[Zubersoft]

I'll need to put together a build that correctly identifies the black page problem and collects as much information as possible. I'll send you info as soon as I have it ready. Here's hoping we can figure something out.

[alanmcorcoran]

Hi,
I too have the intermittent black page problem.  Fortunately, I am neither as disciplined or as accomplished as Steinway, so it is more of an annoyance than a dealbreaker.
I am on a Samsung SM-T900
Android is 5.1.1
Mobilesheets Pro is 1.5.4
Pedal: Pageflip Firefly

I have noticed it almost exclusively when using the pedal, but I think it's fair to say it's not related to the page turning method as, once it happens, I have used my fingers to flip the pages around.  I've not done a careful experiment with going forward x # of pages, but, generally speaking, I've mainly had the problem with setlists and to fix it I've reloaded the setlist.  Some other observations: the link dots do appear.  I don't have many annotations so, haven't seen those.  I don't usually crop or zoom anymore, but I may have in the past.
I typically have a dozen other suspended programs "in the background".  I rarely restart the tablet.

I typically use MSP at least one hour a day when I am working at my "real" (paying job) and 2-4 hours on weekends and when I'm off (I am not a full-time musician) I noticed the black page problem relatively recently, maybe couple of months ago.  Was a little concerned about wedding gig but, thought if I loaded setlist and flipped through from front to back I'd be okay.  (Now, I'm not sure that is the case.)  What I think is safer is to flip through each song prior to starting.  It is very intermittent, I would say, rare, but it definitely happens, sometimes on two consecutive days.  If I spot anything else about it I'll let you know.  If there is something I should look for, let me know.

[timrprobocom]

For what it's worth, I've seen this black page thing a number of times on my Samsung SM-T900 (Tab 12.1). It has happened three times during performances, causing utter panic, and several times during rehearsals. Yesterday, for the first time, two pages in a row came up black. Rotating to landscape and back to portrait brings the pages back, but of course when it happens in a performance one isn't thinking clearly enough to do that.

It's always on a PDF, of various lengths. My choir charts are usually 8 to 12 pages, but it has happened with a 220-page musical score as well. For my critical charts, I've starting using PNGs instead of PDFs, but of course that's not as convenient. Otherwise, as Alan said, I've started flipping through pieces before I start.

As a programmer myself, I've tried to characterize the circumstances, but I haven't come up with the magic sequence to duplicate it.

[Zubersoft]

Just to verify, you are running the latest version (1.6.9) correct?

[Steinway]

I have been meaning to get back to this post, but haven't had the time for a while, due to an extremely busy Fall / Christmas season..

Anyway, I have done quite some thinking and experimenting with regards to this problem, changing different settings, and meticulously noting what and when I did and whether it had any effect. What we know:

1) In addition to myself, 5 other users have had the issue, and reported it in this thread: Skip, frllop, Ketil, timrprobocom, and alanmcorcan. We all use a Samsung 12.2 inch device, so the problem definitely seems to be related to this tablet family.

2) The problem has appeared with both the Note Pro and the Tab Pro tablets. Which means the presence of the S-pen is not the cause of the problem.

3) During my testing, I have tried downgrading and upgrading the OS several times, and I have got black pages on both Android 4.4.2 and Android 5.0.2. So the OS version does not seem to be the cause of the problem.

4) I have tried using both the Quality and the Speed rendering - and have got black pages on both. So the error does not seem to be related to the rendering library used.

5) The presence or non-presence of a Bluetooth pedal does not seem to have any impact on the problem. I have seen the black pages both with and without a pedal connected.

6) During a few months in the late summer / early Fall, I tried using the diagnostic build, which Mike was kind enough to put together (which would analyze the screen contents and generate an error message / send an error report if a black page was detected). When using the diagnostic build, I never had any black pages - but instead I got instant crashes from time to time (ie, occasionally I would turn a page, and MSP would instantly shut down without warning or error message of any kind). I have never had these crashes when NOT using the diagnostic build. So my theory is that what would normally be shown as a black page would cause a crash when occurring in the diagnostic build (when trying to analyze the screen contents of a black page?)


All this being said, I'm very happy to say that I haven't had a single black page for almost two months now! It can, of course, be a coincidence. But looking back at what I've tried lately, the last setting I changed was on November 14th, when I checked the "Disable hardware overlays" setting in the Developer options. Is it at all possible that this setting could have an impact on the appearance of the black pages? And if so, could this give any clue as to why the black pages appear in the first place?

[Zubersoft]

From what I've read with some Google searches, turning off the hardware overlay can have some negative consequences:

Disable HW overlays

Without a hardware overlay every application that is displaying things on the screen will share video memory and will have to constantly check for collision and clipping to render a proper image, this can cost a lot of processing power. With a hardware overlay each application gets its own portion of video memory, getting rid of the need to check for collision and clipping.

