Fixed! Problem reading build threads on a tablet?

[Andyjr1515]

I've put this in the 'In Progress...' section because it is generally reading photo-rich build threads I am having the problem.

Does anyone else have difficulties reading build threads on a tablet?

My old ipad used to have problems loading ProjectGuitar at all - it just didn't have the oomph - so last year I upgraded to a reasonably spec'd Asus tablet which transformed my viewing experience.

At last, I could flick through threads and see folks' glorious builds step by step without having to go upstairs and boot the desktop.

But over the past 6-8 months, it has become almost impossible for me to use even the new tablet to read a thread.  Scrolling is very slow, and for each entry it displays maybe the first 2 1/2 photos and then just blank screen.  You can carry on scrolling (slowly) to each of the posts all the way to the end - but only see a couple of the photos in each post.

So my involvement is a bit more hit and miss at the moment - I can only participate when I'm on the desktop which is a bit limiting.

Anyone else have the same issues?  If not I'll have a delve into murky depths of the settings and update history of the Asus to see if they've sneaked in a file limiter somewhere.  If other folks are having the same issues, I'll follow it up with @curtisa and other clever folks here to see if there is a tweak on the site that would sort it.

Andy 

[Bizman62]

I just scrolled through a couple of photo intensive pages without any issues with my Android 6 Samsung tablet for comparison.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Bizman62

[ScottR]

My Samsung tab E used to work and then a couple of years ago it said it does not have permission to access the website....or something similar. It can handle the email notifications and show me that particular post, but when I click the go to this post button, it says nope.

SR

[Norris]

I get similar issues on my phone - but usually only when I have a poor data/wi-fi signal. Have you got a decent signal in your guitar-building dungeon @Andyjr1515?

[curtisa]

10 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Anyone else have the same issues?  If not I'll have a delve into murky depths of the settings and update history of the Asus to see if they've sneaked in a file limiter somewhere.  If other folks are having the same issues, I'll follow it up with @curtisa and other clever folks here to see if there is a tweak on the site that would sort it.

I assume your Asus is running some version of the Android OS. Things you can try at your end for now:

• Use a different browser. On my old Samsung S3 smartphone ProjectGuitar wouldn't display properly using the default Safari browser. Using Chrome everything worked correctly, even if the poor old phone didn't have the horsepower to run Chrome very well.
• Try your tablet on a different WiFi network, see if things change.
• Try another tablet/smartphone/laptop/Commodore 64 on your current WiFi network and see if the issue persists.
• At the bottom of each page on the forum you can switch between different display themes (not sure if this is visible to regular users, might be an admin-only thing). Try one of the earlier themes and see if things start behaving themselves:
• Is the issue solely confined to ProjectGuitar, or are other graphics-heavy websites also affected? Try other forums where you know a lot of people post pictures or websites which use lots of images (car companies are a good place to start).
• Most browsers on mobile devices have an option to request the desktop version of a website in their settings. Try switching between the two to see if it makes a difference.
• Are other users of your particular Asus tablet raising similar faults elsewhere on the net? Maybe try doing a Google search for the model number and see if there is a group of complaints about poor internet performance in the last 6 months that might point towards a software update issue or a general failing of the product.

FWIW I haven't seen any issues here using a Samsung Galaxy S8 (mobile data and several different WiFI networks), a Windows 10 laptop on my home network, a Windows 7 laptop at the office or via mobile hotspot, and a Linux desktop. I will, however, qualify that statement by adding that I do have an Asus tablet that really struggles with anything more than email, despite being a real gun when I bought it some time ago. One day it just decided that it wanted a bit of a lie down and it hasn't been the same since.

Get in touch if things still aren't working for you and we'll see if there's more that can be done.

If anyone else is finding similar issues please let us know via the Site Feedback and Issue Reporting Area. If it's only a couple of users that are affected it suggests that perhaps there's something at their end, but if it's a whole group of people it might be a wider issue at ours. If the error reports are kept in one location on the forum it will be easier for us to track and gauge.

[Andyjr1515]

Some good tips for me to try, @curtisa - thanks.

Yes - it's running on Android 7.  I've checked that everything is up to date and yes, it's the same on Chrome and Google.  The fact that it was OK but now isn't, makes me suspect that it's the Asus - especially as it doesn't sound like it's a general issue.  Nothing obvious from a search about general Asus problems.  And yes - it is only this site.

I'll have a peep at the themes options.  I'll also keep my eye out for decent tablets in the New Year sales

Thanks for the feedback, folks.  I'll let you know how I get on. 

[curtisa]

The forums use a fair bit of CSS and Java scripting at the back end of things, so it's entirely possible there's something not playing right between us and your particular variant of the Asus tablet.

For example, If I try viewing the forums using my new Windows 10 laptop issued by my employer on any network through any browser I simply cannot use the forum at all, as all the CSS formatting gets destroyed by something going on on that particular computer. All I'm left with is a white page with all the images missing and nothing but text and unformatted hyperlinks. It's like viewing the internet circa 1995. Any other computer or device I've tried doesn't have this issue, so I'm assuming it has something to do with the IT security policies that gets applied to these new machines. Weird shite happens sometimes... 

...or maybe it's just my boss's way of telling me to get back to work 

[Andyjr1515]

4 hours ago, Norris said:

I get similar issues on my phone - but usually only when I have a poor data/wi-fi signal. Have you got a decent signal in your guitar-building dungeon @Andyjr1515?

