Losing my place when rotating.

January 3, 2015 8:54 AM

Since the using the new themes, which I love, on my Nexus 5, whenever I rotate to landscape and then back to portrait I end up back at the top of threads.

I'm running Chrome 39.0.2171.93 in Android 5.0.1 Nexus 5 build LRX22C.
I just tried it again and I seems to jump to the top right when I rotate to landscape. It also does it even if I load to a specific comment.
Thanks

posted by Uncle to Bugs at 8:54 AM (32 comments total)

I think the behaviors are browser/OS specific. Sometimes it happens in iOS, but usually a reload brings me back. I'm not sure there's much we can do otherwise. If you did load a full comment permalink URL, you can hit refresh to reload it and jump down to the comment if you lose your place.

Have you tried any other browser (firefox, dolphin, default android) on your device to see if it behaves the same way?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:55 AM on January 3, 2015

Yeah, I also get this happening in Chrome, Android 4.4.4.

I don't have any other browsers on my device, but I noticed that it only seems to happen on MeFi. Other sites come back at the same place. I just turn rotation off if I'm reading a long thread...
posted by zennie at 9:43 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

This happened all the time on our Nexus 5s with chrome, but now that we have Nexus 6s it still happens on my phone but not my partners. It's annoying but now I'm more mindful of how I hold my phone.
posted by kendrak at 9:56 AM on January 3, 2015

Yeah, I've looked at this problem several times since we launched the new design and I haven't been able to find a solution on our end. My working theory now is that it's the heavier CSS footprint of the new design, and the switching media queries at the different screen width. My guess is that it takes too much memory to both hold the position on the page and redraw the page at the new width.

Since we launched we've been able to trim down the CSS quite a bit but that didn't solve this problem.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:15 AM on January 3, 2015

I recall that the new design header on mobile is what's causing it - the redraw of it for the new width makes the browser (or Chrome at least) lose its place. I've not tried other browsers on my HTC One. Chrome does NOT lose its place on my iPad when rotating, so maybe it's an Android-version thing?
posted by jazon at 10:42 AM on January 3, 2015

Happens to me intermittently with Chrome on a g2 Nexus 7 with Android 5.0.1 build LRX22C.

I find bending the corner down helps me keep my place.
posted by arcticseal at 10:57 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I get this on Chrome on my Nexus 4, running Lollipop.
posted by Aizkolari at 11:05 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sometimes it happens in iOS, but usually a reload brings me back.

Something else I do on iOS is clicking on another comment timestamp, then clicking back.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:20 PM on January 3, 2015

Well now I know my partner is still using the old design. Thanks for the info pb!
posted by kendrak at 2:25 PM on January 3, 2015

Yeah I have this problem too.

Also a handful of other issues that have been around since the launch and I'm not sure if they are in the to be fixed queue or not.

The major one is that the floating bar sits across the comment box while I am typing a comment, blocking part of what I'm typing. Screenshot here. I mentioned it in the original comments thread to the launch post, and I recall that other people had the same issue, but I completely understand if you haven't had a chance to get to it.

(Ipad. I think it happens on my android phone too though.)
posted by lollusc at 3:43 PM on January 3, 2015

I can't reproduce that one, lollusc. For me, as soon as I tap into the textarea the header goes away. For now, you might click the x at the far right to remove the header and then bring it back when you're done writing the comment.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:09 PM on January 3, 2015

I think this is a general problem with mobile Android (ie, it may not have as much to do with MetaFilter).

For example, if I open a different app or window, and then return to, say, a MetaFilter thread or a long magazine article, Chrome Android will often refresh and lose my place. It's highly irritating, but I don't think this is just a MetaFilter issue.
posted by Nevin at 6:23 PM on January 3, 2015

Firefox on Android doesn't appear to have the rotation problem (at least on my OnePlus One), but it makes up for it by being quite slow. A lot of it is due to the huge footprint of most web sites, not just Metafilter.
posted by meowzilla at 8:16 PM on January 3, 2015

i'm having a similar weird problem on iOS, but it relates to losing page position when going back. if i go from the front page of askme to a thread, and go back, and the thread was half way down the page, it'll correctly return me to the middle of the page.

this does NOT work anywhere on the blue or the grey, and going to any link within a thread and then back is a sure fire way to end up at the top of the page again. this is broken even if i had been linked to a specific comment from say recent activity. i have to refresh to get to the right position, or go back again to recent activity and select "since your comment" or the comment i was at.

this wasn't a problem in say, november. and it's really really annoying.
posted by emptythought at 9:03 PM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have the same problem as emptythought. It's maddening in threads like the 'under appreciated comments' one in MeTa right now. iOS 7, safari, iphone 4S.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:34 AM on January 4, 2015

I thought this was just me -- Chrome on KitKat on a Nexus 4.
posted by sparklemotion at 7:47 AM on January 4, 2015

sevenyearlurk and emptythought, you might try upgrading to the latest OS if you can. I can't duplicate that problem in iOS 8.1.2. Another option might be to check the "Open links in new windows?" option in your site preferences. That will open a new tab when you click away from a thread. Although if the phone doesn't have enough memory to keep the state of the previous tab you might find the same thing happening with the new tab method too.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:39 AM on January 4, 2015

Thanks for that suggestion, pb. Unfortunately it doesn't help, as once I have clicked on the little cross, I still get a bar doing exactly the same thing next time I try to comment, only without the cross to make it disappear anymore! Screenshot of new version of the problem.

