[NEW] - Testing Memex Mobile App & Sync

[BlackForestBoi]

Exciting news coming up!

We’re about to launch the first version of the Memex mobile App for iOS and Android so you can start saving, tagging, favouriting and sorting websites & tweets to Memex on the fly!
~Watch Demo Screencast~

Sync will all be end2end encrypted and is done in an offline-first approach. That means all data is encrypted on your devices before it leaves, passed on to our servers so you can get your updates even if you’re offline with one device and delete them again once the information is passed on. We’ll never have the chance to read or make use of the data that is synced. Privacy and Data-Ownership first!

Purpose of this testing round

This is the first version of the app we feel comfortable with putting in front of people.
The version you are about to test will still be in an early stage - so don’t expect an ideal user experience yet, and also some foundational bugs appearing. Our main focus is to find bugs and performance issues across many different combinations of browsers, operating systems and phones.

Whats in it for you:

In return for your input, we offer you 6 months of free syncing beyond the testing period

What we need from you:

1. Sign up with this initial survey
2. Follow the instructions in an email you’ll get from us in the next days.
3. Post a report of your findings in this thread. Take the first post as a template on how to do that

More information:

• Limited to the first 50 people
• ~30min effort required.
  If you have a lot of data, syncing can take a while, but no action is required during that time for you.

[BlackForestBoi]

Template Beta Testing Report:

Setup

Operating system on desktop:
Desktop browser used:
Operating system on phone:
Phone browser used:

Performance

Amount of pages:
Time for the initial sync:

Issues & comments

Found bugs:
please explain the steps to reproduce and include as much detail as possible.
Other comments:
Anything else you wanna say? Feature improvements? Ideas?

[dees]

Setup

Operating system on desktop: Manjaro Linux
Desktop browser used: Firefox 72.0.1
Operating system on phone: Android 9 (Samsung)
Phone browser used: N/A

Performance

Amount of pages: 9746
Time for the initial sync: ∞

Issues & comments

Found bugs:
I installed the beta app on my phone, looked at the intro pages, then scanned the QR code from desktop as instructed via the beta email. After waiting for a while leaving both screens untouched, I decided to investigate whether progress was being made, and looked at the extension’s browser console. The output suggests that it’s broken:

Initial sync message: -LyLoz8AeHab_5S74lsd options.js:1:875407
Error occured on remote side, please check it's console for more details options.js:1:875407
TypeError: t is undefined
options.js:367:193089
TypeError: t is undefined
options.js:367:193089
Error: The operation failed because the requested database object could not be found. For example, an object store did not exist but was being opened.
 NotFoundError: The operation failed because the requested database object could not be found. For example, an object store did not exist but was being opened. options.js:1:65899

​I presume this is related: https://github.com/WorldBrain/Memex/issues/925

Update: I also went into Firefox to look for the extension debugging options and found this page: about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
On the memex entry, there’s a warning box with this content:

Warning details
Reading manifest: Warning processing offline_enabled: An unexpected property was found in the WebExtension manifest.

I click inspect to see the extension’s console log: about:devtools-toolbox?type=extension&id=info%40worldbrain.io which has a lot of additional error output:

Other comments:
One of the main reasons I’m very interested in memex is that browsers have lost my bookmark data from time to time and I want a stronger guarantee of data integrity. IMO no matter what kind of failure happens, the system should never lose data or mislead the user to think that data is preserved when it isn’t.

[Jimi]

I presume there will be an option for self hosting also?

[dees]

Further update:

it seems that I can save an annotation/note and it persists across page reloads, but it does not show up in the dashboard/search, as if it wasn’t saved. Now I suspect and hope that the data is being captured but just not visible for some reason.

I’ve also tried to re-import and backup while this problem has persisted, and backup appears to succeed, but runs so instantly that I suppose it is adding no new data to the backup. Import shows the full count of new bookmark/history items as failures.

[anschinski]

Setup

Operating system on desktop: Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.6
Desktop browser used: Google Chrome 78:0
Operating system on phone: iOS 12.4.2
Phone browser used: Safari

Performance

Amount of pages: 5
Time for the initial sync: -

Issues & comments

Found bugs:
please explain the steps to reproduce and include as much detail as possible.
Other comments:
I tried pairing my phone with my Memex account. Everything worked fine up until I scanned the QR Code with my phone. Then the app crashed and nothing happened. Tried again. Made sure my computer and device are in the same Wifi. Tried again. Crashed again.

