Web interface problem on tablet and phone

[Dick Cooper]

Hi

I have a problem with the Web UI on my two Android devices - a Google Nexus 7 (7" screen obviously) and a Sony Xperia Tipo phone (3" screen). I can only see the Now Playing panel so I can't do a search or select anything. Swiping left and right (and any other gesture) has no effect. Force desktop/mobile is set to automatic. I don't expect much on the phone but the tablet really ought to be usable.

Screenshots attached.

Web UI functions as expected on my Windows laptop.

Thanks

[Dick Cooper]

... and rotating the device still only show the Now Playing panel, it's just wider...

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Dick, if you click/tap on the now playing tab does it give you a drop down box with all the other options? My Samsung phone layout is slightly different, but that's how I access the options on it.

Leslie.

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Leslie

YES! That certainly lets me control the B2 from my phone (although I can't see the album art, presumably because the screen is so very very small).

Anyone got the answer for the Nexus 7 - which displays the Settings cogwheel instead of the Now Playing tab? On closer inspection, the Nexus display really looks like the left pane of the desktop display and quite different from the phone display. Strange.

Thanks

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Dick, the art should still show up on your phone. It does on my Samsung. I also have a 10" Samsung tablet and layout is basically the same as on a PC on it in landscape, but different in portrait. Jpegs attached. Sorry about pic quality. Trying to hunt down my son's 7" tablet to get a look at how it shows up on it, but haven't managed to find it yet. Haven't got a photo of my phone yet, but it is basically what you've got with the album art inserted. The web UI can be affected by lag and the art could suddenly appear after a delay. I have had two album covers appear when changing tracks and on occassions none for awhile. I had a lot of UI problems after changing my router and relocating it to give a better signal to other devices in the house. My B2 ended up slighly further away from the hub, Not by much, but enough to cause the UI problems. The antenna Martin recommended sorted out the slightly weaker signal being received due to the router relocation. Hopefully you'll get it sorted.

Leslie

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Dick, here's how the Web UI shows up on my Samsung phone with the cover art. In landscape it shows up differently. I found you could scoll down by dragging a finger up/down the left hand side, but no where else on the screen. Better in portrait view using drop down menu. Haven't managed to get hold of a 7" tablet yet. All my devices are using google chrome as the browser. I know different browsers can sometimes be a problem.

Leslie.

[PMB]

Hi Dick,

Have you downloaded the latest software (web upgrade) as Martin has made some changes for 'phablet' devices?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Dick Cooper]

Yes, I have Mar 20 version. Web UI shows artwork on my wife's Vodafone (Huawei I think) 4" phone. But not shown on my Sony 3" phone in either orientation. Cannot not resize further. Phone confirms I have latest android for my phone when I try to update.

Looks like interface no work on a 3" phone. Not only no artwork, no volume control either, which is a real show-stopper.

[Dick Cooper]

...oops, forget to upload landscape view ... cannot resize this either...

[Dick Cooper]

... sorry, posting before thinking ... can resize to make text larger, but cannot resize to make it small enough to see either artwork or volume control. Finished posting now. Sorry.

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Dick, the Huawei isn't showing the volume control either. However, if it's like my Samsung the art work has pushed it down off the screen. I have to drag the screen up a bit to see and access the volume control. The Huawei is probably the same. Can you move the screen at all on the Sony, or is it basically all you get is what you see? If no one comes up with the solution you can always steal the wife's phone. It'll be like who has control of the TV remote. Seriously. I hope you get it sorted. Any joy with the 7" table?

Leslie

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Dick, is the same browser being used on both phones?

[Dick Cooper]

On the Sony, the browser is called 'browser' with a picture of the globe (I don't know what that means, and I will investigate further tomorrow and might try downloading Chrome - or something else??); on the Huawei it's definitely Chrome. Next time I get my hands on the Huawei I'll have a go at dragging and shrinking.

On the Sony I can't move the image, but when I rotate it to landscape I can shrink it but not enough to see a volume control. It's the perfect size to be a phone but it seems it's not big enough to be a computer.

