Utterly OT: DoSAT, please help me out. :-/

Subject: Utterly OT: DoSAT, please help me out. :-/
Author: Huinesoron
Posted on: 2021-10-16 16:45:56 UTC

My phone has picked up a really weird issue with displaying symbols the last couple of weeks - so weird that I don't know how to describe it in order to get useful search results. So since I know we've got a decent techie contingent here, I thought I'd try asking.

This is what Twitter looks like right now:

No Comment/Like/Retweet symbols. The symbol for making a post is gone. Emojis are mostly gone, but leave random bits - this is what I screencapped, so you can see things like the fish eyes and most of the yacht are still there. Faces show up as yellow circles or not at all; red flags just show the flagpole; the poop emoji (Twitter is classy) showed only the face, not the background.

And no, it's not just Twitter. Search icons are vanishing - here's Wikipedia, with the search invisible in the top bar. Wikipedia has also lost the drop-down arrows for opening sections. Some mobile game adverts turn the X to close them invisible. Stuff like that.

I would really love to know what's going on, and, ideally, how I can make it stop. :-/

(The Board, so far as I can tell, is fine. The Wiki has a blank yellow bar across the top.)

Reply Return to messages

Utterly OT: DoSAT, please help me out. :-/ by Huinesoron on 2021-10-16 16:45:56 UTC

Less OT, also graphics-related: Please pardon my dust on the wiki. by Neshomeh on 2021-10-21 20:24:50 UTC Reply

I'm trying to get to grips with the new theme editor, but expectations and reality are not matching well. I've started a thread about this at Community Central, if you want to see what I mean.

For the record, I'm not in love with the "single row of flash patches" header design, but I can hardly come up with a better one if I don't know how it's going to look in practice, so just working with that old idea while I figure things out. Other options could be something with a portal, tiled cacti, sunflowers, [your suggestions here]... We can have either a header or a whole-page background image, but not both. Beats me why.

At least I was able to get the original, whole sunflower logo up there.

~Neshomeh didn't feel this needed a new thread.

Actually, feedback requested! by Neshomeh on 2021-10-23 15:12:44 UTC Reply

It seems like the issue I'm having with the header image resolves when I log out. Could some of you please take a look at the wiki while logged in and while logged out, and let me know if you have the same experience?

Thanks!

~Neshomeh

It looks the same to me both ways by Thoth on 2021-10-23 21:52:39 UTC Reply

But I'm kind of notoriously unobservant on this sort of thing, so I might have missed it.

Does it look like "expectations" or "reality" from the thread I linked? (nm) by Neshomeh on 2021-10-24 04:37:12 UTC Reply

No, it does not. XD by Huinesoron on 2021-10-24 10:08:09 UTC Reply

First up, I don't know if you've tried to do anything different with Dark Mode, but (whether logged in or not) that one looks like this:

(The one difference: when logged out, the side-bar is yellow, not black.)

Going back to Light Mode, while logged out, it looks like this:

Which is how you want it to look, right? It hasn't even chopped the top off! But when I log in, it turns into this:

Which is indeed your "reality" version.

But!

When I then switch to Dark Mode and back to Light - still logged in - it goes back to this:

And seems to have stayed fixed when I closed the tab and reopened! Is there, uh, any possibility you just have the wrong version cached? ^_^;

(In all modes, the header is fixed in place at the top of the screen, while the content scrolls in front of it. It's not immediately obvious, because it does move up and down with the page to accomodate the top ad.)

hS

Ach, dark mode. by Neshomeh on 2021-10-24 15:44:39 UTC Reply

I did notice that (on a different device, logged out), just haven't gotten around to doing anything about it yet. It's still using the old page background image, which is not suited to the current Fandom layout, hence the need for something new.

As for the rest, I managed to fix the problem for myself by means I don't really understand. I restored my account preferences to default, which apparently did nothing. Then I set my preferences back the way I want them, and suddenly everything was fine—it looks for me like it does for you (which is the intention for now, yes). Returning my preferences to default again did not unfix it.

