This last week we had a set of bugs connected with the update to version 4.0 of the app cause problems. These issues should be addressed in version 4.0.6 of the app which is currently live on the web and all the app stores. The biggest problem with these bugs is that under normal circumstances, most people would not have been affected. However, I am making this post because lots of people did get affected and I wanted to apologize and give people the solutions.
What Happened to My Reading Plans?
It was probably about a week ago when I started getting reports about people having problems signing into their group and accessing their reading plans. Several people bore with me as I asked them basic questions eliminating most of the possibilities. A certain scenario made it so a group could get deleted unintentionally and unfortunately, this happened. I did my best to resolve this issue as soon as I was able to identify it, but when the groups got deleted in this unintentional way, it also exposed a series of bugs that caused the app to not load properly. Once, I tracked these issues down I worked till about 4:15 am on Friday night (or Saturday morning) to push out an update to resolve the problems. It took about 24 hrs for the update to get approved in all the app stores and the update is still trickling out to everyone now. If your app hasn’t been updated to version 4.0.6 please go directly to the app store and update the app manually. If you are using the web version make sure you completely close out the app and browser. The web app has to download the update in the background when you access it and then it will install the update on the next load.
So what can you expect now? You shouldn’t have to worry about the weird problem with a group getting deleted again. This happened as a result of the update to version 4.0. It was the biggest update to the app since version 2.0 and we likely won’t have another update that will impact the backend of the app like this for a long time. Also, if you are removed from a group in the future, the app will now detect this and convert your group reading plan with all your checked days to a personal reading plan schedule. So you won’t lose anything and can keep reading without any issues. (Note: you can rename your plan or delete it by going to the plan manager page). Also, if you are disconnected from your group, the app should no longer have the loading bug that prevented the reading plans from loading. Overall, this should bring much more stability to the app when a user is removed from a group.
Restoring Your Group
I was able to recover the group data for one of the larger groups that got deleted with the help of one of its group members. I am still working to find a way to restore this group, but I hope to have it back later this week. I don’t know of many groups that were impacted by this, but if your group was, please reach out to me and I will do my best to help.
Apologies and Thanks
I am sorry for those who were negatively impacted by the bugs. We try to test stuff as much as we can but, sometimes we miss things that are edge cases and we try to fix them as fast as we can. Also, thanks to all those who report problems to us. Many times we have no way of knowing there is an issue till you report it. Also, we often have no way to reproduce the issue without you providing us with the steps you did to see the problem. Your help is pivotal in helping our very small crew keep the app running smoothly for everyone.
