[BRX]

I've not rooted my phone and my tablet and no experience insofar but as I understand with such a root you can stop and/or freeze apps to keep them from memory with programs like Titanium Backup and similar root programs.

[Zubersoft]

Steinway - I'll let you know if there is anything you can do to help. At the moment, I'm stuck on not being able to reproduce the problem. I only need it to happen once for me to (hopefully) figure out what is wrong.

[Steinway]

Thank you - and sorry that I keep bothering you with this issue.. I'm just so desperately trying to find any sure way to reproduce the problem, or rather, to avoid it. As it is, I'm never able to relax completely during performances, always fearing the possibility that my next page turn may lead to a black page..

But, regarding the memory status: what would you think of the 600 Mb available Ram (the memory status app used about 100 Mb)? Is it likely that Msp will need more than this, and likely to cause a failure? If so, I will try force closing Chrome and Play store before using Msp, which will leave about 1000 Mb available ram. Or do you think the 600 Mb should be enough?

[Skip]

I wonder if one of those open apps making an input/output (polling) request at a critical moment could cause the blackout?

[timrprobocom]

I had this exact issue happen to me last night -- live and on stage -- on page 10 of a 13-page PDF. Fortunately, I was able to ad lib the bass line well enough to keep the choir together until the following page. Going forward and backwards did not help -- it remained black. I had gone through the piece at rehearsal an hour before, and it was fine.

At home, I was showing it to my wife, and it was still black. But then I rotated it to landscape and back to portrait, and the page re-appeared. Does that cause a re-rendering? I have always used PDFs for my music, but now I'm wondering if PNGs would be safer. Do images have less impact?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 12.2. I've used the original MobileSheets for years with no problems. Since switching to MobileSheets Pro earlier in the year, this is the second incident of the black image. I can send the PDF if you want, although I suspect it doesn't matter.

[Zubersoft]

Rotation will indeed cause a re-rendering of everything. PNGs may be safer in this instance, but until I can verify what is actually causing the problem, I can't say with any certainty. I'm still completely unable to reproduce this problem on any of my tablets.

[Steinway]

As far as I can recall, all of us who have seen this behavior are using a Samsung 12.2 inch tablet. Am I right? Anyone else who has seen this, who are using any other tablet?
I'm just wondering if the aspect ratio of the tablet can somehow be the cause? I have "center pages" enabled, and was just wondering if maybe the centering gets wrongly calculated sometimes, somehow, causing the image to be placed off the screen? Do any / all of you others use "Center pages"? Anyway, I will try unchecking this option for a while, to see if it helps..

[Steinway]

Also, following up my previous post, if the dimensions of the scanned paper can be seen in connection with his? I believe many of the users who have reported this are from European countries? I may be wrong about this, but isn't there a different standard for paper sizes in North America (letter, legal etc) versus European (A4, A5 etc)? All my scanned music at least, are of A4 size.

[Skip]

I wouldn't think paper size would affect it. I would think the scanned size or app used to scan the original might though. I've not had the problem on my devices for a long time and it was connected to the zoom past 100% feature. I've tried to reproduce the problem also with no success so far. As far as I can see, Android 5.0.2 is, apparently, common to those having the problem.

[Steinway]

Ok, that's another theory proved wrong. Black page again, and now I had "center pages" disabled. But I don't really believe it's the "Zoom past 100%" setting either (I have never had this enabled), nor the OS (I tried downgrading a while ago, and still got black pages, which is why I thought I could just as well go back to Android 5.)

[Steinway]

You said earlier that two possible causes for a completely black page could be that the program tries to free up memory, or that invalid values for page size are specified. I would assume that low memory isn't the cause here (although I feel I can't be sure about anything here), as I am now always starting MPS with all other apps closed, and at least 1200 MB available RAM. I was just wondering, if you tried causing any of those errors on purpose (specifying an invalid page size, or clearing a page as you would in case of low memory), what would happen if the page in question had annotations? Would they still be displayed (drawn on the black screen, as they are in my case), or would they too be cleared in those cases?

[Zubersoft]

Steinway,

I actually added extra checks for invalid page sizes now, so those problems can't occur anymore. If that happens, you'll see a gray page with an error indicated in the middle. A fully black page is still only possible if no errors are encountered and either a black image is rendered, the page is somehow shifted off the screen (should be impossible as I have code that restricts that from happening) or something weird is happening in Google's code that would cause nothing to be shown. No matter the case, annotations are drawn relative to the page dimensions and positioning, so if the annotations are shown, that means the app thinks the page should be on the screen and the correct size.

I know this is a pain, but is there any way you can backup your entire library and upload it somewhere so I can try testing with your exact same setup? I still have never seen a black page using the same device, same OS version, and even using that PDF you sent me before. Maybe if I use the same library as you, I'll have a chance. Let me know you'd be willing to do this.

Thanks,
Mike

[Steinway]

Of course, I'll do anything to help you solve this issue! I just made a backup of my library (including settings), and am currently uploading it to my Dropbox account. The backup file is about 1 GB, so it will take a little while - but I can mail you a link to the dropbox folder when it's finished uploading.

Thank you!

[Zubersoft]

There is a failure case I just thought of that I wanted to check with you about. When the black page happens, if you turn forward about 4 pages, and then go back to the black page, is it still black or does it display properly after that? How about if you turn about 8-10 pages forward and then go back? The answer to this could reveal some important information for me. Also, if one page is black, do the rest of the pages of the PDF load fine usually? For example, if you have a 20+ page PDF, and page 3 is black, if you turn through the pages to get to page 15, let's say, is it fine?

Thanks,
Mike

[Steinway]

I'll check this the next time I get a black page, just to be sure. But I'm pretty sure anything I do that forces the page to refresh (rotating the tablet, switching to night mode, or turning a few pages ahead and then back, although I'll have to check exactly how many pages I need to turn) will make the page display properly again. And there's never more than one black page; if I continue turning pages, the rest will be fine.
It would seem from my numerous posts that I get the black page "all the time" - but I can usually display thousands of pages correctly between each time I get a black one. I'm using MSP at least 4 hours every day, and get the black page maybe once or twice every week - so I can't guarantee you'll encounter any immediate problems even with my library. But I'll keep my fingers crossed...