Sync problems, White screen or not responding, high resource consumption

[Angelo]

This post is related to application problems and ways of fixing or gathering data for development team.

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• White screen
• Application works, but lack of responding, high resource consumption
• Sync issues
• Common errors

[Angelo]

I see white screen and nothing happens

Mac, Linux

• Stop application if it’s running.
• Can you please start Terminal. In Spotlight you can type “Terminal”
• Run this command in the command prompt (please correct the location of Anytype app): ANYTYPE_LOG_LEVEL = "* = DEBUG" /Applications/Anytype.app/Contents/MacOS/Anytype
• Use CTRL(CMD)-A and CTRL(CMD)-C to copy logs from the terminal and send it to the team support@anytype.io

Windows

• Stop application if it’s running.
• Can you please start Terminal. In Search you can type “CMD”
• Run this command in the command prompt (please correct the location of Anytype app)
• set "ANYTYPE_LOG_LEVEL=*=DEBUG" && start C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Programs\anytype2\Anytype.exe
• Do the stuff in Anytype that cause a problem
• Use CTRL(CMD)-A and CTRL(CMD)-C to copy logs from the terminal and send it to the team support@anytype.io

You may experience a crash like this:

It means problem is 100% is in our side and it will be enough to share this crashlog in order us to fix it

If there is no crash, we need to also check if we have some errors in the JS console

• Please open the app’s path via application system menu → file show work directory

  • For Linux path can be /home/userName/.config/anytype2/
  • For macOs path can be /Users/userName/Library/Application\ Support/anytype2
    
    

• Open devconfig.json and set this data there. If there is no one, you can create new one:

{"allowDebug":true,"debug":{"mw":true,"ho":false}}

• Start the app
• Open app system menu.
• Open. Debug menu, from where I could open devtool
• Press cmd + option + I to see the debug menu with developer tools & open console in MacOS
• Press Alt+Ctrl+I / Shift + CTRL + J to see the debug menu with developer tools & open console in Windows/Linux

It means the problem is 100% on our side and it will be enough to share this crashlog with support@anytype.io in order for us to fix it.

There can be problem with opening particular page. To fix that you need to

• Open developer tools.
  • Go to Application tab → Local Storage → localhost:8080 →
  • Delete the pageId at the right and restart the app

[Angelo]

Application works, but lack of responding, high resource consumption

Mac, Linux

1. Stop application if it’s running.
2. Can you please start Terminal. In Spotlight you can type “Terminal”
3. Ran the application through the terminal with this command (please correct the location of Anytype app if needed): ANYTYPE_LOG_LEVEL="*=DEBUG" ANYPROF=:6060 /Applications/Anytype.app/Contents/MacOS/Anytype
4. Use Anytype until you notice a higher consumption of resources
   1. Open http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/heap if it consumes more RAM as usual. It’s important to send us data only if you see unusually high consumption of resources
   2. Open http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/profile if it consumes more CPU as usual. It will take 30sec to work. It’s important to send us data only if you see unusually high consumption of resources
   3. Open http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/goroutine?debug=1 if it turned into whitescreen or lack of responding
5. Use CTRL(CMD)-A and CTRL(CMD)-C to copy data from the browser and send it to the team or just send the automatically generated file

Windows

1. Stop application if it’s running.
2. Can you please start Terminal. In Search you can type “CMD”
3. Ran the application through the terminal with this command (please correct the location of Anytype app if needed): set "ANYTYPE_LOG_LEVEL=*=DEBUG" && set "ANYPROF=:6060" && start C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Programs\anytype2\Anytype.exe
4. Use Anytype until you notice a higher consumption of resources
   1. Open http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/heap if it consumes more RAM as usual. It’s important to send us data only if you see unusually high consumption of resources
   2. Open http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/profile](http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/profile) if it consumes more CPU as usual. It will take 30sec to work. It’s important to send us data only if you see unusually high consumption of resources
   3. Open http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/goroutine?debug=1 if it turned into whitescreen or stop working
5. Use CTRL(CMD)-A and CTRL(CMD)-C to copy data from the browser and send it to the team or just send the automatically generated file

[Angelo]

Sync issues

The app takes some time to sync objects between devices. If you want to speed up this process, try restarting the app. If you will continue encountering this issue, please proceed with these steps:

1. Check, do you have any apps restricting network? Firewall, Traffic-blockers, Proxies? Sometimes apps like Kaspersky are installed on a corporate device and can restrict the network. You can check if some ports from 49152 to 65535 are open and try restarting the app several times.
2. If app has no restrictions to work, you need to press a special button «Object diagnostics» under Anytype system menu for debug.
   
