Android annotations disappear on Samsung tablet

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#21

I am trying a new superstition or strategy: never use the “go-to-desktop” button (looks like a square with rounded corners, in center-bottom of the screen). Instead, always switch to another app using the task switcher button (3 vertical bars), and exit-to-desktop from that program if needed. Then be sure to have at least one other program open at all times so it can be switched to.

So far (about 3 weeks) it seems to have worked ok on both my samsung (same model is Joel) and on an Onyx eink. A couple times the annotations appear to be missing when I task-switch back to paperpile, but go to the library list and re-open the particular pdf, and they are there.

Still, I really wish for a way to annotate externally, the most simple being just a feature to import a pdf on android (since “share” already exists). That would allow annotations in other programs, and solve several feature requests besides this one I believe.

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#22

Our QA was finally able to reproduce the issue via online emulator. The matter is on the team’s backlog to address when able; for the past few months our resources have been entirely dedicated to rewriting our web app and extension but we expect to shift focus back to mobile before the end of the year. I understand allowing the use of third-party apps is not a trivial thing to implement, either, although not off the table for us in light of user demand.

We appreciate the feedback and what a significant disruption this is for Samsung tablet users. Hope I can share some updates soon.

3 Likes
#23

Hi.
I just encountered this issue which seemed to fix itself but I thought I report it in case it might be fixable. I am using Huawei MediaPad M5 lite and my notes from yesterday disappeared. I tried to use the approach @paperbrain suggested with opening the document from “all papers” screen and when I pressed return button the annotations came back ( I opened the app from the home screen, opened the document - highlights weren’t there; I switched to chrome while googling the problem and came back to paperpile opened window - highlights weren’t there; then I pressed return button in an attempt to re open it from all papers and instead of exiting the reading view the annotations appeared again)

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Use paperpile web version from android?
#24

I think it’s clear now that this issue is not specific to Samsung tablets.

I have been using an Onyx Boox e-ink tablet. In other respects the paperpile android app works fine on this device, but annotations dissappear at random. Often they come back, but I recently had a case were a number of annotations were irretrievably lost while I was working offline (traveling).

The offline itself is not the problem - sometimes the annotations are not lost and they successfully sync then the tablet is back online.

#26

I have the TAB s6 s
Lite and it is
happening to me.

Has there been no further updates to this problem?

#27

Also just encountered this bug on Onyx Boox – it’s incredibly frustrating to lose hours of annotations. I haven’t been able to get them back by accessing the paper from the All Papers page.

#28

Is there any progress on this issue?

As mentioned by others, occasionally I lose a lot of work from this bug.

It occurs to me that PP is only considering part of the academic writing process:
besides writing, there is a lot of reading to be done, both to learn the state of the art
in some small area, and then in writing the related work.

I do not use PP for writing at all, I only use it as a database to manage papers to read.
But the reading experience is quite bad.

As mentioned in a different post, the easy fix to both this and would address a number of other feature requests: just provide a quick way to re-import a .pdf on mobile. There is already a share button to export.
With this feature, we could share to whatever pdf viewer we want, make use of annotations, pen input, etc, then re-attach to paperpile.

#29

No updates to share for this issue, unfortunately. What I mentioned in my last post is still the case – our resources continue to be focused towards the features posted on our roadmap, so improvements for the mobile apps are yet to be prioritized.

This means that although we’ve managed to reproduce this issue under some specific conditions, potential solutions will require time and resources we are currently unable to take away from those other projects. Barring further delays, we hope to have most of the big updates up and running by the end of this year, at which point the mobile apps will come back into focus. Sorry I don’t have workaround to offer in the meantime.

#30

Hello,
this is just to confirm that on my Samsung tablet this bug happens incredibly often (if not always). Overall, this makes the annotation feature garbage on the tablet, which is unfortunate as I had bought it mostly to use it for reading and annotating in paperpile.

Still working on the go on my phone, where this bug has never shown up. Of course, the UX is not good on a small screen.

Looking forward to the work shift towards android apps!

1 Like
#31

Also wanted to confirm that this is happening frequently - read three papers today and lost annotations on two. I had to go through and rehighlight because I wanted them saved.

It’s really disappointing because using paperpile actually converted me from being one of those people who could only read on actual paper to being able to read on a screen and I bougth a Samsung Tab S8 to use paperpile + an electronic lab notebook to “renovate” my workflow. Now my paperpile notes are disappearing on me :[

#32

Same here on my Galaxy Tab S7+. Just ragequit my annual subscription for this. Very frustrating that even after over a year’s time this STILL has not been solved, while the team is focusing on upcoming features. I’ll renew my subscription if this issue is fixed.

#33

We’re sorry that we cannot prioritize mobile at the moment, as the rewrite of the web app is our current priority. Once that is completed, mobile apps will come back into focus. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, this issue has proved difficult for the dev team to reproduce, and will require more work than our efforts can currently allocate. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

#34

That worked for me. Thanks for sharing your solution!

1 Like
#35

How about now? Is there a solution to this? It basically makes the Android app useless for me as keeping highlights is one of my primary use cases for the app.

2 Likes
#36

Although this has unfortunately not yet been addressed, our new beta web-app serves as a workaround to access and annotate papers on mobile browsers.

#37

I’m still having this issue on Android tablet.

#38

How to access it from mobile browsers? When I navigate to app.paperpile.com I still see the notice to download the android app from the store.

#39

After having signed up for and activated the beta, once you see that notice on your mobile browser, open settings and click Desktop site. Check out this quick video for reference.

#40

I didn’t think of trying that. I can access the web app. It’s a bit tiny, but it is expectable. I will try it out! Thanks!
BTW, I am not supposed to work offline in this way, right?

#41

Not yet, @ilpelle – offline mode is coming on the new web app but hasn’t been implemented in this version of the beta.