I have written an android app that generates a strange exception on the LG-Phone I have just started testing on. In DDMS the tag is "ISP_LOG_MW_DEBUG" and the text is "AMI_IsWindowSearch()." It is generated about 10 times per second while the app is running. It doesn't seem to interfere with the program itself, but I would rather not have this error. but I can not find any information on this on the web.
If a click the home button (the app continues running in the background) and start the app again (new UI, with the old services) the amount of these messages increases each time. So it is reasonable to assume that they are generated by something in the UI.
Has anybody experienced this error or has any idea how to avoid it?
Real devices can sometimes make a lot of noise. Sometimes the vendors just leave a lot of debugging turned on. If your app is not crashing, or showing performance issues, I would say it's safe to ignore.
Also, try with another device, or try with the emulator. If you don't see those errors with another device or the emulator, I think it's safe to say the vendor developers of the the LG device are just lazy and didn't turn off all their debugging like a good developer should. :D
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I have a Xamarin.Android app that has been in production and stable for several years, but is now exhibiting crashing, during startup, when running on a specific device type (Zebra TC21/TC26), but only after it has been unused for 3 or 4 days.
If the app is used regularly, it performs reliably, but when left idle for an extended period, it crashes, during restart, apparently because Android has recycled the Application object, perhaps as described here.
The strange thing is that neither a forced close of the app nor a reboot of the device resolves the problem. Only after uninstalling and reinstalling the app will it run again.
To make matters worse, I can't seem to get any useful log data from the app when it is running on Zebra devices. The app is extensively instrumented for logging (via Loggly) and it works reliably for all other Android device types that I have tested, but Zebra test runs yield no log events.
I apologize that this is a vague question, but I have spent a huge amount of time trying to diagnose this issue and I am at a loss for what to try next. Any suggestions would be very welcome and I am happy to post more details, if required.
UPDATE: As suggested by #Cheesebaron, I have examined the device log, retrieved from a Zebra, which shows that the crash is due to an NRE. I attribute this to a required dependency not being injected correctly, but I am not sure what that tells me about the root cause of the problem, which clearly doesn't occur during normal operation. I am not an expert in deciphering Android logs, and I am curious what I should be looking for to understand the specific OS event that tipped the app into a failing state. Just being able to reproduce the issue in real time would be a great step forward.
I am also puzzled why this issue is not cleared by restarting the device. Does this indicate a data/settings corruption or could there be some other explanation? Is there anything in the device log that I should be looking for to understand this?
I am happy to post the device logs (or excerpts) if anyone feels inclined to review them.
a colleague of mine is working on a legacy ReactNative app. There is quite a lot of code both in JavaScript and Java land, the latter being related to HERE Maps SDK.
Two of our clients experience multiple crashes every day and we cannot figure out why as we have no error reports.
Bugsnag was installed early last year (circa jan 2020) and we have nothing on there to help us. Nothing to be found in Google Console either. App just stops.
To help us debug we've added a logging system which sends debug info to our backend via dedicated API calls.
It roughly consists of logging "start of function A", "end of function A" etc so we know what the app is doing. We don't always enable it as it tends to make the app even more unstable.
In parallel to that we managed to get an idea of when the app crashes via login events that are sent by Firebase Auth when user re-launches the app.
Looking at our logs around the time of crash doesn't help us as 1) they look the same as when it all works and 2) we haven't covered all method calls as there are way too many (in JS and Java).
Our users run the app on a Samsung Galaxy Active Tab 2 mounted in the cabin of a tractor. Some use a Galaxy Active Tab 3 and also have the issue.
We have run through various theories :
Could it be too hot in the cabin so Android shuts down? No, tablet is always on according to clients.
Could it be related to a change in voltage? When WE try to plug and unplug everything continues to work fine.
Could it be Android that decides the app is consuming too much battery or CPU (GPS is needed for our app) so it shuts it down? We've let our app in the foreground for hours with no problem.
We logged in with customers' credentials (they are aware) and could not replicate the issue.
Customers interest in helping us find the issue is slowly fading away so we can't keep on asking them to install a patched version every week.
