Constant app crash 5 seconds in

Just trying to get visibility with the critical big in the latest Android release of the Gospel Library. The app only runs for 4-8 second before crashing. Not even enough time to send feedback from within the app.

You can see this on all the latest reviews on the Google play store. The iphones in our house are fine, but the three androids, 2 Samsung and 1 LG, are both crashing.

What version of Gospel Library are you running? Gospel Library 5.12.1 was just released last night – has it updated to the latest on your device?
Are you able to open the app if you put your device in airplane mode?

Thank you for the reply! I updated the app last night, no change yesterday or today, still crashes. Your idea of airplane mode was interesting. The app will stay open as long as I'm in airplane mode, but as soon as I re enable wifi or cell data the app freezes up and crashes.

Any thoughts on what may be causing that?

matthewsage wrote:Thank you for the reply! I updated the app last night, no change yesterday or today, still crashes. Your idea of airplane mode was interesting. The app will stay open as long as I'm in airplane mode, but as soon as I re enable wifi or cell data the app freezes up and crashes.

Any thoughts on what may be causing that?

The app checks for content updates and does an annotation sync on launch. If the device is offline, the app won't try to check for a content update or sync annotations. So, it sounds like something is going wrong in the content update or annotation sync process. It could be that the app thinks it's online, but it can't actually connect. Do you have a VPN, web filtering service, or content blocker installed either on the device or on your network that might be keeping the app from connecting to Church servers? Have you tried opening the app while connected to a different network? Are you connected to a Wi-Fi network, but not connected to the internet (for example, a Wi-Fi network for local networking, or a public Wi-Fi network that only lets you on after you accept the terms of use)?

Same problem, but apparently they can't tell when the device is / is not connected - I have the app set to only use WiFi - because I don't have a cell phone plan (yes, that's right, I have a phone, but no cellular provider) - and I only turn WiFi on when needed, because it's a battery hog (and I rarely need it), and even in this condition, the app hangs. I've just uninstalled the app, power cycled the device, and reinstalled the app. Now I'm trying to re-download all the content, and it crashed in the middle of that. It will not sync my notes - perhaps it's waiting for all the content to download, or maybe it's just the sync function that's broken. :sigh: two versions ago, it worked...

Anywho, I'm now about to try airplane mode - absurd if this makes the device work - they can't gracefully handle a failure to connect to the internet? (Of course, they never could - the error messages from undownloaded content stayed on screen for several minutes as if I couldn't read the message in 10 seconds....) OK, got a hang while WiFi was connected. Now in airplane mode.... Opened to D&C 88 and scrolled around some. Now waiting... Still working after 3 minutes... And still working after 12 minutes - thank you for the airplane mode tip! At least I can once again use my device for reading. Hopefully they fix sync soon so I can make use of annotations again...

PS: Someone needs to tell the development team to handle failures to connect the same way they handle airplane mode - downloaded content works, undownloaded content doesn't - simple, but apparently they can't figure out that not all of us area always connected without fail...

New information. I updated the following three apps after installing GL version 5.12.1 (512112.18), and now the app doesn't hang - tested with WiFi connected and disconnected. Also, the sync function now works:

Google Connectivity Services
Carrier Services
Android System WebView

(I updated all three at once, so I don't know which one / combination may be required.)

Note to developers: you can't tell me that some required component needs to be upgraded / is incompatible? Seriously, I was a programmer before retiring 2 years ago, throwing error messages may be annoying, but it's the right thing to do... (I know, they're not here, won't ever see it, still...) PS: In case they do - your error messages about "requiring an internet connection" don't need to stay on screen for several minutes! 10-20 seconds is more than enough!

I'm glad it started working for you. Sadly, everything that I can update has been updated and it still crashes unless I turn on airplane mode.

I have tried it on multiple wifi networks, and on my cell network. I do not have a VPN or any blocking services. I can sync with member tools without any trouble. In fact, the Gospel Library app just said that it synced up my annotations a few minutes ago, and then it crashed a few seconds after I made it in to that screen.

