Thanks, Vlad. You're right, I still see the count up, but haven't noticed the split second "flashbacks" to the lower counts, although actually I haven't noticed that for quite sometime, even before the 1.11.10 update (perhaps coincidence).
I wanted to make sure that there wasn't some change in the algorithm for scheduling that I should be aware of.
Vlad, did this correction to whatever was causing these "flashbacks" in count point to you to potential problems in syncing as a side effect of the same code?
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 11:59:53 AM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
Support Staff3
Posted by
Vlad Borovtsov on 08 Jul, 2020 04:14 PM
No, the change affects only the UI (presentation) layer. There is no changes in data processing or scheduling algorithms. And it's not related to sync at all.
Did the issue that you corrected keep the sync from hanging , thus having caused delays in completing the process that will now be avoided?
I haven't used sync in a long time, but may give it a try again. My sense was there was something that would cause sync to hang and perhaps have to restart that triggered these exceedingly long sync times. And that it the problem was possibly compounding with more days of use.
Will this improve sync times, or is this just dealing with the media files issue (I have no media files)?
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12:23:34 PM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
Thanks, Vlad. Glad to see your work on the app. Hope it continues to improve with this improvement in Mentalfaculty's approach to debugging. I'll sync back to the mac app and give it a try to see how things go.
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12:41:54 PM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
Yesterday, after studying all my due notes on the iphone, I finally reinstalled the mac app and turned on sync on the iphone, letting it sync to the cloud. (Months ago, I had reset the cloud on both devices before deleting the mac app
Then I opened the mac app and synced it.
Then I reopened the iphone app and let it sync again.
This morning, I have yet to open the mac app. But after opening the iphone app, letting due notes schedule, and sync occur (presumably, as I saw the sync icon turning both upon opening, and then about 20 seconds after scheduling of due notes occurred). When the sync icon finished turning, I began a study session of all due notes, then closed the session and the app. Everything seemed to go ok.
Then I went for a walk and opened app and selected "continue session", and the "iCloud sync has been disabled due to an unexpected error" popup appeared.
I used the "Send Sync Logs to Developer" option to send logs to you about 15 minutes ago.
This is typical of what it did in the past, so I guess I'll continue just using the iphone app and forget about syncing with the mac app.
I don't know what a support ID is or where to find it.
The crash occurred when I went out on a walk. I suspect what happened is I may have opened the app outside in front of my app still within range of my wifi, and then as I proceeded my walk, went out of range of wifi and the sync thus crashed shortly thereafter into my walk.
This was a problem that in the past I would try to deal with by turning off the cellular use switch for the app to avoid crashes when hitting a dead area in cell coverage, and I would also turn off wifi switch on the phone when leaving the house. In this way, I hopefully avoided a sync being triggered when studying notes away from home, which is the case probably 50% of the time I use it (waiting in lines, sitting at stop lights, on walks, etc). However, having not used the sync in many months, I was out of the habit of doing this, and also even if I had thought of taking these precautions, I probably wouldn't have in order to see if anything had improved with the app.
This problem is more likely to occur the longer it takes for syncs to complete. Syncs that only take seconds are unlikely to be affected. Syncs that take many minutes can have problems. It is my understanding that mentalfaculty is not concerned about users with the challenges of long sync times. But barring fixing the sync, it would be helpful if the sync icon on the iphone app were much larger so to bring it to ones attention to hold off on going out of range until the sync completed - like the yellow one on the mac app, perhaps between the menu icon and "Library", having the same line-height. Or, find a way that interrupted syncs do not compound problems.
Anyway, I'll just forgo syncing to the mac and maybe give it a try again late next year when I update my phone. Nothing changed when I bought this iphone 6 when it first came out, so I have my doubts it will change when I buy a 5G phone, but we'll see.
oh, ok. Well, I suspect its too late now for me to get that because I have since done a full reset of my iphone and reinstall of the app (not from any backup). I assume I now have been assigned a different support ID. What I can tell you is that it was sent at 11:26am EST in the USA.
Well, after the wipe and reinstall a couple of days ago, it synced fine the last two days, but today the app (not the cloud sync feature) keeps crashing while syncing. The screen goes black and then returns to phone home screen as app shuts down.