[BlackForestBoi]

Thanks @anschinski @dees for your reports.

@dees Indeed the Firefox bug is related to the problem with the Firefox database. We are sitting on it today and hopefully can roll out a fix by today or tomorrow.

@anschinski That is odd. In the email there is a troubleshooting step explained to see what happens on the extension side (i know its the app that is crashing but maybe there is an issue on the extension side too). Also, when you restart the app, can you check for the little button on the bottom “debug console” and then on the button “errors” and can make a screenshot of this?

@Jimi Yeah eventually it will be but we currently don’t have the resources for it and first need to make it stably working before we can move to making it self-hostable. It’s built in a very modular way so our current server can more-or-less easily be swapped out with a bit of work.

[anschinski]

Not sure if I got the right screenshots (see attached). Wanted to try my luck again. Unfortunately, I fail at the first step where the extension should display a QR code for the app to scan. It’s just loading endlessly and a QR code never appears.

[BlackForestBoi]

@anschinski Did you log in on your Memex extension, before you scanned the QR code?

[anschinski]

Yes, of course. Checked if both devices are in the same wifi.

[dees]

With the extension update released today, I managed to get pairing and sync to work! There’s no visual indication of progress being made which would be really helpful to see to avoid interrupting the process when it’s working. The extension page after a while changed to say “Success!” but the android app just kept showing “syncing” indefinitely… i backed out after waiting a while longer, and then the main page of the app showed that it had paired successfully, and now I’m able to use the android share system to save things to memex, add notes, and sync back to the browser appears to work. Hooray! Finally getting close to being able to replace google keep for quick capture.

It is worth noting that saving a new item through android seems noticeably slow. Speeding this up will be worth investing some work into, as I often want to browse content quickly and capture links and thoughts for later reference very rapidly (google keep does this adequately fast, although more instant is always better)

[BlackForestBoi]

@anschinski The underlying technology, WebRTC, sometimes has troubles with the firewalls of different WIFI networks. Could you try with another one and see if that problem still persists?
Also, in the latest version 1.5.1, do you still see this bug with “Refused to load the script…”

[BlackForestBoi]

There’s no visual indication of progress being made which would be really helpful to see to avoid interrupting the process when it’s working.

Yes that will all be there once we release the app for everyone. Is already in the making

It is worth noting that saving a new item through android seems noticeably slow.

Indeed there is still some optimisation potential. At which steps in your case does it feel particularly slow?

[dees]

@BlackForestBoi I’ll walk through sharing a new item so I can break it down without mis-remembering

i navigated to a web article in firefox, and access the share ui from the menu. i select memex which is conveniently the first item (most recently installed, i suppose?).
the screen goes white for perhaps 200ms, then i see a loader animation start for another 100-200ms before i see the actual memex dialog.

in the dialog everything feels quick. i will note that the slight transition animations could probably stand to be even quicker. visual contrast to help clarify when a state is active/inactive could be better. as a lefty, my finger tends to cover up the text label of a collection/tag, so i’m looking for the thin checkmark on the right end of the line i’m interested in. inverting the dark/light contrast of the whole line would probably help with visual confirmation IMO.

if i select the note text area, the keyboard drawer has some animation lag of its own. i won’t be adding notes typically, and i believe that’s out of your control, so no big deal.

when i hit ‘save’ the button turns grey, and i feel like i’m waiting perhaps as much as a whole second before the ui closes and I’m back to the article.

summarized, i think there are about 2 or 3 whole seconds of “wait for UI” time involved in saving a new item as quickly as i can, which are imposed by the UI, in addition to the interaction time it takes me to do what i intend. I speculate that about half of that total wait time could probably be reduced by memex app performance improvements.

For my personal GTD-oriented usage, minimizing the time spent to capture thoughts (and usually specifically, urls) for later triage is fundamental. I have been using google keep for this, which is quick, but always wish it were quicker.

