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iPad Pro - Frequent Crashes

W

WizardsRKewl

New member
Used to be, I had Hero Lab sync exclusively with Dropbox to store and retrieve character sheets. However, I noticed that I could be doing a bunch of stuff to a sheet, the app would crash - no prompt, nothing, straight to "desktop", and almost all the changes I made since the most recent load would be lost. For example, upon reload entire lists of gear would have disappeared as if I never purchased them.

Thinking this was some sort of syncing issue, I decided to store all my sheets locally. While this greatly reduced the frequency of the problem, it still happens sporadically and seems to be related when Hero Lab is trying to commit changes to a portfolio. Most frequently (and frustratingly) this happens when adding spells to spellbooks as I can rarely get more than a few spells added before the app crashes. I can only successfully add spells to a spellbook every 2nd or 3rd try.

The Hero Lab app itself doesn't show any updates from the App Store. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game internal database is version 13.2.

Are there any work arounds for this? It's quite frustrating.

In terms of a fix, I'd prefer the following:

  • If this can be detected, don't just crash but prompt - being able to take a screenshot with my phone or something wouldn't require me to remember so much. As is, I have to essentially "buffer" everything I do mentally in case I lose work. This is exhausting.
  • Keep a shadow copy of the active sheet similar to how Microsoft Office applications work for crash recovery scenarios
  • If you must crash, crash sooner than later so not as much work is lost at a time
  • No crashes would be ideal, naturally
 
I've worked with Colen and crew to help identify iPad issues. He indicated that very large portfolios can be an issue as the software keeps everything in ram. Lately (last 6 months or so?), I've been able to open portfolios with 15 characters in them without the app crashing on my iPad Air, but it used to be pretty bad. (I do my test builds on the iPad, so I'll create a 1st level PC, then copy it to a new one and level that one up to 2nd. And so on, until I get to about 15th level.)

Sorry, not very helpful, I know. I suggest filing a bug report and when they reply, offer to send them the portfolio you're using. That will let them load it into the simulator software and determine what the memory footprint looks like. I tried sending them the crash logs from my iPad (they're supposed to be sent by Apple automatically if the feature is turned on, but I was told those haven't been terribly helpful) but never heard anything back on them. As a programmer, I expect they could be very useful IIF LW are using the exact same software image, but I don't know much about Obj-C or its environment, so maybe not?
 
Azhrei said:
I've worked with Colen and crew to help identify iPad issues. He indicated that very large portfolios can be an issue as the software keeps everything in ram. Lately (last 6 months or so?), I've been able to open portfolios with 15 characters in them without the app crashing on my iPad Air, but it used to be pretty bad. (I do my test builds on the iPad, so I'll create a 1st level PC, then copy it to a new one and level that one up to 2nd. And so on, until I get to about 15th level.)

Sorry, not very helpful, I know. I suggest filing a bug report and when they reply, offer to send them the portfolio you're using. That will let them load it into the simulator software and determine what the memory footprint looks like. I tried sending them the crash logs from my iPad (they're supposed to be sent by Apple automatically if the feature is turned on, but I was told those haven't been terribly helpful) but never heard anything back on them. As a programmer, I expect they could be very useful IIF LW are using the exact same software image, but I don't know much about Obj-C or its environment, so maybe not?
Click to expand...

Thing is, the iPad Pro has the A9X processor which comes with 4 GB of RAM. I was monitoring RAM and CPU usage, and both were well under max. CPU would spike on portfolio load but RAM only went up to 2.5ish GB used at any point in time. As for crash reports, there are none. The app just closes to desktop. There is no notification of a crash or prompt. The app instantly ceases to be running anymore similar to how things behave in Windows when you force kill a process. *poof* gone, no passing of Go or collecting $200.

Plus, admittedly, I didn't find the report bug thing until after I submitted the post, but I have submitted one.
 
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For myself when it closes suddenly it means its a memory or pointer exception and the OS closes down the offending app. You will be able to find the crash logs for these in Settings->Privacy->Diagnotics and Usage->Diagnotics and Usage Data->Then look for HL Play app and the current date and time.

Then you have to COPY all the data, and least on iOS 9 I couldn't get select all to work, and paste it into the email for support.

The issue that I know of that is still left to be fixed is the Search bug. If you do a search in feats or magic items. And you spend too long reading the text the app just closes down. :(
 
ShadowChemosh said:
For myself when it closes suddenly it means its a memory or pointer exception and the OS closes down the offending app. You will be able to find the crash logs for these in Settings->Privacy->Diagnotics and Usage->Diagnotics and Usage Data->Then look for HL Play app and the current date and time.

Then you have to COPY all the data, and least on iOS 9 I couldn't get select all to work, and paste it into the email for support.

The issue that I know of that is still left to be fixed is the Search bug. If you do a search in feats or magic items. And you spend too long reading the text the app just closes down. :(
Click to expand...

That very well could be it. It always happens when I'm on some screen choosing items from a list (gear, spells, etc.) but it happens even when I leave the search blank and just scroll the list.
 
I hadn't heard of that one; thanks for mentioning it.

And this is why customers ask for some transparency with the bug database. :D
 
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