Zotero Android crash on opening / scrolling PDF

augustaugust
edited 26 days ago
Report ID: 1473485726

Seeing frequent crashes in the Android app after adding many annotations and then opening / scrolling the pdf.

Sadly no steps to 100 % reliably reproduce. But when encountering the crash it happened *after* doing some annotations.

Crash has happened again - Report ID: 276272814

The PDF annotations behave unexpected. I used various Text Annotations. When opening the PDF and long-tapping the text annotation instead of opening edit mode, it vanishes. It does re-appear after closing and re-opening the PDF. But apparently it can not be deleted due to the option never showing.

Android 15, LineageOS 22-20241201-Unofficial-nabu
Zotero-Android: 1.0.0-124
  • shervintak
    Report ID 1493154442
    Similar bug here. Scrolling in landscape mode through (an annotated) PDF first was difficult, then not possible. Leaving the app was not possible. I locked the screen and came back to the crash report.
  • dstillman
    @shervintak, your crash is probably fixed in 1.0.0-125.

    @augustaugust, let us know if you're still seeing yours.
  • augustaugust
    edited 25 days ago
    Thanks so much for looking into the crashes and providing a patch: https://github.com/zotero/zotero-android/commit/b45d6e7a5a2fb9b5759c72f128955cb017cf5f3a

    In a test 1.0.0-125 still crashes for me. During testing, the app closed and I had to re-open it. Twice I did not receive a Report ID. The third time Report ID 463578896 showed up. Hope it is helpful in getting to the bottom of the issue. Let me know if you need additional debug data.

    Looking at the debug output I am not seeing any obvious errors: Debug ID D1992785333

    Editing the annotations is behaving in unexpected ways. Single tapping an annotation hides that annotation from view. Deleting or editing it is not possible.

    The PDF seemingly is in some corrupted state. I am fine to just delete it, but maybe it is useful to debug the crash + annotation issues.
  • dstillman
    edited 25 days ago
    (That commit isn't relevant for your issue.)

    Can you provide the 8-character string from the zotero.org URL when you click on the attachment in question in your web library?
  • dstillman
    Also, is this reproducible for a specific annotation? What exactly do you mean by "Single tapping an annotation hides that annotation from view."? If you're able to share a screen recording (either linked here or in an email to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread), that might be helpful.
  • augustaugust
    Here's the requested string: 45M7YTM3

    On page 4 there are three text annotations with large text in red. When tapping (short or long) one of those annotations instead of opening the annotation details, the annotation vanishes.

    Screencast sent via email.
  • dstillman
    @augustaugust: OK, please try the latest build.
  • augustaugust
    Thanks for the ping. 1.0.0-126 crashes are persisting. Report ID: 1484202369

    GitHub issues: https://github.com/zotero/zotero-android/issues/206 explains what is going on.

    Commit: https://github.com/zotero/zotero-android/commit/86f86b47099f8191c128ea48c42d8020d9979c5c

    "This commit should fix the issue by both preventing a creation of SQUARE annotations with zero width or height as well as remove all SQUARE annotation with such dimensions from user’s database, which should allow users to open affected PDFs without a crash."

  • dstillman
    You don't need to link to GitHub here. We're the developers — we obviously know what's on GitHub. That commit is why we asked you to try the latest build.

    We'll continue to investigate.
  • augustaugust
    Intention was for other forum users to be able to understand the issue and if they want look at the GitHub commit potentially fixing it. As the issue was created by Zotero staff you are clearly aware. If linking to GitHub is against the policy I can refrain from linking GitHub issues / commits in the future.
  • dstillman
    It's just not really necessary or helpful for something like this, which is just some random bug that possibly only you are seeing. The point of these forums is to keep user discussions separate from technical discussions. You're obviously welcome to follow along on GitHub if you're curious about the technical details, but you don't need to post updates from GitHub here — that's our job. (You also linked to an unrelated commit above, so it's likely to create more confusion than anything.)
  • augustaugust
    Ok. 1.0.0-127 still crashes when opening the PDF Report ID 3830569.
  • dstillman
    OK, try 128.
  • augustaugust
    edited 13 days ago
    1.0.0-128 is crashing on opening the PDF in question: Report ID 856277083
  • dstillman
    This is on a different item from before, right? Can you provide the 8-character item key from the web library URL for the current attachment this is happening for?
  • augustaugust
    Just in case another Report ID for same crash that happened while testing: 717639033

    Requested string from WebUI still is: 45M7YTM3
  • dstillman
    Are you sure about that? The crash is for an ink annotation. At least in the web library, that attachment only has one text annotation.
  • augustaugust
    edited 9 days ago
    Did I share the wrong string part? Seeing this in WebUI: `collections/84Q9ZG4B/items/45M7YTM3`.
    one more report ID: 1321644524

    That file may be corrupt. There are more issues than the crash. The file has various text annotations in different size and color.

    It also has several scribble or ink (?) annotations. But they behave problematic: when tapped they just vanished. They do return after closing the pdf and re-opening, but cannot be edited. It seems as if they are in some unintended limbo state.

    Happy to let this go and just deleted the PDF in question, if the issue is too exotic to investigate. Will then have to see if this happens again with another PDF when working with it.
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