helpp - app failing! Network Error?

Hey Appsheet Experts - over the last several weeks, I've started experiencing with increasing frequency situations where my users are getting stuck in an inability to sync or make any changes. The system says Network Connection or Not Connected, even though I know the connection is fine. We try to clear the errors, reload the app, and occasionally they've been able to get the app functioning again, but increasingly my users are fully stuck with an app that is unable to sync any changes at all, rendering the app totally unusable. Once a user is in this situation, even their attempts don't seem to generate any logs of any kind. I now have 3 people completely stuck in this situation.

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HELP! @Steve @AleksiAlkio 

 

Please Help!  

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I have been developing apps in AppSheet for over 6 years,  I have never seen the errors formatted in that manner before.  Are you sure they are coming from AppSheet?

What happens when you tap the "View error details" button

I've been getting the popup dialogue box that either says "Not Connected" or "Network Connectivity". I've been doing this for a long time and never been in this situation either. @Joseph_Seddik  or @TeeSee1  - you guys ever seen this? 

I have not seen any of this particular error though my exposure to the platform is super limited because I am just a hobbyist.

Does this happen only for a couple of  users?  Is the app working fine for others?

started with 1 user, then another user, then another. A few users have had the issue sporadically.

But for most of the users the app works fine?

I was able to reproduce the error on my PC, opening a form, did some change, then before saving the form I disabled the Wifi. Expectedly I got a similar error. 

The problem was after the connection was restored (enabling Wifi), the app continued to show the error. Attempts by the user to manually synchronize the app do NOT get through and the error remains. It seems that the only way to sync the changes is to leave the app to perform a usual automatic sync in the next sync cycle (up to 30 minutes). Automatic sync was able to write the changes successfully. 

Although there have been no data loss, the impact of this behavior on the user would surely be compounded in case of low-quality unstable connections. 

I believe this behavior constitutes a bug that should be corrected. 

I made the same test with Android and for me it syncs right a way when the WiFi is switched ON. Did you test with iPhone?


@Joseph_Seddik wrote:

on my PC


.. with the new Desktop UI

 

yes, this is a persistent issue across multiple locations, though seems most prevalent at our main location because that's where the most usage and users are. I don't believe we have any network issues at the main location, as we have 4 VOIP phones, other computers, and other devices (~10-20 total, 100 devices supported per mesh point) all running on the same Wifi network in a small office utilizing Google Nest Wifi Mesh.

Every time this error happens we lose the changes, and the user is stuck. It seems to get unstuck they can reset the changes, log out, clear cache, and log back in. The issue seems to come back though and it's unpredictable, meaning you pretty much can't use the system for original data entry or there's a risk you lose the data permanently.

I tried turning off Desktop Mode and still having the same problem in the classic desktop view mode.

error while trying to sync, stuckerror while trying to sync, stuck

It is not a network "issue", it is network "QoS settings".

Also, try using a different browser, I'd recommend Brave and Vivaldi, both are Chromium-based like Chrome but fare better than Chrome. 

I am now getting this error more and more regularly across all users.  Everyone experiencing issues is using our apps on the desktop UI on Edge and Chrome. We have no issues with iphone or android mobile app or on any mobile browsers. As far as I can tell the internet connection is fast and reliable because we have VOIP phones and plenty of other devices running on the same network without any problems. Screenshot 2024-06-11 123333.pngScreenshot 2024-06-11 123308.png

 

As a network engineer, I'd tell you that when you have VoIP and other real-time services then it is very possible your networks' policies are prioritizing them over regular browser traffic. It might be good to check whether it is possible to assign a higher QoS to AppSheet's traffic. 

Manage IP addresses and firewall information - AppSheet Help


@Joseph_Seddik wrote:

I was able to reproduce the error on my PC, opening a form, did some change, then before saving the form I disabled the Wifi. Expectedly I got a similar error. 

The problem was after the connection was restored (enabling Wifi), the app continued to show the error. Attempts by the user to manually synchronize the app do NOT get through and the error remains. It seems that the only way to sync the changes is to leave the app to perform a usual automatic sync in the next sync cycle (up to 30 minutes). Automatic sync was able to write the changes successfully. 

Although there have been no data loss, the impact of this behavior on the users' experience would surely be compounded in case of low-quality unstable connections. 

I believe this behavior constitutes a bug that should be corrected.


@lizlynch @Arthur_Rallu 

Would you please check this behavior with the new Desktop UI? I believe it's a bug that should be investigated.  

@Nick_Haschka 

Would you please open a ticket with support so that AppSheet team can track this problem?

Thank you all!

I could repro. Thank you for tagging me here. 

Now getting this at our other company as well. Hundreds of unsynced changes and stuck users in a mission critical system. Please escalate, this has to be fixed as it is absolutely crippling. 

Hi @Nick_Haschka 
We rolled out a fix so this should work now. Users need to sync their app one more time to get the updated behavior on their app. 

Thank you for reporting this. 
@Joseph_Seddik Thanks again for tagging me on this!