44936216-AE62-41D5-AE40-9EE585403006 is the new ID
I've sent logs a few times.
I haven't yet synced the mac app since before I wiped and reset the iphone.
On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, 09:33:25 AM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
I had the background refresh switch for this app turned on for the app after the reinstall, which in the past I turned off (didn't want it to try and sync in the background so that I wouldn't unknowingly leave wifi range during the lengthy process). I noticed that two 33kb files that always update in tandom happened to update in the background when I accessed the phone (not the app) for the first time this morning. So I decided to open the app, let it schedule, and give sync another try-- to see if the file updates made any difference. Well, scheduling occurred ok, and I watched for the sync icon to stop spinning afterwards, but instead about 40 seconds the app crashed. When I reopened the app about 15 minutes later, the two 33kb files updated, and then the "iCloud sync has been disabled due to an unexpected error" pop up window appeared.
I just sent the sync logs to you again about a minute ago.
At this point, if anything, cloud sync if anything is now worse, not better as I had hoped. My practice is normally to do all my studying on the iphone anyway. So I will continue without using the mac app. I like the mac app for card creation and management. But I will export decks from the mac to the iphone rather than sync to do so. When I feel like I want to sync to the mac in order to save the library folder on it, I'll do a reset of the cloud on both devices so that the sync will work for that purpose. But I won't count on it for any daily syncing between the apps. Perhaps by the time I get a 5G phone in another year, things will have changed.
Any clues as to what is going on from my logs? The app crashed again immediately upon opening this morning even without sync being turned on. I sent logs today for what its worth. But I guess it would be a crash log that would be relevant rather than a sync log.
Support Staff24
Posted by
Vlad Borovtsov on 07 Sep, 2020 05:06 AM
I did some investigation,
indeed, the crash could be triggered by sync running in background, meanwhile, it looks like you had note editor open when sync was running. Is that true?
Just noticed your reply. Can you tell me what date and time the note editor was running? I rarely edit notes on the iphone. If I am in edit mode, it would be to check to see if I have scheduling turned on for a stack, or to turn on scheduling for a stack. I think when attempts were made to sync that crashed, they were all upon the initial opening of the app, and I wouldn't try to turn on scheduling for a stack until after I see the sync is complete. But I always take a screenshot to note the time when I switch on scheduling, so if you can tell me the date you saw the editor open, I can probably tell you when I was in it.
The phone app crashed again today at open, by the way. Not the sync, because I don't have that turned on. But upon open, the home screen of the app flashed, immediately followed by a black screen for a second, and then the crash of the app. I reopened it without any issues after that. This exact same behavior upon initial opening for the day has happened before, the last being August 30.
Well, when you said "it looks like you had a note editor open when sync was running" are you looking at something in the log that tells you that, and wouldn't the date of that log be what I am looking for?
Also, when you say a note editor, I assume by "note" you mean a note on Studies, and not another app, right?
I wonder if there is something in the code that is not properly exiting the editor, or lacking a confirmation its exit in the data that is synced?
I turned on scheduling for a stack on Aug 17. The next time I turned on scheduling came on the day the cloud sync crashed and shut down, Aug 28.
On the 28th, the app itself crashed during a stuck sync attempt at 8:31am, then the sync was auto-shut down at 8:41am when I reopened the app. I sent logs at 8:54am. And at 9:04am I turned on scheduling for a stack. (I actually ended up deleting that stack a little later when I realized I hadn't finished adding all the cards I wanted in it). But sync has never been turned back on. Maybe I sent logs again later to make sure you got them and the second round included data from after the crash that the first didnt have?
I switched back to using the macbook app for a bit, and for the first time in months. My initial question in this post asked what you meant by a "more consistent" due notes in this release, and you replied:
"exactly what you were complaining about. It still could keep "counting" but in one direction."
Indeed, in my use of the iphone app, I stopped seeing the "step back" action to lower due number counts while the app calculates due notes for the day. Some days there it just goes from zero due, straight to showing the final number due for the day. Other times three intermediate counts up to the fourth and final due note count, with all numbers being higher than the last.
