greenify App to hibernate all but the apps which are memory dormant until I specifically run them when the screen is on.

    I use DS Battery saver to kill all but a very select number of apps in the memory when the screen is off, this includes the random app I mighty have brought out of Greenify hibernation when the screen was on.

    Finally, I uae AFWall+ to control each and every apps internet access privileges.

    All the above are using Xposed Plugins and my phone is of course routed.

    My phone has close to 65% free resources at any given time which is why I find it hard to apply the "process is being killed due to lack of system resources" hypothesis to my case.

    And yes devRant has been white listed in both DS Batter saver and Greenify.
  • 1
    @codeRetard we have largeHeap set to true which I'm wondering if makes it more likely to be killed. But I'm pretty sure for one reason or another the main activity is being killed. You may be able to see this by backgrounding the app, opening more apps, then looking in a task manager or processes to see if devRant is suddenly using less memory (indicating an activity kill) or not open at all.
  • 1
    Hey everyone - if anyone here can easily reproduce the issue where the app crashes when being brought back from the background and hasn't emailed me but wouldn't mind trying a test build, please let me know (david@devrant.io). I have what I think is a promising build but I haven't been able to verify it when any users yet though. Any help with this is greatly appreciated!
  • 1
    I pushed out a new Android version earlier tonight (1.5.2.5). Please let me know if you see any crash improvements or not.
  • 3
    @dfox i just opened the app after a day and the crash didn't happen. I was surprised. I'll post back if it still happens. Nice job
  • 1
    @Unskipp thanks for letting me know! I'm glad the fix attempt seems to have worked. We haven't had any Android crash reports since I released version 1.5.2.5 with the fix.
  • 1
    No crash here either, good job @dfox!
  • 0
  • 1
    @dfox Same here, And I have been trying hard to recreate the crash. I just opened the app after a day and a half after intentionally allowing the apps to eat system resources till about 10% remained and it poped open with no problems or crashes!
  • 1
    @codeRetard awesome!! Thanks for testing!
  • 3
    Crashless devRant is best devRant. Gg!
  • 2
    @dfox Thank you for all your hard work!
  • 1
    @dfox The new update is invincible! Totally love it!
  • 1
    @dfox Pretty neat update. No crashing and the rant list doesn't reload as often as before. Love it! Thank you so much for the hard work.
  • 2
    How are comments on a rant loaded in? Cause the scrollbar is a little funky, contracting and expanding and jumping a little on the last comment
  • 1
    No crashes to report @dfox on Android 6.0.1 Galaxy Note 4,only bug I can find in the whole app is that double tapping a rant takes me into the rant more frequently than up voting the said rant.
  • 1
    @dfox New version Elusive Bug report.

    What: App looping between the rant, the main feed and the previous rants and won't exit into Android using the phone back button.

    How: I follow an alert about a rant that I am a part of from the top bar which will open up an already open version of devRant in the background. After I am done with the rant I always use the phone back button to back out into the main feed for a quick look at the feed and another time to back out of the app. Sometimes though this won't happen and instead of the app exiting into the Android home screen I get a blank devRant Background, another back button the devRant feed again, another back button some other rant I am part of and this carries on in an endless loop.

    My only other option to get out then would be using the home button on my phone. Opening the devRant again and the bug is gone.

    Replication: very difficult to replicate and not that common. So far it has only shown its ugly face twice.
  • 2
    @dfox I wonder, wouldn't it be better for you as a devrant team to open e.g. github repo at least for issues if you don't want to make the code public? Would be more readable in future than comments or emails :P
  • 0
    @patrick-soup this happens right now? All the time? When did it start? I have never seen of/heard of that.
  • 0
    @dfox I cant clear my notifications. I clicked the clear Button but nothing happened. Now it isn't visible anymore
  • 1
    @GC97 clear marks them all as read, but it does not actually remove them from the list.
  • 0
    @dfox Ah ok, thx. My fault ^^Sorry
  • 0
    A 'little' late but:
    Phone: Leagoo Shark 1
    OS: Android 5.1
    Bugs:
    - Sometimes when clicking on random rants, it doesn't show anything, just the devrant background.
    - After browsing for a while (20+ min) the app starts to lag and completely freezes after a little bit longer.

    Except for that it works fine!
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