First there was just one client but now we have at least 3 more users complaining about mysterious crashes.
We're a bit stomped as to what to do.
Has anyone any idea of an ultimate catch all library? Or a syslog on the tablet where we could get more info?
Thanks in advance for your help!
After much testing my colleagues managed to easily reproduce the error and found the root cause: poor memory management in one method in Java land.
Said method was responsible for changing markers orientation on the map but it duplicated markers when their orientation changed. It resulted in a high memory consumption and when it reached a certain point Android would just kill all running apps.
My colleague fixed the leak and we're good! Onto the next bug now. :)
The below reasoning is based on hardware failure. If your software hasn't drastically changed (the app or the operating system), then this is a likely scenario:
The Tab 2 was released in 2012, so we're talking about a device that is up to 9 years old. If the users all use the same hardware, and the software hasn't been changed for a while, it could be some kind of hardware failure. It could be related to the vibrations of the tractor, moisture over time, or just because they used the tablet more intensively than you use yours. There could be something (semi-)loose or the memory (SSD or RAM) could start becoming faulty.
It can be a software error too of course, but it's unlikely if you haven't updated in a long time - assuming the tablets haven't been updated either.
Could you perhaps swap your tablet with one of a customer. Preferrably a customer that has the issue most often. Then observe if the issue is resolved.
This way, you'll be able figure out if it is related to the tablet (being broken) or the environment (tractor) it is being used in.
If the issue persists after a tablet swap, it's either the environment or the software, but you'd have ruled out the hardware.
If the issue is resolved, you'll know for sure it's the hardware at fault.
Does android somehow keep track of which apps are/were running and if so when it was in foreground or background, etc?
I already had a look at adb logcat, which gives a rather overwhelming amount of data and I'm not quite sure if I actually will be able to deduce what was started when, but that might be possible.
Seeing how that log disappears after a while and does not survive reboots, I was curious if I'm maybe there might other places where android keeps information about running apps. For instance a colleague mentioned that iOS running apps can usually be deduced from the automatic screenshots it takes for app switching.
Debugging in Eclipse works excellent, however, my app causes my whole system to crash on unknown interval in under unknown situations. I have never been able to replicate this issue while having a connection with my computer and thus I can't find the issue.
Are there any other ideas on how to approach this type of issues?
A friend of mine used this Bootlog Uptime app to get crash logs from system crashes.
I never tested it but as far as I know you can get the log from the system crash as well. At least worth a try...
Assuming your application crashes before it takes down the device, a generic error reporting solution like ACRA (which you probably want as part of your application anyway) might get you the relevant bits of information to find the source of the problem (bits of the logcat, memory usage, etc).
If the app doesn't crash, you can set it up to periodically send out the same information. There might be a trend visible up to the point where it dies.
I hope you're all good. I am working on an android application project and I mostly use android emulator for testing the application. Android Emulator takes too much time for application loading and since I am working on the design I have to run the application after a few seconds again and again. Because of slow emulator I think my time is wasted and I can't focus on the work.
I recently tried my Galaxy Note for running application and its quite fast and running experience is much better. What I wanted to know is.. Does running eclipse project on my Phone will harm my mobile phone in any way?
Because moments back while using the phone the screen got stuck and the icons changed to different green, red and blue color. I restarted the phone and its acting normal now. But I wanted to know if it happened because of the eclipse project running on the phone? Is it safe ?
It is possible to harm your phone.
Apart from the wear and tear (YMMV) of repeatedly flashing your app to memory you may unwittingly (or otherwise) create a virus.
I've been in a situation where a thread has run amok after the app terminated and hogged the processor slowing things down. It did eventually quit though (possibly after elective rebooting). I've often had my phone restart when debugging on it. I wouldn't worry too much about that (although my domain was Samsung's bada, a lot less robust platform).
I don't see too many risks with Java apps as the language is so well managed. Native code is a risk in that, at least, a buffer overflow could place unwanted code outside of the process address space and so escape being cleaned up when the app quits. A shut down and/or force close may result from such errors.