App seems generally unstable and crashes often

[rhhsm]

I noticed in the last 3 days (from 11th March) that the app crashes often, without a clear reason.
I've not used the app for longer surveys until 11th, and did not notice any problem. The last 3 days, I spent an afternoon each surveying a city environment (lots of shops added, opening hour quests, etc.) and collected 400+ edits/day. During that, the app crashed approx. 8-10 times: I haven't noticed any clear pattern of when exactly it crashes. Sometimes it's after completing an opening hours quest, sometimes while zooming the map, etc. When restarting the app, the data I was entering was usually saved, but the map position on restart was often from where it was a couple of minutes before the crash. The app seemed to slow down before the crash came. Today, the first crash was after about 120 quests, subsequent crashes then happened more frequently (i.e. it seemed to be a matter of time before the next crash came). Between yesterday and today I restarted my phone (Motorola G24), but this didn't help.

The log from just after the second crash today is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z5m4GXVwIR7khNlJp5AhMMsvUhrNP9Mq/view?usp=sharing

How to Reproduce
No clear way to reproduce

Expected Behavior
App doesn't crash

Versions affected
SC 60.2, Android 14

[mcliquid]

Exciting! I noticed that too. I use SCEE, and since I have not yet found a way to reliably reproduce the problem, I have not yet received an error message. But your text sounds exactly like mine. In fact, I noticed the crashing behavior as early as March 9th, using SCEE 60.2.
How it manifested itself in my case: I was on a long bike ride where I had my phone attached to the handlebars and kept answering quests. The display always stays on. Every time I looked at my phone, the app was gone and I saw the home screen. Clicking on the app icon restarted the app. No error message was displayed. The debug log reader was empty. It must have to do with the amount of data and tasks, it doesn't happen with smaller sessions. I am not aware of anything else so far.

[rusty-snake]

Linking Helium314#741 (comment) in case it is useful.

[Helium314]

No error message points towards a MapLibre native crash (was upgraded to 11.8.2 for SC 60.2).
Can you use logcat to read the logs?
@mcliquid that's the log you see in Android Studio. If you know roughly when SC crashed, you should be able to find something. Maybe you need to disable the default filter for showing only SC messages.

[mcliquid]

Can you use logcat to read the logs?

I tried, but will I make it back by March 9? I only get the current log, but the last crash was during the bike ride. So far, I haven't been able to reproduce it because I didn't have that many unuploaded quests.

---

But I think I was able to reproduce it actually. I had downloaded a lot of data beforehand, then I answered exactly 120 quests when the app crashed. What was already noticeable before that: All animations are extremely slow and delayed. You answer a quest in the overlay, and it takes a noticeable few milliseconds for the color to update. Does that help?
(I have a Google Pixel 8 Pro with the newest Android 15 update and SCEE 60.2)

2025-03-13 22:39:36.810  8759-18364 OsmQuestController      de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  Created 3 quests for 1 updated elements in 91ms
2025-03-13 22:39:36.823  8759-18364 OsmQuestController      de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  Persisted 3 new and removed 1 already resolved quests in 0.0s
2025-03-13 22:39:36.830  8759-18364 VisibleQuestsSource     de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  added [OsmQuestKey(elementType=WAY, elementId=323762091, questTypeName=AddBuildingLevels), OsmQuestKey(elementType=WAY, elementId=323762091, questTypeName=AddRoofShape)], deleted: [OsmQuestKey(elementType=WAY, elementId=323762091, questTypeName=AddBuildingType)]
2025-03-13 22:39:36.841  8759-18364 EditHistoryController   de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  history: add edit BuildingsOverlay for [WAY#323762091]
2025-03-13 22:39:36.848  8759-8759  MainActivity            de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  edited: BuildingsOverlay
2025-03-13 22:39:36.848  8759-8759  MainActivity            de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  closeBottomSheet while showing WAY#323762091
2025-03-13 22:39:36.883  8759-8759  WindowOnBackDispatcher  de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  W  sendCancelIfRunning: isInProgress=false callback=androidx.activity.OnBackPressedDispatcher$Api34Impl$createOnBackAnimationCallback$1@6bb391e
2025-03-13 22:39:37.942  8759-18118 scudo                   de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  Scudo ERROR: internal map failure (error desc=Out of memory)
2025-03-13 22:39:37.942  8759-18166 scudo                   de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  Scudo ERROR: internal map failure (error desc=Out of memory)
2025-03-13 22:39:37.942  8759-18120 scudo                   de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  Scudo ERROR: internal map failure (error desc=Out of memory)
2025-03-13 22:39:37.943  8759-18119 libc                    de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  W  malloc(6144) failed: returning null pointer
2025-03-13 22:39:37.944  8759-8759  libc                    de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  W  malloc(96) failed: returning null pointer
2025-03-13 22:39:37.944  8759-18121 libc                    de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  W  malloc(72) failed: returning null pointer
2025-03-13 22:39:37.944  8759-18117 libc                    de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  W  malloc(240) failed: returning null pointer
2025-03-13 22:39:37.944  8759-18118 libc                    de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  A  Fatal signal 6 (SIGABRT), code -1 (SI_QUEUE) in tid 18118 (Worker 2), pid 8759 (te.expert.debug)
2025-03-13 22:39:38.414  8759-8759  libc++abi               de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  E  terminating due to uncaught exception of type std::bad_alloc: std::bad_alloc
2025-03-13 22:39:38.576  8759-18121 AndroidRuntime          de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  E  FATAL EXCEPTION: RenderThread 505
                                                                                                    Process: de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert.debug, PID: 8759
                                                                                                    java.lang.Error: std::bad_alloc
                                                                                                    	at org.maplibre.android.maps.renderer.MapRendererRunnable.run(Native Method)
                                                                                                    	at org.maplibre.android.maps.renderer.surfaceview.MapLibreGLSurfaceView$GLThread.guardedRun(MapLibreGLSurfaceView.java:515)
                                                                                                    	at org.maplibre.android.maps.renderer.surfaceview.MapLibreSurfaceView$RenderThread.run(MapLibreSurfaceView.java:284)
2025-03-13 22:39:38.605  8759-18121 Process                 de....t.streetcomplete.expert.debug  I  Sending signal. PID: 8759 SIG: 9
---------------------------- PROCESS ENDED (8759) for package de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert.debug ----------------------------