I have always been told by you all that the mac app and the iOS app are exactly the same code. So I was surprised today to see on the mac app the old issue of a count "backwards" occurring while the app calculated the due notes for today. This is the first time I've used the mac app since the release update. The count went from no due notes upon opening, to 23 due, to 59, to 86, back to 23, to the final count of 91-- or something to that effect. It flashes back quickly and I wasn't expecting it, but I think it was just the one flash back in the count.
At any rate, the problem still persists in the mac app.
Support Staff 1 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 08 Jul, 2020 03:59 PM
Hi,
exactly what you were complaining about. It still could keep "counting" but in one direction.
Vlad Borovtsov closed this discussion on 08 Jul, 2020 03:59 PM.
zeppo re-opened this discussion on 08 Jul, 2020 04:07 PM
2 Posted by zeppo on 08 Jul, 2020 04:07 PM
Thanks, Vlad. You're right, I still see the count up, but haven't noticed the split second "flashbacks" to the lower counts, although actually I haven't noticed that for quite sometime, even before the 1.11.10 update (perhaps coincidence).
I wanted to make sure that there wasn't some change in the algorithm for scheduling that I should be aware of.
Vlad, did this correction to whatever was causing these "flashbacks" in count point to you to potential problems in syncing as a side effect of the same code?
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 11:59:53 AM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
|
Support Staff 3 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 08 Jul, 2020 04:14 PM
No, the change affects only the UI (presentation) layer. There is no changes in data processing or scheduling algorithms. And it's not related to sync at all.
4 Posted by zeppo on 08 Jul, 2020 04:16 PM
So it didn't alert you to problems in the sync logic that you correct in Version 1.11.11.
What improvements should I expect in sync?
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12:14:14 PM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
|
Support Staff 5 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 08 Jul, 2020 04:23 PM
Just some data corruption will be corrected automatically and sync should stop getting ruined.
6 Posted by zeppo on 08 Jul, 2020 04:39 PM
Did the issue that you corrected keep the sync from hanging , thus having caused delays in completing the process that will now be avoided?
I haven't used sync in a long time, but may give it a try again. My sense was there was something that would cause sync to hang and perhaps have to restart that triggered these exceedingly long sync times. And that it the problem was possibly compounding with more days of use.
Will this improve sync times, or is this just dealing with the media files issue (I have no media files)?
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12:23:34 PM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
|
Support Staff 7 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 08 Jul, 2020 04:41 PM
Well, some issues has gone definitely.
there is also a function that allows you enable the sync log and send to me once you see a problem
8 Posted by zeppo on 08 Jul, 2020 04:49 PM
Thanks, Vlad. Glad to see your work on the app. Hope it continues to improve with this improvement in Mentalfaculty's approach to debugging. I'll sync back to the mac app and give it a try to see how things go.
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12:41:54 PM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
|
Support Staff 9 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 10 Jul, 2020 09:44 AM
Sure. Just drop us a note if it went well or not.
Regards,
Vlad
Vlad Borovtsov closed this discussion on 10 Jul, 2020 09:44 AM.
zeppo re-opened this discussion on 25 Aug, 2020 03:43 PM
10 Posted by zeppo on 25 Aug, 2020 03:43 PM
Yesterday, after studying all my due notes on the iphone, I finally reinstalled the mac app and turned on sync on the iphone, letting it sync to the cloud. (Months ago, I had reset the cloud on both devices before deleting the mac app
Then I opened the mac app and synced it.
Then I reopened the iphone app and let it sync again.
This morning, I have yet to open the mac app. But after opening the iphone app, letting due notes schedule, and sync occur (presumably, as I saw the sync icon turning both upon opening, and then about 20 seconds after scheduling of due notes occurred). When the sync icon finished turning, I began a study session of all due notes, then closed the session and the app. Everything seemed to go ok.
Then I went for a walk and opened app and selected "continue session", and the "iCloud sync has been disabled due to an unexpected error" popup appeared.
I used the "Send Sync Logs to Developer" option to send logs to you about 15 minutes ago.
This is typical of what it did in the past, so I guess I'll continue just using the iphone app and forget about syncing with the mac app.
Support Staff 11 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 26 Aug, 2020 07:19 AM
Hello,
can you also send a support ID to let me identify your log?
Regards,
Vlad
12 Posted by zeppo on 26 Aug, 2020 01:25 PM
I don't know what a support ID is or where to find it.