I understand if you can't reproduce it there is nothing you can do about it, but it's strange because I haven't got any weird extensions or anything. It's just standard chrome on iOS.
posted by lollusc at 7:54 PM on January 5, 2015

sorry about the trouble, lollusc. Do you get the same problem if you flip into portrait orientation? If you tap out of the textarea can you reposition the header by scrolling up or down and then tapping back into the textarea?
posted by pb (staff) at 8:25 PM on January 5, 2015

PB, did you do something? I'm not having the problem anymore all of a sudden.
posted by lollusc at 10:06 PM on January 5, 2015

No, I'm testing out some potential solutions but I haven't pushed anything out to the site yet.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:18 PM on January 5, 2015

Well that is extremely weird. The problem seems to have disappeared. Maybe future you did it with time travel. In which case, thanks!
posted by lollusc at 3:49 AM on January 6, 2015

sevenyearlurk and emptythought, you might try upgrading to the latest OS if you can. I can't duplicate that problem in iOS 8.1.2.

Yep, it does it on 8.1.2 on an iphone 6.

Here's where it gets weird though. I can NOT replicate this issue on my ipad mini(1st gen, 512mb of ram) or my partners wheezing old ipad 3.

It seems to be a consistent thing on phones though. I might rustle up as many devices as i can and try a huge test. My work has ipod touch 5's running both ios 8 and 7. It's absolutely not an out-of-memory thing though, it only started after the new theme was applied(and i'm set to classic theme) and it seems to be OS version agnostic, if sevenyearlurk is having the issue on iOS 7 as well.

It is pretty weird though. With my ipad mini and my iphone side by side, i can load the same thread on both, scroll to the middle, load the same user profile and go back... and it screws up on one and not the other.
posted by emptythought at 4:27 AM on January 6, 2015

Thanks for sharing your testing, emptythought. I'm not sure it's consistent on phones—I can't duplicate it on my phone in testing. And I'm still not convinced memory isn't at play. You might check and see what apps are also running on phones vs. iPads in your test. It could be that your phones have more apps running and aren't able to devote as much memory to Mobile Safari.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:24 AM on January 6, 2015

I'd just like to point out that since I do most of my mefiing on phone these days I've given up reading long threads because of the portrait/landscape bug. It's too frustrating.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:34 AM on January 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have the same problem as emptythought on my iPhone 6 in classic with no other apps running. I lose my place and am returned to the top. The only way I can keep my place is if I'm not signed in. :(
posted by Swisstine at 11:48 PM on January 9, 2015

Which version of iOS are you running Swisstine? 8.1.2 seems to have fewer problems for people.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:40 PM on January 11, 2015

Ok i've messed around with this a lot more. This bug is SPECIFIC to safari. Which is weird, because all iOS browser apps are forced to use safaris engine.

But either way, i haven't once gotten it to happen in the iOS version of chrome.

Some weird interaction is happening here between mefi and safari. And i'm not really sure if it's a mefi bug, or a safari bug at this point. It's weird that it started happening on older iOS 7 versions that had previously been fine though...
posted by emptythought at 9:11 PM on January 11, 2015

Mine mostly resolved with the 8.1.2 update, now just happens if I have a lot of apps going... Which I can deal with!
posted by Swisstine at 9:50 PM on January 11, 2015

Or maybe I spoke too soon. Oh well, it isn't really a big deal!
posted by Swisstine at 10:05 PM on January 11, 2015

I have tried to duplicate your problem, emptythought, but the back button (or swiping right to go back) always takes me to my previous spot on the homepage in both MetaFilter and MetaTalk. I'm testing using Safari on iOS 8.1.2 on an iPhone 6, logged into my MeFi account, using the classic theme, and I have secure browsing disabled. In Safari I'm not in Private Browsing mode and I have JavaScript enabled. I can't think of any other Safari settings that could be causing problems.

I completely understand your annoyance. It would be very frustrating for me too. I'm just not sure what could be causing it on MeFi or Safari's end.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:34 AM on January 12, 2015

If I was having this problem I might long-tap on any link and open it in a new tab. Then when I'm ready to go back I'd click the switch tabs button in the lower right and close the current tab. It's not ideal but it might help.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:36 AM on January 12, 2015