So yeah, since it wasn't just me, my best guess is that Fandom was caching some old setting, and either toggling modes or messing with preferences can make it update properly. It's very odd!

~Neshomeh

The haunted box of sand does it again. by Huinesoron on 2021-10-24 20:56:02 UTC Reply

Given how utterly logical they are, it's astounding how often computer problems are fixed by "means I don't really understand". ^_^

For completeness: Chrome on mobile currently doesn't show any background, just the white; and Internet Explorer also shows white, and crashes when I hit the Dark Mode button. :D I don't think that's Fandom's fault, though.

hS

Hmm... by Thoth on 2021-10-17 01:35:06 UTC Reply

First off, iPhone or Android? That changes stuff.

As for what's actually causing it... uh... hmm. All the vanishing stuff seems to be vector graphics (I might be wrong about that, but it seems to be the case) and text isn't effected despite also being vectors (usually of a different type). But it does effect emojis partially, which are treated like text except when they're not.

I'm not super sure how to go about fixing this (I have no clue if the classic "turn it off and on again" would even work, and I'm assuming you've given that a go already...). Honestly, I'm just as baffled as you as to what's causing it. Try clearing out your caches? Maybe something's been corrupted.

...Hang on, is twitter the website or the app? Because if all of this is happening in the browser and not in the app, it might be a browser bug and not a system bug.

Either way, this is a weird problem.

Right, so yes. by Huinesoron on 2021-10-17 09:17:26 UTC Reply

I'm on Android, Twitter is in the browser, and apparently something's gotten borked with Chrome. Uninstalling all browser updates fixed the issue, but letting it reinstall them created it again. So either there's a /really stupid/ setting somewhere... or they broke Chrome and haven't got round to fixing it for weeks.

Could it be that Twitter renders its emojis as text-type overlaid with vectors? I don't even know how that would work, but they're clearly doing /something/ weird.

hS

It's possible the vector rendering is only partly borked by Thoth on 2021-10-17 22:13:15 UTC Reply

But yeah, I think it's very possible that Twitter's rendering the emojis as vectors to ensure uniformity across platforms.

If chrome is borked... hmm... You can using firefox, I guess? I don't know how to unbork chrome totally, sorry.

What might help dislodge this, off the top of my head by Tomash on 2021-10-20 03:09:10 UTC Edited Reply

Between each of these, reboot the phone just to be safe

1) Clear Chrome's cache (this'll likely be under Settings -> [Apps] -> [selecting Chrome])

2) Clearing Chrome's user data (same place)

3) Scanning for any sort of "system web view" in the apps list (that was a thing in older Android) and doing steps 1 and 2 to its entry

4) Opening up Chrome's entry in the Play Store. If there're any updates, install them. If not, there might be a thing that lets you uninstall updates (depending on how your phone is) or to uninstall Chrome entirely.

5) Failing all that, finding out how to get your phone into recovery mode and wiping the cache partition. Note: it's important to just wipe the caches, as wiping any other partition will partially or totally reset your phone.

So here's where we're at: by Huinesoron on 2021-10-22 08:01:15 UTC Reply

Steps 1 & 2 followed - no change (though lots of re-accepting terms and conditions). Step 3 not strictly follow-able, but I wiped the data on various Google services. No change.

Step 4: Chrome was up to date. Uninstalling updates makes it work properly. Reinstalling them breaks it again. So for now, I've just turned off auto-updates. I'll reinstall them in a month and see if they've fixed it yet.

Given that I still think it's also affecting close buttons on ads in games, my best guess is that there's some sort of image handler which has broken, which older versions of Chrome didn't call on. But I could be miles off.

Given that it's currently working, I'll hold off on Recovery Mode for now, but keep it on file for Next Time.

Thanks!

hS