The crash occurred when I went out on a walk. I suspect what happened is I may have opened the app outside in front of my app still within range of my wifi, and then as I proceeded my walk, went out of range of wifi and the sync thus crashed shortly thereafter into my walk.
This was a problem that in the past I would try to deal with by turning off the cellular use switch for the app to avoid crashes when hitting a dead area in cell coverage, and I would also turn off wifi switch on the phone when leaving the house. In this way, I hopefully avoided a sync being triggered when studying notes away from home, which is the case probably 50% of the time I use it (waiting in lines, sitting at stop lights, on walks, etc). However, having not used the sync in many months, I was out of the habit of doing this, and also even if I had thought of taking these precautions, I probably wouldn't have in order to see if anything had improved with the app.
This problem is more likely to occur the longer it takes for syncs to complete. Syncs that only take seconds are unlikely to be affected. Syncs that take many minutes can have problems. It is my understanding that mentalfaculty is not concerned about users with the challenges of long sync times. But barring fixing the sync, it would be helpful if the sync icon on the iphone app were much larger so to bring it to ones attention to hold off on going out of range until the sync completed - like the yellow one on the mac app, perhaps between the menu icon and "Library", having the same line-height. Or, find a way that interrupted syncs do not compound problems.
Anyway, I'll just forgo syncing to the mac and maybe give it a try again late next year when I update my phone. Nothing changed when I bought this iphone 6 when it first came out, so I have my doubts it will change when I buy a 5G phone, but we'll see.
Support Staff 13 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 26 Aug, 2020 01:33 PM
Click on side menu, go to "Help Pages", there will be a button "Support ID" at the top left.
14 Posted by zeppo on 26 Aug, 2020 02:14 PM
oh, ok. Well, I suspect its too late now for me to get that because I have since done a full reset of my iphone and reinstall of the app (not from any backup). I assume I now have been assigned a different support ID. What I can tell you is that it was sent at 11:26am EST in the USA.
15 Posted by zeppo on 27 Aug, 2020 06:07 PM
Well, after the wipe and reinstall a couple of days ago, it synced fine the last two days, but today the app (not the cloud sync feature) keeps crashing while syncing. The screen goes black and then returns to phone home screen as app shuts down.
44936216-AE62-41D5-AE40-9EE585403006 is the new ID
I've sent logs a few times.
I haven't yet synced the mac app since before I wiped and reset the iphone.
On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, 09:33:25 AM EDT, Vlad Borovtsov <[email blocked]> wrote:
|
Support Staff 16 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 28 Aug, 2020 06:47 AM
Got your logs. Thanks!
17 Posted by zeppo on 28 Aug, 2020 01:03 PM
I had the background refresh switch for this app turned on for the app after the reinstall, which in the past I turned off (didn't want it to try and sync in the background so that I wouldn't unknowingly leave wifi range during the lengthy process). I noticed that two 33kb files that always update in tandom happened to update in the background when I accessed the phone (not the app) for the first time this morning. So I decided to open the app, let it schedule, and give sync another try-- to see if the file updates made any difference. Well, scheduling occurred ok, and I watched for the sync icon to stop spinning afterwards, but instead about 40 seconds the app crashed. When I reopened the app about 15 minutes later, the two 33kb files updated, and then the "iCloud sync has been disabled due to an unexpected error" pop up window appeared.
I just sent the sync logs to you again about a minute ago.
At this point, if anything, cloud sync if anything is now worse, not better as I had hoped. My practice is normally to do all my studying on the iphone anyway. So I will continue without using the mac app. I like the mac app for card creation and management. But I will export decks from the mac to the iphone rather than sync to do so. When I feel like I want to sync to the mac in order to save the library folder on it, I'll do a reset of the cloud on both devices so that the sync will work for that purpose. But I won't count on it for any daily syncing between the apps. Perhaps by the time I get a 5G phone in another year, things will have changed.
Support Staff 18 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 29 Aug, 2020 03:39 AM
Well, sync will eventually change one day. That's all I can say right now.
19 Posted by zeppo on 30 Aug, 2020 06:54 PM
Any clues as to what is going on from my logs? The app crashed again immediately upon opening this morning even without sync being turned on. I sent logs today for what its worth. But I guess it would be a crash log that would be relevant rather than a sync log.
