[Z7 Beta Android Bug] Annotation text doubled and mixed up

edited May 30, 2024
In many of the annotations made in Z7 beta on Android (latest version in Google Play), some of the annotations are messed up. The text is double and mixed, so two copies of the same annotation are "interlaced" with each other.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8026227/ce3vq9460zea48faxib7.png

I don't see any kind of logic for when this happens, but I've seen it happen in at least three PDFs. In of them, about 10% of the annotations suffered from this bug. In the PDF in the screenshot, it seems that almost all annotations are affected.

I'm not sure what other info to provide, but I'd be happy to send any necessary info and the PDFs themselves.

The only regularity I see is that this happens in multi-line annotations.

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Edited to add:

Redoing the annotations in in Z7 Beta on the desktop fixes the selected annotations (even simply selecting the annotation selector and placing it in the same spot as before) .
  • Additionally, Zotero completely ignores line and paragraph breaks:

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8026227/p9b5otetexhtoh9g2l3j.png
  • The text is double and mixed, so two copies of the same annotation are "interlaced" with each other
    Sorry, I'm not sure I understand this. Can you explain what we're looking at in that screenshot? What highlights did you create manually?
  • edited May 30, 2024
    Yes, sure.

    We're looking at the red annotation. I made it with the latest beta on my android tablet.

    The second line starts with "is reason to re-qualify the concept". This line gets repeated twice.
    First time is at the beginning of the third line in annotation pane. The second time is at the end of the fourth line in the annotation pane. This pattern repeats throughout the paragraph.

    I've marked a few examples.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8026227/oat1suqwax9m82g80zk6.png

    ---
    ETA:

    I can upload or send the PDF for inspection if needed.
    But have other PDFs where this problem happens, and PDFs where it doesn't.
    Importantly, it doesn't happen in the desktop version.
    Also, the issue isn't affected by the color of the annotation.
  • Hi @dstillman

    The problem still persists. Could we have an ETA for a fix?

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8026227/uixx97e9k16lybwvftes.png

    As I said earlier, I'm happy to provide affected PDFs and help in any way needed.
  • edited June 30, 2024
    You can email PDFs where you can reproduce this to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread.
  • Same thing in 1.0.0-162 version on Android independently of using phone or tablet.

    As for me, annotations normally work only on desktop version.
  • edited 19 days ago
    The doubling of annotation text is related to a bug in the 3rd party PDF Reader component that is used in our app. We did report it a while ago, but in order to increase priority of its being fixed I would appreciate if you could send us the PDF files where you encounter these problems so we can prove to the 3rd party that it's not just related to a few special PDFs.
  • This is also happening to me, exactly as the OP described. I am also using the latest version of the android app (in my case on a Boox tablet). Let me know if it is helpful to send you the PDFs.
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