Why Does Your Favorite Android App Just Mysteriously Restart
If your Android app is suffering from amnesia, you are probably a little confused. Where did your data go? Why does this app (or some of your apps) behave as if you were opening it for the first time? Is your Android obsessed?
As it turns out, updating the Chrome browser on Android to version 79 – the latest version of Google’s browser – comes with a particularly nasty bug. If the app you’re using relies on a WebView or the means by which users view websites in the app, updating Chrome (and WebView) could cost you your data. At least that’s what app developers say, who visited the Chromium forums to describe what they called a “catastrophic” problem.
“This is a serious problem. We can see that old data remains in the file system, but it is not “found” by Chome 79 – which I think is even worse – firstly, it disrupts applications because it is not available, and also because the old data remains unchanged. .. without the ability for the app to refresh or clean it up without reusing its own access. Any ideas for a fix? (It looks like it adds “Default” to the path, which means it becomes “/ Default / Local Storage,” wrote one developer .
“Guys, I don’t know your quality assurance process, but when the M79 was released it clearly failed. We need to fix by Monday, or at least decide what to say to the affected customers (if they have to wait until the next release and they will restore all the data or inform them that they have lost data forever and ask for forgiveness), ” added later another developer.
Google has paused the rollout of Chrome 79 on Android while it is working to fix the disappearing data issue, according to a Google employee. Another Chromium team member apologized for the issues and indicated that this fix is a top priority for Google:
“I apologize for the loss of data! I know from experience that dealing with a problem that you have no control over is really frustrating, and I understand that losing your data puts you in a very difficult position.
This issue is marked as P0 so for now we don’t need any more reminders about how important this is to you 🙂 Please understand that the team is working on a solution that minimizes data loss and that can be safely deployed. It is in the general interest that the people working on this problem can focus their full attention on solving it.
After we deploy the best defense we can, we figure out how to do more in the future. Thank you for putting up with us! “
If you encounter this error, there is little you can do at this time. App developers are asked to be patient while Google tests and promotes the fix, rather than trying to restore user data on their own, as this could conflict with any fix Google decides to use.
I recommend that you stick to a similar mindset. Don’t waste hours trying to reinitialize your application and unload any “missing” data. It’s still there, and you could waste time – or even find that this new data disappears too – if something you enter is newer than the data you’re missing.
Hold tight. Everything will be fine, but I wouldn’t do anything about it today (or even this week). Keep an eye on the new version of Chrome and install it as soon as you can, and resist the urge to check out the app developers. They are not to blame for temporary data loss.