Yes - I can be standing next to the router with all 5 bars of signal.  Same happens on other networks too.  I think @curtisa is probably right that there is some mismatch in the depths of the tablet and the website structure.

[Andyjr1515]

Just now, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes - I can be standing next to the router with all 5 bars of signal.  Same happens on other networks too.  I think @curtisa is probably right that there is some mismatch in the depths of the tablet and the website structure.

Or @curtisa 's boss has fixed something so I don't encourage him to visit the site in works time...

[Bizman62]

I suppose you have done the maintenance chores in the Settings of the tablet.

Another option to try to speed up a tablet or smart phone is to reset it to factory defaults, again from the Settings.

[Andyjr1515]

9 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I suppose you have done the maintenance chores in the Settings of the tablet.

Another option to try to speed up a tablet or smart phone is to reset it to factory defaults, again from the Settings.

Yes - I've done most of that.  I haven't gone back to factory defaults, though.  May try that.

[Andyjr1515]

9 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

 

Another option to try to speed up a tablet or smart phone is to reset it to factory defaults, again from the Settings.

Genius!  Fixed!!!!

Lost all my apps, of course...but what are they compared with being able to see all of your folks' brilliant threads!  

[Andyjr1515]

Blast!  Gone again.  No settings changed and no updates done.  It's clearly the tablet itself. 

That's a shame.  Never mind - I'll try to catch up on all of the build threads each time I get onto the desktop.

 

[curtisa]

Sorry to hear that, Andy. Any chance your browser app itself (rather than the whole tablet OS) has done an update in the background and reverted to the most current version, thereby reintroducing the problem again? The fact that it was working for a bit and then started misbehaving again suggests that something changed in the meantime.

I'll try busting out my Asus tablet and see if the old girl will work long enough to browse through the forums.

[Andyjr1515]

Yes - I suspect it did an update in the background. 

I suspect it won't let me stop all updates, but I'll have a peep.  I'll contact their support and see if they have any ideas (or maybe build in a fix in future updates!)

I reckon there's a file limit gone in somewhere or maybe an accumulating cache (although can't see any that are tweakable).  

 

[Andyjr1515]

I don't think it's the browser, by the way - tried a couple and they are both the same.  But the Asus may have updated its OS as the restart was, presumably, to literally revert to original factory settings.  I'm assuming therefore that it will have been the original OS version?  Dunno.  I'll have a look at that too.

[curtisa]

Well, I tried our old Asus tablet on the forums. It does work OK...eventually. It starts off extremely sluggish but gradually it comes through with the goods and I can scroll through picture-heavy threads. It's a little bit clunky and jumpy, but it stumbles through OK. Safari browser doesn't display the formatting on the forum pages quite right, but Chrome does.

Hardly a conclusive test, as my whole tablet is slow anyway, but in the absence of other reports of poor performance it does seem to be something particular with the way our forum interacts with your particular tablet.

Then again, maybe it's an Asus/Android thing - we both have Asus tablets, both suddenly started sucking at doing internets. Coincidence?

[Splintazert]

Hi chaps.

@curtisa There are a few errors in the HTML and CSS code on the site. Things like the dropdown menu with "<<Guitar of the month entry/vote archive" will throw a wobbly on many devices. The less-than signs are 'unescaped' which is potentially why some browsers will stop processing or misinterpret information at that point. I'm a web developer so this is definitely the first place I'd start. If you must have those signs then try replacing them with &lt;&lt;

Happy to help by PM or email if you need it.

In the short term, to help browse the site as a user, you can either try installing another good browser (Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Brave) or using the browser menu to 'Request desktop site' or similar.

Edit - I noticed you have tried a few browsers but some are more forgiving than others.

Edited December 17, 2019 by Splintazert

[Andyjr1515]

3 hours ago, Splintazert said:

Hi chaps.

@curtisa There are a few errors in the HTML and CSS code on the site. Things like the dropdown menu with "<<Guitar of the month entry/vote archive" will throw a wobbly on many devices. The less-than signs are 'unescaped' which is potentially why some browsers will stop processing or misinterpret information at that point. I'm a web developer so this is definitely the first place I'd start. If you must have those signs then try replacing them with &lt;&lt;

Happy to help by PM or email if you need it.

In the short term, to help browse the site as a user, you can either try installing another good browser (Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Brave) or using the browser menu to 'Request desktop site' or similar.

Edit - I noticed you have tried a few browsers but some are more forgiving than others.

Hmmm...yes, might try Firefox.  Thanks for the thought.  Had pretty good experiences with it in the past.

It is odd that it worked fine on both browsers after the factory reset but, after a day or so, stopped fully downloading the photos on both browsers.

I'll download Firefox - I'll let you know how I get on.

[Andyjr1515]

OK.  Loaded Firefox and, so far, I'm back to being able to see all of the photos

I'll see how it goes over the next couple of days.   If it holds good, then problem solved.  If it starts truncating the posts again, as the reload of the tablet did after a couple of days, then it has to be a cache issue or other cumulative limit.

I'll let you know

 

[Andyjr1515]

And....it's holding!

It's transformed the ease of being able to use the site flicking through on the tablet.

So, who'd have thought.  I'd always regarded Chrome as one of the more stable browsers but it clearly doesn't like the Asus/ProjectGuitar combination!

Anyway, Firefox regains the top spot in the Andyjr1515 rankings

Thanks for the help, folks.

Andy