"Suggest ID" infinite loop

Bug Reports
1

Platform: Android

App version number: iNaturalist v 1.30.15 (608) / Android v 13 (One UI v 5.1) / Samsung SM-G981U1

Description of problem:
Summary: After scrolling through and adding IDs to several pages of observations, the Suggest ID feature consistently starts looping and fails to post IDs. The problem can be fixed by restarting the app.

To recreate the problem: starting from Projects > [any project with pages of observations] or Explore, scroll through 6-9 screens of grid-style observations (~15 obs/screen on my phone) and use the Suggest ID to add IDs to several dozen of them. I consistently encounter this loop:

  1. I hit Suggest ID
  2. the Suggest ID initializes (starts with no suggestions, then they fill in)
  3. I select (✓) for a species
  4. Add ID (✓)
  5. back to 2, ad infinitum

If I back out of Suggest ID, my identification has not posted, and if I then go back into Suggest ID, I again encounter the loop. At this point, if I hit Agree for a previous ID, spinning wheel appears and spins indefinitely. I can back out of the observation and go back in, and my agreed ID has posted. Notably, when I back out of the spinning wheel observation, the thumbnails in the grid are blurry…maybe reloading?).

The only way I’ve found to reliably fix the problem is to close out the app and restart it. This is usually not too disruptive unless I’m way down into the observations of a project or filtered explore results, then it becomes a pain to refilter and scroll scroll scroll.

History: This is a long-standing problem I’ve encountered for 5+ years, through many versions of iNat on at least 3 Android phones with various versions of Android. Probably related to Explore screen out of memory issue (#588) though I get the sense that the memory costs of the Suggest ID feature are especially pertinent here. Probably also related to #672.

Thanks iNat Team :heart:

3 Likes
2

I get this all the time. For me it happens well before 6-9 screens worth of observations. I don’t ever remembering it not doing this. I quickly learned to just don’t ID in the app unless I know I’m just gonna ID one or two things, or when I’m just really determined to ID and am not able (or willing) to do it on a computer.

My current specs are Google Pixel 7 Pro / Android 14 / iNaturalist 1.30.15 (608). However, I’ve encountered this on prior generations of Google Pixel (and presumably prior versions of the app) as well.

3 Likes
3

I should have added a link to the Github issue and left the Github issue open…

4

I got this error too.

1 Like
5

Shall I reopen it?

6

I’m pretty sure these are out of memory failures. The API response when using Explore in the Android app is pretty large and can eventually cause this issue when IDing with the app. To be clear, the app was not designed for extensive ID work. I don’t think this is something that will be fixed, as it would need to be pretty extensive and we’re focusing resources on a new app.

1 Like