[rhhsm]

I had my phone attached to the handlebars and kept answering quests. The display always stays on. Every time I looked at my phone, the app was gone and I saw the home screen.

This sounds like it crashed also while you were not using it? For me it only crashed while I was doing something in it. There was never any error message. I don't have much IT expertise, but it seemed like the app could be generating garbage that was filling the memory and crashed when memory was full. Restarting the app, some memory was cleared, but soon filled again. I also noticed that when starting the app, it usually shows the map at the position where it was last closed, but after a crash, the latest map position at which the app crashed was lost and a position a few minutes earlier was shown. The results of the solved quests between that map position and the one where the app crashed were not lost though, except sometimes the very last quest answer.

I plan to go surveying again this afternoon: if there's anything I can do to make it easier to solve this, let me know.

[matkoniecz]

Is it still happening when you downgrade app? (remember to upload quests and backup preset list if these are valuable for you before uninstalling if that would be needed)

Can you maybe identify specific oldest version when it started to happen?

(I had similar trouble in past, turned out to be a first sign of phone dying)

[matkoniecz]

it seemed like the app could be generating garbage that was filling the memory and crashed when memory was full

sadly, that is only one of reasons why app may crash in such way

though given that it happens only on some devices it is likely something more specific that SC having general memory allocation issues

[rhhsm]

Is it still happening when you downgrade app? (remember to upload quests and backup preset list if these are valuable for you before uninstalling if that would be needed)

I'd rather not go through all that trouble

Can you maybe identify specific oldest version when it started to happen?

It only happens after >100 quests solved, which I haven't reached recently until this week. I'm on manual upload, maybe that matters? I could try if manually uploading after every 100 quests helps? Could having an internet connection or not make a difference (I was on mobile Internet)?

(I had similar trouble in past, turned out to be a first sign of phone dying)

My phone is less than a year old.

[mcliquid]

This sounds like it crashed also while you were not using it?

Both as well. Last Sunday, the app crashed more than 10 times. Sometimes when I was using it, sometimes just when I was running it in the background. As I said, I haven't been able to reproduce it according to a specific pattern so far. But it seems to have something to do with the amount of data, the app slows down and then crashes.

Is it still happening when you downgrade app?

It's hard to say whether this is the case or not. I can't always reproduce it under the latest version. Yesterday I had to answer 120 quests before it crashed. After that, I answered another 270 quests and nothing happened. I suspect it's an iterative process over several sessions that lead to the crash.

Can you maybe identify specific oldest version when it started to happen?

I always update my version on the same day as it is released here in GitHub. And it has never happened with any previous version. Of course, that doesn't rule it out 100%.

(I had similar trouble in past, turned out to be a first sign of phone dying)

It would be incredibly sad if a device manufactured in 2024 with 12 GB of RAM is no longer sufficient for StreetComplete 😮

[Langlaeufer]

You don't need to solve tasks or edit anything with scee 60.2 to get it crashed.
Simply move with open app while continuously loading new data and it will crash after some km of moving.
for me it seams to be a memory issue.

I reproduced it twice (without editing). Start, the app, clear the cache, start moving with current position fixed.

[Langlaeufer]

I couldn't reproduce it by repeatedly downloading data manually.
Could this also be an issue with auto-map center/rotation?
maybe it could be related to the changes of @mnalis

[matkoniecz]

It would be incredibly sad if a device manufactured in 2024 with 12 GB of RAM is no longer sufficient for StreetComplete 😮

I was rather thinking about phone device dying (due to some hardware failure, not due to having insufficient specs)

For me SC works fine on 4GB RAM phone from 2020

[rhhsm]

Simply move with open app while continuously loading new data and it will crash after some km of moving.

That would suggest it is proportional to the distance you move while the app is open and loading new data. My surveys in the last 3 days were over a distance of only 1-1.5 km. This area
And that without an Internet connection, no new data can be loaded and it won't happen?

[rhhsm]

I remember now that on 5th March, I surveyed out of a moving train and from the bus to Eindhoven airport (using the slow public wifi; it was struggling to load map data as fast as the bus was moving). Total quests was probably well over a 100, but no crash. I did manually upload a few times.