   

• Get the AnytypeID
  

  

• Send them to support@anytype.io

Restart the app with repo removal

Your data is safe and stored locally, but sometimes a floating bug may prevent app from managing new data.

• Desktop. Quit Anytype. You can try copying your /anytype2/data folder and pasting into another place as backup. Delete the original one and launch Anytype after that. All your data will sync from backup server and another devices. To find data folder, please open application system menu → file show work directory
  
  
• Mobile.
  • iOS. Open Settings, swipe down and find Anytype. Delete the app and reinstall it from Join the Anytype beta - TestFlight - Apple, as this will remove all data that isn’t essential for the app to run. Sign in into application with your keychain phrase and wait until app will sync.
  • Android. Long tap on application, move to the Storage Tab → Hit Clear App Cache. Sign in into application with your keychain phrase and wait until app will re-sync.

[Angelo]

Common errors

can’t run service ‘ipfs’: failed to listen on any addresses: [listen tcp4 0.0.0.0:63437: bind: An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions.]

• It might happen if some ports are closed for running application on them. System or some application can prevent app from starting. Providing less strict restrictions for Anytype should solve the problem

can’t run service ‘ipfs’: failed to listen on any addresses: [listen tcp4 0.0.0.0:43321: bind: address already in use]

• It might happen if you opened 2 Anytype apps at the same type. It’s possible to use only one instance at the same time now. Close the app, kill all Anytype processes in monitor or restarting the device should solve the problem.

Can’t check available updates, please try again later. Error: net::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID / Error: net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED

• It can be caused by use of apps like NextDNS which blocks ADs and tracking can intercept certain traffic. So switching to 8.8.8.8 at the OS level for DNS will went the problem away.
• It might happen if you work under restricted WIFI network, so changing the network will solve the problem
• It can happen due to server’s certificate update or other server maintenance.

[phileas]

Hi !

I’m using Anytype for 1+ year now. I’ve always had some Sync issues, but now that I’m trying to use it as my main personal knowledge base, theses issues have been pretty problematic and happening on more and more of my objects.

Describe the bug
My MacOs version has a lot of trouble retrieving objects (from Bakcup and/or Android node ?) and most of my objets is marked with “Syncing…”, even if I let it load for multiple days.

I already tried all of options here : reinstralling MacOs app, clearing file cache and local folder data, reloggin…

To Reproduce
idk…

Expected behavior
Sync all objects.

System Information:

• OS: MacOs Monterey 12.3 // Android 12
• Device Manufacturer/Model: Macbook Pro 16" M1 Pro // OnePlus 8T
• Anytype Version: MacOs 0.27.0 (ARM) // Android 0.8.2-alpha

Additional context
I don’t have any Firewall or Proxies, but i’m using my computer most of the time with my Android Access Point. Even when I connected to normal Wi-Fi networks, most of my objects did not sync on my mac.

(i already sent the object diagnosis file to support@anytype.io)

Thanks !

@sambouwer Edit 08/08/2022 : On the past couple of days I experimented to manually copy/paste the content of objects which didn’t sync into new ones to properly sync Android<>MacOs (which worked most of the time !).

But now, suddently, a lot of my objects (which synced properly on my devices) have suddently disapeared (showing “Non-Existant object”).

Most of my Sets are now empty, whereas they used to contain dozens and dozens of objects. I waited to see if the Backup Server was retreiveing it, but it didn’t. I think I could retreive it with a computer which I left offline, but I’m going to stop using AnyType (even if I really love it) as my main tool until the new architecture you mention come out (I think I saw here the ETA is 6 month). Good luck to the whole team for that !

[sambouwer]

Thanks for posting! I’m moving this to the general topic about sync issues. The team is working on rebuilding the app architecture which should resolve all sync issues. See also here:

Syncing to iOS not working for all objects

Part of our team is now working on new app architecture after this huge work will be finished sync issues would gone … I hope)

[sambouwer]

@phileas I’m sorry to hear that! It sounds like there might be something wrong with the Objects that did not sync, and that this issue was copied to the other “good” Objects, breaking them, too. I hope to see you back after the public launch!