I'd forgotten about the tablet (it's v. slow and the battery doesn't last) but I'll look again tomorrow.

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Dick, don't know the age of your phone, but I think new Sony's are using Chrome. Maybe moving to Chrome will be your solution.

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Dick, managed to get a hold of a 5 year old Samsung Tab 2 7" tablet. It had a web browser similar to your Sony. When I put my B2 IP in it went to Google and told me is was an IP address. After a lot of fiddling around I managed to get chrome on it (had been stuck in a cupboard for several years and hadn't been updated). See attached Jpegs. Sorry about picture quality, but you get the gist. Better in landscape. Was able to the whole page scroll up/down using finger at the extreme right edge of the screen. A bit fiddly, but works. Also by using finger in left hand music playing window/column. Also able to scroll up/down in Search column, Artists and Albums windows providing the was enough info there to require scrolling. Good luck in getting something sorted soon. 

Leslie.

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Leslie

Wow, a 5-year old tablet - that's almost as old as my phone. Anyhow, many thanks for all your research.

I just checked my Google Nexus 7 and the other party's Huawei, and the Web GUI now work on both of them - maybe it was the recent update - although the tablet still seems slow - more research needed by me.

And so for the Sony phone, I installed Chrome (after deleting 3 apps to make space) as you suggested and sure enough everything is now working as you describe. Hooray! The old browser was I believe an earlier version of Softonic's Web Browser For Android (I couldn't get into the app to check - logo looks similar to their current version). Interestingly (?) my first choice of browser - Opera Mini - had the same problem as my old Web Browser. Strange. But as I now have something that works, I'm not looking any further, and anyone else who has browser-WebUI problems, try Chrome.

Thanks again.

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Dick, good to hear you've now got something that works for you. The old 7" tablet worked, but was a bit laggy.  Leslie.

[Dick Cooper]

Hi again

Just when it all seemed to be working I sat down and starting listening to some music and got the old heave-ho from Chrome. Tried Firefox (which I use on Windows) and it just kept crashing.

I have now found a browser that seems to work OK - Dolphin - after several other wasted visits to the Play store. A couple of small browsers, Via and some other (can't remember the name) just didn't work - had the same symptoms as my old mabe Softonic browser - no album art, no volume control.

I think the problem with Chrome and Firefox failing may be my phone's small internal memory - 2.9 GB (2.5 GB user available), 512 MB RAM, according to the specs on https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_tipo-4718.php

The problem with the browsers that won't display the albumart and volume control is beyond me. Anyone know if different browsers have different underlying code and how to tell which is which, other than downloading and seeing if they work? Anyone else have an embarrassingly small device and a favourite browser?

Anyway, I feel that the fact that the WebUI seems to only work with some browsers ought to be looked at, or at least flagged up in the specs.
 

[Brennan Support]

Hello Dick

Martin here - thanks for all the images - what do I need to fix?

I just checked and I can see that the now playing graph appears to be broken on my iPhone (emulation) but in one line what doesn't work that you would like fixing?

Martin

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Martin

In one line - could the Web UI be causing too much caching of data (on my phone - not a problem on my laptop).

Using the small browser, Dolphin, my phone started to slow down after 20 or so tracks and delay sending commands to the B2 (possibly same lack of memory that broke Chrome  -photo above- after a few tracks?).

Could caching cause that effect - it seems to be something to do with the limited memory on my phone as it's not a problem on my tablet?

Regards
Dick

[Brennan Support]

Hello Dick

I don't know anything about Dolphin - its possible but the browser should "garbage collect" memory and if there was a "memory leakage" problem it would eventually show up on all browsers. It may be down to the limited memory on the phone - so the browser just has no room - maybe a bit of Googling will let you get some memory usage info from Dolphin - Chrome has a developer panel

Sorry not one line

Martin   

[Dick Cooper]

Thanks Martin

I think you're telling me it's something the browser does, not something the WebUI causes to happen. I have found some comments that suggest that Dolphin might accumulate lots of garbage in the browser cache. I will retry Chrome and see if its setting enable me to overcome the problem.