Support Staff 20 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 31 Aug, 2020 08:40 AM
Honestly the logs are just for sync. It doesn't include crashes.
I'll check if I can get recent crashlogs from the apple.
21 Posted by zeppo on 31 Aug, 2020 11:53 AM
But any idea why it kept crashing during sync attempts on Aug 27?
Support Staff 22 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 01 Sep, 2020 06:21 AM
sorry, I thought I wrote a response but in fact I didn't.
I can see few crashes... Can you write your iPhone model and iOS version please?
23 Posted by zeppo on 02 Sep, 2020 09:37 PM
iphone 6
NG4H2LL/A
12.4.8
Support Staff 24 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 07 Sep, 2020 05:06 AM
I did some investigation,
indeed, the crash could be triggered by sync running in background, meanwhile, it looks like you had note editor open when sync was running. Is that true?
25 Posted by zeppo on 10 Sep, 2020 04:39 PM
Just noticed your reply. Can you tell me what date and time the note editor was running? I rarely edit notes on the iphone. If I am in edit mode, it would be to check to see if I have scheduling turned on for a stack, or to turn on scheduling for a stack. I think when attempts were made to sync that crashed, they were all upon the initial opening of the app, and I wouldn't try to turn on scheduling for a stack until after I see the sync is complete. But I always take a screenshot to note the time when I switch on scheduling, so if you can tell me the date you saw the editor open, I can probably tell you when I was in it.
The phone app crashed again today at open, by the way. Not the sync, because I don't have that turned on. But upon open, the home screen of the app flashed, immediately followed by a black screen for a second, and then the crash of the app. I reopened it without any issues after that. This exact same behavior upon initial opening for the day has happened before, the last being August 30.
Support Staff 26 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 10 Sep, 2020 04:48 PM
Perhaps it was August 31. Unfortunately I don't have more precise time.
27 Posted by zeppo on 10 Sep, 2020 06:11 PM
Well, when you said "it looks like you had a note editor open when sync was running" are you looking at something in the log that tells you that, and wouldn't the date of that log be what I am looking for?
Also, when you say a note editor, I assume by "note" you mean a note on Studies, and not another app, right?
I wonder if there is something in the code that is not properly exiting the editor, or lacking a confirmation its exit in the data that is synced?
I turned on scheduling for a stack on Aug 17. The next time I turned on scheduling came on the day the cloud sync crashed and shut down, Aug 28.
On the 28th, the app itself crashed during a stuck sync attempt at 8:31am, then the sync was auto-shut down at 8:41am when I reopened the app. I sent logs at 8:54am. And at 9:04am I turned on scheduling for a stack. (I actually ended up deleting that stack a little later when I realized I hadn't finished adding all the cards I wanted in it). But sync has never been turned back on. Maybe I sent logs again later to make sure you got them and the second round included data from after the crash that the first didnt have?
Support Staff 28 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 12 Sep, 2020 04:06 AM
The sync logs doesnt include any data about other app internals. And the crash logs doesnt include data about sync :)
So it won't make sense.
29 Posted by zeppo on 15 Sep, 2020 02:26 PM
I switched back to using the macbook app for a bit, and for the first time in months. My initial question in this post asked what you meant by a "more consistent" due notes in this release, and you replied:
"exactly what you were complaining about. It still could keep "counting" but in one direction."
Indeed, in my use of the iphone app, I stopped seeing the "step back" action to lower due number counts while the app calculates due notes for the day. Some days there it just goes from zero due, straight to showing the final number due for the day. Other times three intermediate counts up to the fourth and final due note count, with all numbers being higher than the last.
I have always been told by you all that the mac app and the iOS app are exactly the same code. So I was surprised today to see on the mac app the old issue of a count "backwards" occurring while the app calculated the due notes for today. This is the first time I've used the mac app since the release update. The count went from no due notes upon opening, to 23 due, to 59, to 86, back to 23, to the final count of 91-- or something to that effect. It flashes back quickly and I wasn't expecting it, but I think it was just the one flash back in the count.
At any rate, the problem still persists in the mac app.
Support Staff 30 Posted by Vlad Borovtsov on 15 Sep, 2020 02:47 PM
The business logic is the same. UI layer is different for sure.
Re. your issue with counting - thanks, noted.