I should also mention i’m using a galaxy note 9, which is a flagship device, and generally performs fairly well for most native interactions. i am not used to seeing loading spinners, in other words.

[jnv]

Setup

Operating system on desktop: macOS 10.15
Desktop browser used: Firefox 72.0.2
Operating system on phone: Android 9 (Nokia 7 Plus)
Phone browser used: Firefox for Android 72

Performance

Amount of pages: ~2000
Time for the initial sync: N/A

Issues & comments

Found bugs:
The initial sync doesn’t appear to run at all. I have enabled bgModules.sync.initialSync.debug = true before syncing. When I scan the QR code, I see only these messages:

Initial Sync - Event 'connecting': 
Object {  }
background.js:1:729710
Initial Sync - Event 'start': 
Object {  }
background.js:1:729710
Initial sync message: -LzDwu013OQHud6VCX5R options.js:1:875371
~~ after a while ~~
DataCloneError: The object could not be cloned.

I don’t see any progress messages though (see the inspector screenshot opened on Memex’s background page in browser below). The app’s debug console doesn’t show any messages besides FB: NOT LOGGED IN - USING STORED TOKEN.

I have tried turning off the macOS firewall but the result is the same. I will give it another spin with Chrome.

[BlackForestBoi]

Thanks @jnv to report your issue here and welcome to the Beta Tester Crew

Did you login in Memex before you created & scanned the QR code?
If so, can you try if the problem persists if you use a different wifi connection? Sometimes there are issues around this.

[jnv]

Hi Oliver, thanks for welcome!

Yes, I did login and I have tried three different Wifi networks. I have a suspicion the issue could be on macOS side, since this one has some corporate-mandated antivirus / antispyware. I have tried to disable it as well but to no avail.

[niieani]

Setup

Operating system on desktop: OS X Catalina 10.15.2 (19C57)
Desktop browser used: Microsoft Edge Version 80.0.361.33 (Official build) Beta.
Operating system on phone: iPhone 6 iOS 12.3.1
Phone browser used: Safari

Performance

Amount of pages: n/a
Time for the initial sync: n/a

Issues & comments

Found bugs:

Just tried pairing/syncing, but no luck. All that dev tools say is:

Initial Sync - Event 'connecting': {}
Initial Sync - Event 'start': {}

The phone hangs on “Syncing in progress” but there’s no progress made.
I’ve tried reloading the browser extension and pairing again.

Also note that the first time I opened sync it crashed the mobile app and had to re-launch.
I’m on the same WiFi.

[xcvbn]

Setup

Operating system on desktop: Windows 10
Desktop browser used: Firefox 72.0.2
Operating system on phone: iOS 13.3
Phone browser used: Safari
Performance

Amount of pages: >8500
Time for the initial sync: never finished, “Syncing” with no progress after 20 minutes, but after restart of app, app is paired and sync is running
Issues & comments

Found bugs:
please explain the steps to reproduce and include as much detail as possible.
Other comments:
Anything else you wanna say? Feature improvements? Ideas?

[marzio.meme]

Setup

Operating system on desktop: Windows 10 Pro
Desktop browser used: Chrome
Operating system on phone: Android 10
Phone browser used: Samsung S10

Performance

Amount of pages: don’t know, don’t know how to find a number of that, i visualize dozens and dozens of pages every day from the smartphone. I’m logged in Chrome desktop & mobile and it sync histories.
Time for the initial sync: tested all 3 releases (from 12 January till now, yesterday received the last one via play store), tried to sync several times, left all night long at step 4 (i left the phone on step 4 till 17 hours once). never ever got a “completed” message.
During 2nd release tests, I removed the mobile from the device list inside Extension - backup & restore. After that my mobile isn’t listed anymore. But typing bgModules.sync.initialSync.debug = true in extension console, I got Initial Sync - Event ‘progress’: {role: “sender”, progress: {…}} with all first 2 releases tests. With the last one, I get true. So I think it’s syncing.

I don’t understand:

• if it ever completed the sync at least once,
• why does it take so much time on mobile (on desktop for 40,000 pages it needs 2 hours to backup),
• how I can understand if it’s going on and how is it going (a progress bar?).

Thank you for your work. I appreciate.
Marzio