Experiencing touch offset issues replying on Android

This topic tries to explain

You start typing a reply and then at some point it seems like the box no longer recognises input properly. I find I can move the cursor around the input box but that’s it, no replies or anything. Seems to be resolved by either

  • klling all apps and reopening Chrome (the reply is saved)
  • switching to desktop and back

I wondered if it might have been connected to the recent JavaScript fix done around making sure the topic auto-positioned in the right place? Otherwise I’m unsure but when this is happening no other web aspects are affected on my phone (OnePlus 3) so I think it’s definitely just the site software.

Thanks in advance

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Needs much more info, what mobile browser version, what OS version, etc.

Also can you reproduce it here or on try.discourse.org because it’s possible there is some local CSS customization on that particular site which is behaving badly.

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Okay thanks,

I’ll attempt to make it happen there. Unfortunately it’s intermittent.

In terms of browser it seems to be Chrome on Android so far. My Android version 8.0.0 security patched to Dec 2017, with OxygenOS at 5.0.1

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I’ve reproduced this one intermittently quite a number of times on my Android Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge in Chrome. I reproduced it this morning, but after restarting the application, I could no longer replicate it.

Chrome 65.0.3325.109
Operating System 7.0.0 SM-G935F Build/NRD90M

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A lot of users on our instance are reporting this bug. We made a poll to target it. For the moment only android users, less than half of the voters. We use the stock mobile layout.

I have also experienced this intermittently here on meta using the discourse Android app (Galaxy S7, Marshmallow). I managed to work around it either by minimizing the editor and then maximizing it again or by reloading the page (can’t remember which one it was but I think it required a page reload).

Can you repro this at all @falco?

Nope, never had that. However I must admit that I compose big posts mostly in Desktop.

Was those using the “Samsung Internet” browser?

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One conclusion that I reached & forgot to write down is that it was happening more in Chrome Custom Tabs (i.e. from the app) as opposed to opening though the browser.

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Oh, maybe the extra navbar in the Chrome Custom Tab is throwing us a curve ball then.

I only use Discourse via the webapk, so I won’t get those.

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I was using Chrome, have never used any other browser on the device.

From our users (between 200 and 300 engaged users ) :
Since one update committed after the 25th of april (I don’t really know which) to the last update ( v2.1.0.beta1 +200) the bug didn’t happen. But since this last version update we have a lot of reports describing exactly the same behaviour.
Reply button doesn’t fire (as if something transparent was above). Once it happens, they said they need to relaunch the app (for the app users) or close tab and reopen a new one for browser users.
This was reported only on android with differents devices brands (Samsung, One+x,…)
Ha I forgot.

  • This NEVER happened to Admin or Moderators users. happend to admin (06-17)

  • We DID NOT tweak or customize the mobile ui with some extra CSS or JS.

  • Neither the cancel button (with the trashbin icon) or the upload button are triggerable.

  • Here is the list of our extensions :

  • The discourse ad plugin is activated for every users this can not cause the bug to be invisible for admins…

Not beeing able to reply on a forum is a huge issue, I really hope you will find a fix. Let me know if you need some extra informations or if I can help in some way.

I can confirm that I have not seen this behaviour for a while but it has come back here on meta in recent days (Using chrome on Android or the discourse app, which, I believe technically boils down to the same thing.)

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Ok, I have a better description of the issue.

The report says when this blue cursor appears, the ui is stuck. In fact this blue cursor is not focus in the editor but below (not really sure of that is below. The reporter says he can move the blue cursor) on an undefined text zone. The minimize-editor arrow works, but it doesn’t solve the issue.

@SnapGravy Is it detailed enough to create an issue on the github repo ?

This issue is problematic.
Please, can someone give me a script or just show me the way to track this bug ? I would like to understand on which DOM element they are clicking.

We need consistent repro steps to fix it. Give us repro steps.

We try our best but it seems unpredictable. Users just close their tabs, reopen it and this disapear. I tried to make a script to track this but i failed. I thinked to log the clicks of one trusted user to know which dom element is cliked when it appears.
some reporters are users who works in I.T. they didn’t yet find how to reproduce. Any advice is welcome

Since the phenomenon seems really hard to pin down, maybe this can help to limit the scope of possible causes?

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I can repro this consistently. Click reply on Android device running Oreo.

Click the text box to give focus.
Click topic title to navigate to top of topic
Click reply text box again for focus
Try composing reply.
Clicks have a weird offset. I generally have to click 2-3 lines below my intended target.

Navigate away from topic to another and eventually the click target is back to normal and you can tell it to reply to original post/topic. Or refresh the page

8 Likes

Okay a bit more info to reproduce.

Make sure to use a topic with 15ish posts.
Click reply on the topic
Enter a line or two of text
Click topic title in reply window
Quickly scroll to bottom
Topic progress should be “off” (you see 14 of 20 instead of 20 of 20)
Click in reply text box, offset should definitely happen.

(I’m struggling to hit reply right now using this technique)