I'll ask the rest of the audience again - can anyone recommend a small fast browser (I've tried Dolphin and Via as well as Chrome and Firefox)?

Thanks

[Dick Cooper]

Hi again

I've reinstalled Chrome on my Sony phone and the problem persists. I get the Aw Snap message from Chrome every 10-30 minutes when on the Now Playing screen, but not if I go to the Search screen and let the album or playlist continue playing there. Also, on long classical pieces, it happens less often. Could Chrome be caching the album art (the pictures are only 200x200 - about 10Kb)? After I get Aw Snap, pressing reload reloads the screen fine. Phone memory is 2.9 GB (2.5 GB user available), 512 MB RAM.

No problems on Google Nexus 7.

Does anyone know a specific Chrome setting I can change to stop Chrome caching, like the settings in about:config in Firefox?

Thanks

[Brennan Support]

Hello Dick

The Browser will cache things but that's its responsibility and it should release memory for data that is no longer needed.

I don't have any ideas about the Aw Snap message I used to see it a lot on Chromebooks - with Google Photos - but they (Google) seem to make changes continually so that went away. Suggest Googling the symptoms.

Let me/us know if you find anything - I'll have a think about looking at Browser memory usage - see if there is some potential "memory leakage" but its strange because I have B2s playing for days on end attached to web UI and they never display Aw Snap

Martin

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Martin

Using 6 April software update, Sony Xperia Tipo continues to run out of steam and give Aw Snap message after about 30 mins when showing Now Playing pane. Looking at Settings/Apps/Chrome, Chrome is using 67MB app, 13MB data, cache is 13.2MB. Phone has 2.5GB memory (usable) and 512MB RAM.

My Nexus 7 (16GB memory, 1GB RAM) is still running happily after 4hrs (when the battery runs out) and cache shows 351MB used.

Comparing the two, my conclusion is that the cache fills up, and there's no way in Chrome of stopping this from happening.

So, my question to the wider audience is "Can Anyone Suggest A Browser For A Small Phone?" - I've tried Firefox with various cache settings in About:Config but none of them seems to have any effect. Disadvantage of Firefox is that when it fails it fails, whereas Chrome's Aw Snap message allows instant reload.

Next step may be second-hand smartphone.

Cheers

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Dick, as I read your post I was thinking with everything you've tried, maybe it's time to think about another phone and I didn't want to sound impolite. Got to the end of the post and see that you are considering it. Phew! May be the only way to get you sorted. Good luck.
Leslie.

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Leslie

Yes, either a new phone or I'm going to have to start carrying my laptop round the house.

Now how do I start deciding which phone to buy? I've spent all my mad money buying the B2 - my budget is fifty quid.... and I'm tempted by a second-hand Nokia Lumia.

I just want to (1) make calls and send texts and (2) have a small-ish device that I can use to control my B2 using the WebUI

Anyone posting advice on this topic will not be abused, so I'm listening.

Cheers

[Dick Cooper]

Hi all

Just when everything was working OK I find that the GUI doesn't work on my mobile devices (it was working a few days ago but now it isn't). Original.hmtl which I usually use doesn't show anything except some random bits (in Now Playing mode I think on Windows phone), and the mobile.html doesn't work either (shown after pressing Settings icon on android phone).

I recently, but not that recently, intalled Software Version B2 Dec 9 2020 11:28:05.

GUI works fine on my laptop, just doesn't work on either phone (sony android and nokia Windows phone).

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong or is the GUI broken?

[PMB]

Hi Dick,

If the web UI is working on the laptop then it sounds like the hardware and software are working OK.

Try clearing browser data/history on the phones > open an new browser page > type all of the IP Address manually, rather than using a bookmark or shortcut.

You could also try restarting the phones.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Dick Cooper]

I've tried clearing the phones' browser history and cookies. I've restarted the router, I've restarted the Brennan so it has a new address, I've restarted the phones (took the batteries out). Same problem on both phones using default brower (and using an old version of Chrome 42.0 on the android 4.0.4 phone).

