Generating Mission Preview
Ever since I updated my iPad 11 Pro to IOS version 17.0.3 the mission preview stops generating after about 8 to 10 times or so. Sometimes it won’t generate at all and I’ve tried with Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Sometimes they will work but eventually they all stop generating. It’s not the ArcGIS preview window error it’s actually not generating anything and just goes back to the mission. All of my other iPads and iPhones are still using IOS version 16.7.2 and they all work as usual with any browser. I have tried many different ways to see if I could figure out why over the last couple weeks and it keeps coming back to the newest IOS version 17.0.3. Apple support says I need to contact the third party app developer.
After much testing and attempts to figure it out I surprisingly found one way it does always work. I rarely use the mission planer within the DL Native app but thought I try it. If I’m not mistaken the DL Native app still uses the devices default browser when using the mission planner which in my case is Safari. If so then when I generate any mission it always loads the preview as usual and I’ve tried about 100 times maybe more over the past couple hours without any Issue. I even tried with the Safari browser until it stopped loading after several attempts then went into the mission planner within the Native app and it still works every time. So it seems when using any browser with my iPad 11 Pro, M2 using the newer IOS version 17.03 it started having this issue. I did just update yesterday to IOS version 17.1 in hope that something was fixed but still the same issue. I obviously have no idea on how software works and why it does work perfectly when using the mission planer within the Native app but hopefully it may help to diagnose the issue if it is in fact a DL issue. If not please key me know so I can contact Apple support for further assistance. Thanks.
Comments
6 comments
Thanks for the report. My guess is the embedded web view is using and older version of webkit (the underlying tech behind all those browsers). It has been a known issue that the browser will give up / run out of memory after many mission previews for years, so this looks like it has just gotten worse (meaning it happens after fewer previews). In the end our guess is that it is probably memory pressure and ultimately we will have to figure out what (if anything) the browser is hanging on to from previous previews, but for now the solution is to just refresh the tab every so often.
Understood. I have tried refreshing the tab but sometimes it still doesn’t work. Now that you have mentioned the refreshing of the tab I do remember on many occasions over the years that when generating a preview it would sometimes stop generating the mission preview and refresh the tab automatically so it does make sense. I’ll keep trying that and see if it helps. It is strange though that it’s only with my iPad 11 Pro since the IOS update. Makes me think there may be something in the software update which is causing this to happen a lot now but not with any of my several other Apple devices. Anyway, I appreciate the info and will just deal with it one way or another. Life is too short to worry about the small stuff. Thanks Jim.
I have tried again many times to refresh the tab over and over but still won’t load. I even closed the tab and reopened a tab and still no luck. I even closed the tab, closed Firefox then shut down my iPad and powered back on. Even then when I go into DL it still doesn’t work. To me it sounds like something in the newer IOS version which is effecting it. It’s the only device which doesn’t work as all the several other devices work as usual on previous versions. If there is anything you can eventually help with then great but it does seem like it is only the newer IOS version which if it is then I believe they will need to look into it. At this point I’ll need to contact Apple to see if they can help.Thanks Jim.
I contacted Apple support and as I expected they say they will look into it but did say I’d need to contact Dronelink. They believe the only thing which can fix the issue is DL somehow updating the web app to work with the newer IOS version. Big surprise…. They said they will forward the information and diagnostics to the Apple tech department. They also had me take my iPad to Best Buy where they did a more in depth diagnostics. In the end they said there was nothing wrong with any hardware on my device. They tried several things to get it to work but everything they did was the same as I had already tried. I do realize even if there is anything you can as mentioned it could take a good amount of time and effort. At this point I’ll just use a browser to work on plans then use the mission planner to run the mission previews which always works. I was hoping that it could at least help to narrow down as to why it works within the Native app but not with any actual browser. Since refreshing the tab as suggested doesn’t work to clear out previous previews as you mentioned maybe some of this info will help. I don’t expect anything at this point especially since I’m the only one reporting this and I understand. I can still confirm it is only with my iPad 11 Pro with the newer IOS version 17 as all other 5 IOS devices work without issues on the previous version. It just means I can never update to version 17 on any of my other devices unless something changes. Just some follow up with some information which probably won’t help but one way or another I’ll get by. Thanks for listening Jim. Best regards to you and the DL team.
Sorry to bother you an again about this but I found a simple solution. I’m sure you may understand more them me but if I switch to private browsing in Firefox it works. I’m guessing since it doesn’t keep stuff like temporary files, form data and all the other history, website data etc. it is allowing it work. I’ve tried may times removing all history, cache, cookies website data etc. in Firefox but it has never worked so must be something else when in Private Browsing. If it helps for future updates and even if there is anything you can do then great. If not then at least I found a simple solution for now. Maybe this will help in the future with other IOS user if they encounter this problem particularly with IOS 17 version or any other device or PC if they encounter this issue for any reason. Thanks for listening.
An update for any other IOS user which may experience this issue. After receiving no assistance from Apple and blaming it on DL they pushed out another IOS software update to version 17.2 and now it works perfectly and actually seems like it works better than before because I tried over and over without it refreshing the tab about 40 times. Anyway, if you do encounter any issue generating the mission preview in any of the browsers I’d suggest using version 17.2 at this point. Enjoy.
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