Solved: Understanding Source of Crashes

BegeNCSU · ‎05-03-2019

I have an app ( ddd7fecf-c99d-47c3-a2c6-3c96fe427db3 ) that is mostly built off of an on-prem SQL gateway and uses galleries, dropdowns and checkboxes. I have users scattered around our city that use either iPhone 7 or iPad Air to run this app and they will report "crashes". Some of these crashes are true crashes which close the PowerApps application and some restart the app back to it's homescreen. Aside from a persistent issue where scrolling through a large gallery very quickly will cause a crash, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for the crashes.

Is there anything more I can do as an app author to help pinpoint what is going on or is this entirely out of my hands? Who can I get in touch with to help troubleshoot these issues with?

Mengping-Shawn · ‎06-13-2019

Hi @BegeNCSU

We've looked into your session and can confirm that your crash comes from loading too much things at once. There are a couple of things that you can try to reduce or avoid that:

1. can you check if Enhanced SaveData and LoadData option is enabled under App Setting -> Advanced Settings? That should ease memory consumption a bit and reduce memory-related crashes.

2. can you check if your apps loads a lot of screen at start? You can check that by clicking into App or any Screen in Tree view (please see my attached screenshot), and on the pannel on the right you can see those onStart, onVisible and onHidden Action. It's suggested that you only load the data you need and do clean up when leaving a Screen to the next.

3. If you are getting your data from SQL database or SharePoint, it's suggested that you get only the columns you need by specifying the column names with ShowColumn formula. For example: Collect(localcollection, ShowColumn(SQLData, “Tittle”, “Name”, “Account No”))

Thank you very much again for providing the Session IDs. We are currently working on optimizing memory issue and still don't have a clear ETA for the next improvement. We are sorry about any trouble this memory issue caused.

View solution in original post

Maxwell · ‎05-03-2019

Hi @BegeNCSU,
I'm sorry to hear that your users are experiencing crashes while using PowerApps. Generally, the behavior you're describing occurs due to memory limitations on the device. This is almost definitely what causes the consistent crashing when scrolling rapidly through a large gallery.

Unfortunately, I can't find any relevant information using the AppID you've provide. In situations like this, it's usually more helpful to get a SessionID from the impacted user. You can follow the instructions here in order to get a SessionID: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/get-sessionid#when-running-an-app-on-a-...

When trying to get a SessionID for a crash, we'll actually want the SessionID from after the crash. That is, the user should go through the following steps:

Experience the crash
Re-open PowerApps
Follow the instructions listed above in order to get the SessionID

In the meantime, I've reached out to some other folks on the PowerApps team about possible ways to optimize the memory usage of your app more generally. I'll be sure to let you know what I hear back from them.

-Maxwell

BegeNCSU · ‎05-03-2019

@Maxwell , thank you so much for the rapid response. I didn't know the session ID post-crash was helpful, I'll add that to our bug report form and hopefully I'll have some session IDs for you soon!

BegeNCSU · ‎05-06-2019

@Maxwell I've got my first crash report with a session ID of 9f47edf9-7f71-4968-9087-387c71e59062

BegeNCSU · ‎05-06-2019

And a second for you all, thanks for your work in resolving this!

e09c102f-4d17-4bc3-9c38-77635fbf57b9

ericonline · ‎05-06-2019

Hi @Maxwell ,

Please provide access to Session ID that does NOT require user interaction.

Example:

Create an App.SessionID property in PowerApps so we can automate some of the troubleshooting

Rationale:

Its very difficult to track down a geographically dispersed user base and run them through the various steps to get a Session ID.

Idea posted here. PLEASE UPVOTE

BegeNCSU · ‎05-07-2019

@Maxwell , I've got a third session ID. Do you want me to keep sending them through the forum?

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Maxwell · ‎05-07-2019

Hi @BegeNCSU,

We should be good with the Session IDs you've provided. I've passed them all along to some folks who are investigating your issue. I've asked them to update this thread with more information once they've found it.

Thanks again for your patience in this matter,

Max

Mengping-Shawn · ‎05-13-2019

Hi @BegeNCSU ,

We confirmed that this is due to memory consumption issue because of the size of gallery and fast scrolling. We have initiated the process to optimize our application internally.

Meanwhile, if your app doesn't have "Control Property Optimization" turned on, you could try turning that on. That option can reduce memory consumption. You can find that option under "File -> App settings -> Advanced settings".

Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this issue. Thanks for bringing it up. We are working to fix it now and hope to get the fix released as soon as possible

BegeNCSU · ‎05-13-2019

Thank you @Mengping-Shawn ! I've turned on the control optimization and we continue to try to educate our users to avoid scrolling quickly through the gallery and instead use the search.

Some of the others have also reported that without scrolling, the app will crash back to either restart the app I made, go back to the app selection screen within PowerApps or quit PowerApps entirely. Were any of the sessions IDs I provided help provide clues for those situations?