How do I prevent SkySafari 6 pro from failing to load my Observing Lists and resetting edited Observing Lists?
Dear Sir or Madam,
I encountered several issues related with Observing Lists using SkySafari 6 pro. Issue number 1.) occurred both with the current version of SkySafari (6.7.2.0) and the one before that, the other ones happened recently using the current version of SkySafari. I use Android 9 on my mobile phone.
I created 25 Observing Lists containing a total of 44,000 objects (some objects are part of more than one Observing List, so the number of objects involved is smaller). This might have enhanced some of the issues.
1.)
Three or four months ago, when I opened SkySafari, only about two thirds of my Observing Lists showed up. Waiting a few minutes did not help, neither did closing and restarting SkySafari several times. I eventually downloaded the missing Observing Lists using LiveSky.
In the following months until now this issue has occurred at least ten times. Some Observing Lists appear to be affected more frequent than others.
Every time I start SkySafari, there are ten seconds where I can use it before it freezes for about half a minute. Then everything is fine. If I open the Observing Lists, Observations or Sessions overview during those first few seconds, none or only few of them show up. Opening the Observing Lists overview immediately after starting SkySafari might lead to the problem described above.
2.)
Last week on Wednesday or Thursday this issue occurred again. When I downloaded the missing Observing Lists using LiveSky I noticed that there were two versions of one of the Lists. One contained 4600 objects (the original number) the other one about 3500. After downloading the larger Observing List, SkySafari freezed. A few minutes later I closed SkySafari. Upon restarting of the app, there were three additional Observing List instead of the one I downloaded. One contained the first 400 objects, the other ones 3500 each (I don't know if these were the same as in the smaller Observing List included in LiveSky).
I deleted and downloaded them again a few times but the results were the same. The Observing Lists lacked objects in the middle of the Observing List, not at the end.
3.)
Then I decided to add the missing objects using a new Observing List, created from the same search criteria I used for the original Observing List. After I've been halfway through this task, closed SkySafari and opened it again later, the downloaded Observing List had been reset to its initial size of 3500 objects. I tried adding objects again with the same results.
4.)
On Saturday I edited the Observing List created from the search results, so that it is the same as the original Observing List I downloaded, but including the missing objects. When I closed the app and started it again later, SkySafari was extremely slow. It took at least two minutes until it stopped freezing, but even then, trying to move the sky chart, there where jumps in position every ten seconds and no movement in between. Moreover, my settings have been reset. Time, Location (my user defined Observing Sites were still available), Appearance and Behavior, Horizon and Sky, Solar System and Scope Display (the field of view indicators still existed) were affected. Every five minutes SkySafari crashed and closed itself.
After a couple of forced restarts I managed to open the Observing Lists overview and saw that there were six additional Observing Lists. These were the three Observing Lists described in 2.) times two. Without Internet, I was able to delete those Observing Lists and SkySafari was back to normal. Almost.
5.) On Sunday (6th of September) I realised that the new Observing List described in 4.) had been set back. I began deleting objects but after a minute or two, SkySafari crashed again. Afterwards it contained the objects I had deleted before. I tried again a few times with the same results. Luckily, the other Observing Lists work properly.
The issues described above are very time consuming, so I hope to avoid them in future. Still, I plan to add additional, large Observing Lists. If these cause the problems, they are likely to occur again, especially number 1.) which already happens for a long time. What can I do to prevent them from occurring again? Is there anything you can do about it?
Yours Sincerely
Christoph Greschitz