The same thing is happening on my wife's phone. Both Samsung s20 plus on Verizon.

lmcguire wrote:New information. I updated the following three apps after installing GL version 5.12.1 (512112.18), and now the app doesn't hang - tested with WiFi connected and disconnected. Also, the sync function now works:

Google Connectivity Services
Carrier Services
Android System WebView

Glad that updating Android/Google services fixed it!

matthewsage wrote:I'm glad it started working for you. Sadly, everything that I can update has been updated and it still crashes unless I turn on airplane mode.

I have tried it on multiple wifi networks, and on my cell network. I do not have a VPN or any blocking services. I can sync with member tools without any trouble. In fact, the Gospel Library app just said that it synced up my annotations a few minutes ago, and then it crashed a few seconds after I made it in to that screen.

The same thing is happening on my wife's phone. Both Samsung s20 plus on Verizon.

If you go to Settings > About in Gospel Library, in the top right there's an (i) button, which shows you your app instance ID. If you send that in feedback, a Gospel Library Android developer may be able to look up your device to see if any crash logs have come through in analytics.

Thanks Sam, appreciate the responses and help. I'd like to submit feedback, but that was ultimately the issue I faced. The app won't stay open long enough to get feedback sent, or to get to settings. If you look at the recent reviews on the Google play store you can see this is happening a lot, I'm just hoping the dev team sees the reviews or comments posted here and load in to it. Right now we can't send them anything because we only get 3-4 seconds before it freezes and crashes.

matthewsage wrote:Thanks Sam, appreciate the responses and help. I'd like to submit feedback, but that was ultimately the issue I faced. The app won't stay open long enough to get feedback sent, or to get to settings. If you look at the recent reviews on the Google play store you can see this is happening a lot, I'm just hoping the dev team sees the reviews or comments posted here and load in to it. Right now we can't send them anything because we only get 3-4 seconds before it freezes and crashes.

If you open in airplane mode, can you get the ID? If so, you might be able to send feedback through the main churchofjesuschistoflatterdaysaints.org site. Identify as much information as you can that can help the church service missionary reading the feedback know where to route it. You can even provide a link to this thread in feedback which may help.

For anytime searching for this thread later, the last update from 2 days ago in the play store fixed the issue for my wife and I, both with Samsung S20s, in case that helps anyone.

Thanks for the update! It's nice to hear back what fixed the issue.

lmcguire wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 9:34 pm New information. I updated the following three apps after installing GL version 5.12.1 (512112.18), and now the app doesn't hang - tested with WiFi connected and disconnected. Also, the sync function now works:

Google Connectivity Services
Carrier Services
Android System WebView

(I updated all three at once, so I don't know which one / combination may be required.)

Note to developers: you can't tell me that some required component needs to be upgraded / is incompatible? Seriously, I was a programmer before retiring 2 years ago, throwing error messages may be annoying, but it's the right thing to do... (I know, they're not here, won't ever see it, still...) PS: In case they do - your error messages about "requiring an internet connection" don't need to stay on screen for several minutes! 10-20 seconds is more than enough!

And this no longer works. With the latest update, the one that restored pinning the sidebar, this problem is back, and none of the previous fixes works this time. My version is 5.12.4 (512400.25). Sucks when I have to find an off-line web browser to load the Sunday School pages from the Church website on Saturday just so I can follow along in SS... Roll back 4-5 versions and let us use that while the devs fix it - doesn't seem so hard.

Can’t open app flickers to something I edited while studying last night,; goes on then immediately off.

Joani wrote: Sun May 01, 2022 8:06 am Can’t open app flickers to something I edited while studying last night,; goes on then immediately off.

Thanks to the screenshot, I was able to reproduce the issue. It seems that iOS Gospel Library crashes if the last thing you viewed before closing the app was a tag without any notes. I'd recommend sending in-app feedback under Help, to report the issue.

A workaround to get out of the bad state is to open the app using a link that goes somewhere else in the app. For example, here's a link to the Library section:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures?lang=eng