Is anyone else having problems with dropdown boxes on Android Browser or Android Chrome recently?
Here on meta, and also on another hosted Discourse site, when I try to open any dropdown box on Discourse, such as changing the tracking level of a thread, the software keyboard pops up, then the dropdown opens and closes, then the keyboard closes again. This all happens in less than 1 second, and I can’t use the dropdowns at all… which is also why this post remains ‘uncategorized’. (see edit below)
I’ve tried this with 3 different software keyboards, and they all behave the same. Dropdowns seem to be working fine on other websites. I don’t know how long this has been an issue since I don’t use the various dropdowns very often while on mobile.
I’m on android 7.1.2 (OS updates disabled), and Chrome (updates enabled). I’ve tried the standard Google keyboard, and a couple others.
[edit: with some extremely fast tapping, I’ve at least managed to recategorize this under ‘support’. I couldn’t even read the categories since they flashed by so fast.]
Refer to @joffreyjaffeux as needed
1 Like
Do you still have this issue? it is supposed to be fixed since yesterday.
2 Likes
Yes, still experiencing this. I cleared browser cache to make sure that wasn’t contributing.
Can you confirm you are experiencing this on meta.discourse.org ?
Yes, I’m seeing it right now on my tablet.
what’s your tablet please, I can’t reproduce on any android device.
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
Android 7.1.2 (LineageOS, OS updates turned off, so not a recent change)
Tested with the standard Android keyboard, Hacker’s Keyboard, and a Japanese keyboard
Chrome 62.0.3202.84
I’m currently testing the issue on the ‘Watching’ dropdown on this thread.
1 Like
Interesting…
I just realized, the behavior is a little different.
As soon as I tap the dropdown, the page scrolls up a few inches, so the dropdown scrolls offscreen (it had been doing that before), but now the keyboard stays open. I can scroll down to the dropbox, but it’s closed, so I still can’t change the value. But (on Hacker’s keyboard) I can press the down arrow key, and the dropbox opens, and I can change values.
Further testing:
If I tap the dropdown (and it scrolls offscreen as the page automatically scrolls up), then press down key on keyboard, the dropdown scrolls back into view and the second item in the dropdown is selected. I take this to mean that the dropdown is remaining open after the initial touch, but it’s just scrolling offscreen.
To test that theory:
I pressed the dropdown, scrolled offscreen. I scrolled it back onscreen and it was closed.
I pressed the dropdown again, it scrolled offscreen. I pressed the down arrow, it scrolled back onscreen with the second option selected. I tried scrolling the screen, and the dropdown immediately closed (cancelling the selection). So, the dropdown technically seems to work properly, but it’s just the fact that it’s scrolling offscreen when opened, and trying to scroll it back onscreen is closing the dropdown.
When it scrolls offscreen, it’s like it’s trying to scroll up to the last post or something, though the behavior is similar on the settings screens last time I checked. So, I’m not really sure why it’s scrolling.
1 Like
I just checked the settings screen (‘notifications’), and the dropdowns there are still exhibiting the prior behavior: touch the dropdown, and it opens the dropdown, keyboard opens and closes and dropdown closes. So, one tap and both the keyboard and dropdown open-then-close.
I think I have vastly improved the situation, could you confirm please?
1 Like
Sorry for the delay… I was prepping some turkey for the oven.
Yes, a lot of improvement! The dropdown still scrolls off the bottom of the screen upon initial press, but now I can scroll down to it without it closing.
I’m guessing the scrolling is intended to make sure the selection box is fully on-screen when it opens? But if so, it’s scrolling the wrong direction.
If the dropdown button is near the bottom of the screen when I do the initial click, the selection box appears above the dropdown button, but the document scrolls upward so that the selections go off the bottom of the screen as the keyboard opens. (Speaking of… why does the keyboard even open? I know some selection boxes have a search box, but the tracking options don’t have a search box)
If the dropdown button is not near the bottom of the screen upon initial click, the selection box appears below the dropdown button (as expected), but again the document scrolls up, so the selections go off the bottom of the screen at the same time as the keyboard comes up. I’ll see if I can figure out a way to take a video of it, though I don’t think I’ll be able to do it today.
Honestly I can’t reproduce most of what you experience on any device, I expect something is different on your env on how focus is handled, I wanted to make sure it would be usable for you, but I won’t be able to make it perfect until I can reproduce.
No problem… I’m a software dev, too, so I definitely understand the one-off cases. I’m just not used to being the one experiencing it! lol
1 Like
By the way, can you point me to the source that drives the behavior? I can do some additional troubleshooting on my own if I can follow along with what’s supposed to be happening.
Are you sure you are running a stock Android Chrome browser with no strange plugins or unusual customizations?
My primary browser is Chrome, directly downloaded from Google Play store.
The stock browser is from the Open GApps project, which is “an open-source effort to script the automatic generation of up-to-date Google Apps packages.” It’s using “a Stock package that equals the set of applications found on the most current and complete Nexus”. Either way, I only used it to compare the experience against Chrome (it’s the same).
I don’t rule out the possibility that LineageOS might affect things at the OS driver level, though I’ve not yet seen anything to make me suspect so (unless this is that first evidence 
). I only use Lineage because Samsung dropped support for the Tab Pro series waaaay too early in favor of it’s near-immediate successor.
I may have access to a stock Nexus 7 today. I’ll see how it behaves w/ Chrome and stock browser.
This topic was automatically closed after 2 days. New replies are no longer allowed.