App version number, if a mobile app issue: 1.0.10 (179)
Browser, if a website issue:
URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages:
Screenshots of what you are seeing:
Description of problem:
Step 1: Open app.
Step 2: Touch screen does not work at all. Can’t select anything. Can’t open menus. Can’t scroll through observations. I see all, but can do nothing.
Step 3: Delete app.
Step 4: Download app again. Everything works.
I don’t understand why this problem ever arose. None of my many other apps were affected. Even iNat Classic wasn’t affected.
I also don’t understand why this klugy fix was necessary, or why it even worked. My iPhone checks for updates and, when one is available, automatically updates the app. I should have already had the latest version, and I am pretty sure I did. If I didn’t have the latest version of iNat Next, then we have a second bug: Automatic updates don’t happen. All my other apps are current. Why wouldn’t iNat Next have been?
I strongly suspect that this is due to the app cache getting too large and slowing down the app – see other threads in the iNat Forum on that topic. I also have had this issue, or at least buttons and menus in the new app having a hugely delayed response time approaching glacial levels. It is a standing issue with this new app that everything is much slower in general. Many people have mentioned needing to delete and redownload the app on a regular basis just to clear the cache and speed up performance – this was something that could be done in the old app just by logging out and back in. I’m not sure if there is a fix planned or not, though I’d like to at least hope there is. For now I am not able to to accept the decreased efficiency of the new app with freezing-level bugs like this, and have clung to using iNat Classic until it’s inevitably binned…
I’ve experienced this issue too. For me, closing the app from the iOS multitask menu and re-opening is enough to fix the issue. I think it has something to do with the occasional dismissable blurb which appears at the top of the observations list as when they appear is when I experience the issue
We don’t think this is the cause any longer, for what it’s worth.
It’s definitely a priority, but the problem is that no one on our team has been able to replicate this, which makes it hard to determine a cause. Hope to have some updates on our investigation and maybe some ways people experiencing the problem can help us try and narrow down a cause soon.
Apple - I just had this problem yesterday specifically with the “Explore” tab. I opened the map and couldn’t tap anything. I closed the app a couple of times using swipe up from the bottom motion (sort of like Alt + Tab on a computer).
I redownloaded iNat Classic and it worked just fine.
Later I made some observations with new iNat with no problem.
is there a particular reason you’ve decided to rule it out?
I associate it very much with attempting to save large numbers of observations without uploading; other users have found similar results. have staff tried making hundreds of observations (with multiple photos that require cache space, not blank test records) to examine this?
on the other hand, maybe staff won’t test that scenario if there’s no interest in planning for it? perhaps this is more a matter of not prioritizing speed/efficiency in the development of the new app. the response to one of the previous threads about a similar issue was essentially “just don’t save lots of observations” to keep it working* —
*that’s at least how I interpret being told “the app isn’t built” for my usual workflow in iNaturalist Classic.
if staff simply do not plan to work on this side of things, I and other frequent observers obviously can’t force them to do so. if that’s true, though, I would like it very much if the more uploading-functional iNaturalist Classic could remain active indefinitely even if it receives no further updates. I don’t know whether it’s simple enough to allow the old app to continue to interface with iNaturalist but I really struggle with the new one and its slow march toward its interface freezing when in between deletion-redownload cycles.