Another user said:

rendering a view goes through layers or abstractions, even passing through dedicated hardware doing the job. hardware overlay allows the renderer to take a couple of regions aside and treat them optimized. then theres the cpu and gpu. usually android decides which abstraction is best for each view, taking things like transparency into account and what not. you switch hw overlays off, project butter goes out of the window but cpu and gpu still do the job. you force gpu, the composition will be done by your gfx chip. just don't touch it - its meant for developers picking up debugging output.


So in general, I wouldn't think it would be a good thing to turn that setting off. Having said that, I'd really like another person to try turning it off to see if it really does help for some reason. In that case, it would be exposing a bug in the OS.

Mike

[Steinway]

Thanks for your words of warning - I've also read quite a bit about the negative consequenses of turning off that (and other similar) settings. The decision to try turning it off wasn't completey arbitrary though; during my many google searches for display errors on Samsung devices, I ran across several discussions about flickering screens (mainly related to the Youtube app), where the problem disappeared when that exact setting was disabled. So I thought I'd give it a shot and see if it helped in my case as well (though, of course, a flickering screen isn't exactly what I'm seeing..).

I'd also be very happy if anyone else would try testing this out.

[timrprobocom]

I still get the black screen issue, always at the most inconvenient time. It actually happened during a Solo & Ensemble contest performance last weekend, which was mortifying. It happened twice today, fortunately during rehearsal. I'm now in the habit of flipping through every page once I get on stage.

As a software engineer, I'm trying to characterize the problem so it can be solved. Clearly, it only happens with PDF files, but the file length seems to be irrelevant. I've had it happen on a 350-page musical score, and I've had it happen on a 6-page choir piece. It has never happened with individual PNGs. Moving forward and back does not solve it, but rotating the screen to landscape and back to portrait does fix it.

It is possible that the cause is running out of resources during PDF rendering. I tend to leave my tablet on 24/7 with MobileSheets Pro running. Today, after it happened in rehearsal, I killed MobileSheets Pro and restarted it, and the concert itself went fine, but that could have been the luck of the draw. But if it is a resource problem, why does it not affect every page from then on?

I have started using PNGs for my critical long pieces, but because PNGs are not as convenient to import, it's not my preferred method. I'll comment about that in another thread.

Tim Roberts
Accompanist

[Zubersoft]

Hello Tim,

What kind of device are you using. Is it also the Samsung Note Pro 12.2"? i still have yet to experience this issue, but I'm not able to use my Samsung Note Pro nearly as much as you guys, so it could just be an issue that is less likely to show up if you aren't using the app for extended periods of time. I would love it if I could find a way to reliably reproduce the issue...

Thanks,
Mike

[alanmcorcoran]

FWIW, I weighed in on this issue, possibly years ago (I have the Samsung 900T 12") and I still occasionally have the problem - although it seems less frequently. I almost always have it when paging through a setlist, and I typically navigate to the setlist via the Setlist top menu option rather than via the "Recent Songs" listing of the setlist name. The colored navigation or jump points (overlays) display but no music. It *can* be resolved by advancing/retreating 3-4 pages. I was not aware of the portrait/landscape fix. It does not happen that often (I've played 4 hour gigs without an occurrence and gone weeks without an occurrence), but, when it does happen it can be jarring. I usually just try to soldier on while advancing and retreating the pages. I actually have more frequent issues with accidental page turns - but those tend to be easier to recover from. I have the latest Android release from Samsung and a pretty up to date if not completely up to date version of MobilesheetsPro. I usually have YouTube, a file transfer, settings and a handful of other stuff suspended in the background.

[Steinway]

Just two tiny observations relating to this (I also agree that the black pages appear less frequently now than they used to, though I still get them occasionally).

Firstly, I guess I have had just 4 or 5 occurrences this whole past year, but common for all these is that usually (as far as I can remember), whenever I have had ONE black page in an open song, I have corrected it (turning a few pages onwards, and then back again), and then continued playing - and I have usually had ANOTHER instance of a black page later in the same song. In other words, maybe 3 months between each time it has happened, but then it has usually happened twice within maybe 30 minutes on those days..

Secondly, I had hitherto only seen this when actually displaying a score. Today, however, I opened the Cropping editor (through the "Edit song" button in the Library screen), and got a black page for the first page of the song (a 3-page PDF). Going to the second page (which was displayed correctly), cropping that page, and then back to page 1, the page was displayed correctly. I guess this eliminates any possibility of this problem relating to page turning method, touching the screen at specific spots, pedals being connected and so on...

Don't know if these observations can shed any light on the cause of the problem..?