Bug: Photos being added to File Attachment sections

[Robert Marko]

Not sure if Apples new iPhone iOS14 file format .heic is causing problems, but everytime I create a new record now my record seems to double up on the referential link to the photo in my first file attachment section?

and if I remove the link from the file attachment, it removes the actual photo! vice-versa.

Using latest versions of TapForms for both iOS and Mac on High Sierra.

Regards,
Rob.

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[Brendan]

Oh that’s a new one. Have you tried quitting Tap Forms and re-launching it to see if that’s still the case?

I did just test this now by adding a File Attachment field to my sample My Movies Library form, then adding a photo to it. The photo did not also be attached to the File Attachment field.

[Robert Marko]

Hi Brendan,

Yes, I’ve taken many approaches… duplicated, removed, created a totally new record (non-duplicated), exited both apps, restarted both devices. It keeps happening for these particular .heic images.

I potentially have maybe 1000+ jpeg images in other records. It’s almost a 2GB database.

It’s the first I’ve seen this happen with the latest version. They were a mix of photos taken with iPhone and others downloaded from the net. The file attachment references to those files report as “Zero KB”

I tried applying the photos just to the Mac app, and then just to the iPhone app and I get the same results.

I usually only store PDF’s in the file attachment 100% of the time. Could .heic images be interfering with PDFs? Some sort of reference symlink issue?

I’ll continue testing to see if I can come up with a solution.

I did also notice that when downloading from Google to the .webp image format it showed on the iOS app, but when viewed in the MacOS app they were all blank but still had their file reference names, but the images were blank. Strange image format inconsistencies.

I’ll keep at it.

Regards,
Rob.

[Robert Marko]

OK I’ve deleted the referenced symlinks from the File attachment on the TapForms Mac app and it seems to have done the trick after multiple tries and a restart of both apps.

Doing this symlink file deletion on the iOS app seems to be the culprit for the bug.

This seems to be a strange edge case. Might not be reproducible unless it somehow generates from .heic, jpg and .pdf and/or .webp

I will report back should it revert to its old tricks by blanking images and cross-posting symlinks to other fields. Ouch!

[Brendan]

I’m not sure what you mean by referenced symlink on the iOS version. Only the Mac version’s File Attachment field supports aliases to files, if that’s what you mean by symlinks.

[Robert Marko]

Hi Brendan, this exact same bug is occurring again, or has been re-introduced!

getting .heic images put into the file attachments area, and in one instance it’s put the first page of a PDF stored as an image in the photo area from random PDF files I have stored in the file attachment area. It’s cross-linking photos and PDFs somehow.

The heic files also show as “Zero KB” but if I delete them (in the file attachment field), they also delete the photo in the photo area

Cheers,
Rob.

[Robert Marko]

I’m receiving invalid attachment stub on sync. seems like I’ve borked a record.

[Robert Marko]

So I did some further testing/investigation. On sync (am syncing with CouchDB) it seems to be corrupting or confusing what’s in the photo area and the file attachment area (vice-versa). Something about the attachment stub.

Sometimes deleting a file keeps a pointer to that image or PDF in each field. When it syncs, it thinks the reference is missing so asks to delete the missing reference. Then sometimes on sync it will dump the reference back into the fields but won’t have the content.

It is consistent with what happened to me 2 years ago, even without couchdb.

So it must be a sync issue that is corrupting the fields in photos and file attachments.

[Robert Marko]

Hi Brendan,

Bumping this bug thread because I still have the same exact issue after many years on iOS and it has never been resolved.

My record fields are randomly cross-contaminated with [the first image or first page of a] PDF file in the “photo” field, and in the “file attachment” fields a lot of .heic iphone images have zero KB reference [ghost] files stored in them and it seems to happen randomly on random records (usually ones with many hi-res images in the photo field) on a concluding sync.

If I either delete one of these attachment files or photos from either field, it corrupts and removes the image or PDF completely from both fields. However, the .heic ghost files/filenames usually remain that are zero KB.

My above comments still stand. Which have gone unanswered.

Regards,

Robert.

[T.L. Ford]

I wonder if underlying IDs are getting duplicated.  Unlikely, but with a data set that big, potentially.

[Brendan]

Hi Robert,

I’m very sorry for this issue. I am working on a big new version of Tap Forms which completely changes how I’m managing media in the app, so this issue will no longer occur going forward.

But I’m still not finished with the new version. Hopefully soon. Stay tuned.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Robert Marko]

No problem Brendan, I look forward to the new version!

It’s been a bit of a bugbear for me, but TapForms is still my #1 goto app on the phone!

Thank you for your continued support.

Regards,

Robert.

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