ODK Collect error: There was a crash last time the app was running. setspan (21...29) ends beyond length 28"

Support
,
1

1. What is the issue? Please be detailed.

We are using ODK Collect for our survey data collection. The team has been using ODK Collect for data collection over one week. Yesterday, after the data collection was completed and the data was about to be sent to the server (ODK Central), our enumerator received this message on their tablet: "There was a crash last time the app was running. setspan (21...29) ends beyond length 28".
Will restarting the tablet lead to us losing the data on the tablet?

2. What steps can we take to reproduce this issue?

3. What have you tried to fix the issue?
Nothing.

4. Upload any forms or screenshots you can share publicly below.

WhatsApp Image 2023-03-07 at 02.57.47 (1)
WhatsApp Image 2023-03-07 at 02.57.47 (1)756×1008 33.8 KB

2

Hi @Gabi
Thanks for reporting the issue. In order to help use identify the root cause please answer a few questions:

  1. When exactly does the crash happen? When you open the list of forms to send and try to upload them?

  2. Does the crash takes place again and again when you reopen the app?

  3. Does that happen no matter what type of forms you are trying to send? (If you have just instances of one form you can't tell).

No. I'm pretty sure nothing like that will happen.

3

Hi @Gabi,
Please can you help us to understand a few things?

  1. Are you self-hosting or on ODK Central?
  2. At what point in the use of the app that you usually experience this?
  3. What is the size of your form?
  4. Can you share your xlsform for a review?
4

Got a little more direct communication from @Gabi that I wanted to share here!

It sounds like the crash happened on the form finalization screen. The enumerator was eventually able to finalize and send the form that this happens on and my understanding is that it only happened once.

We do see a few similar crashes in crash logs but nothing systematic. I think unless it happens again we don't need to follow up. I know it doesn't feel great but sometimes there are strange interactions between Android and Collect that cause one-time crashes. We see them more now because of the loading crash screen but they're not necessarily a sign of a bug in Collect.

5

Yeah, I found it in our crash reports and also googled a bit to find more info and it seems like a bug in one of the material components. I will keep an eye on it.

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