Tried on partner's phone. Same problem with default browser but Chrome works OK (running later versions of Android and Chrome probably).

Cannot try Chrome on my Windows phone because cannot access Windows Store (Windows won't allow access using Windows 8.1 and my phone won't upgrade to later version of Windows) and most other download links don't work either (e.g. Opera mini).

Mabe I was wrong about the phone working after I updated the Brennan software. Maybe I was running a 6-month old GUI. Do you know when was the last change to the GUI was so I can try to get an old copy to try please? I'd really like to get my Windows phone working again and not have to buy a new one, since I only use it to "control" the Brennan (I have a proper dumb phone for phone calls). It used to work and now it don't.

p.s. If anyone knows another browser that works with Windows phone 8.1 I'd be grateful for a download link (to a download site, not the Windows store, obviously).

[Russell...@hotmail.com]

Hi Dick - I just had a look for you - maybe this link will help. Don't forget to make sure your anti virus s/w is enabled on your phone if you do load one of them. Cheers Russ

https://mobiletrans.wondershare.com/windows-phone/top-7-best-browsers-for-windows-phone.html

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Russ, I don't know if you looked at the link you sent, but all the downloads are from the Windows store, which I cannot access on my phone. I might try to download the Surfy app on my laptop (the UC, Nokia Xpress and Maxthon links don't work) and try to port it to my phone on an SD card but I'll have to go through the pain of trying to recreate a Microsoft account to download something that may or may not work. Do you know if it works?

So - If anyone knows another browser that works with Windows phone 8.1 I'd be grateful for a download link (to a download site, not the Windows store, obviously).

[Russell...@hotmail.com]

Hi Dick - Sorry there,  I thought it was a general "freeshare" site - with the name Wondershare which bypassed the Windows store. Obviously not - Cheers Russ

[Jeff]

Dick, I used to love my old windows 10 phone, but I ditched it for Android about 4 years ago as there was virtually no support for very much stall. Windows 8 was even worse. It's a pain making the change to android, but I reckon you may be best off getting a s/h android, 2 or 3 years old, and go from there, there is just so much more support.

[PMB]

Hi Dick,

The SD Card download image on the Techy Stuff page - link - is B2B Nov2019, if you want to give it a try. You'll need to reprogram the SD Card using Etcher.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Dick Cooper]

Paul - the SD card I was refering to is the one in my phone... and I was going to try to download a browser installer file on my laptop and transfer it to my phone on an SD card. Sorry for any confusion.

Paul - after applying some thought to this problem (usually I act first and think second, but I know that's wrong), I wonder if the problem is caused by changes to the GUI made to combat the unspecified YouTube problem referred to in the release notes to the 31st December 2019 release? Being able to access the Brennan on my partner's phone using a newish version of Chrome but not the default browser, nor using old Chrome on my own phone, is just like the problem I had not being able to access my online banking on an old XP laptop using IE8 but able to using a newer Chrome or Firefox, because the bank doesn't allow access using a browser that dowsn't support TLS1.2. Did the change to the GUI involve checking what level of security/transfer protocol is permitted by the browser? If so, I wonder if the older version of the GUI referred to in the link for the 24th December 2019 release preceded the changes to the GUI and so would work for old browsers? (I'm assuming I was wrong about when I upgraded the GUI and that I must have been using the 24th December 2019 release for ages). (and I don't care about the level of security of access to my Brennan from my phone). I don't think the problem can be with changes to the software on my phone, because I'm not able to update it (not being able to access the Windows store, presumably due to some similar problem with security protocols not supported by my phone software). Any thoughts on that? And does the b2.tar.gz file have to be the only file on the USB when installing from USB?

Thanks

[PMB]

Hi Dick,

As a test it would be worth trying the 24 Dec 2019 software. You can have other files on the USB stick but only one b2.tar.gz file. Use the SW Upgrade option from the Maintenance menu to load it.

Let us know how it goes.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Paul

Yes, the 24 Dec 2019 software works fine again on my Windows phone (although the first time I tried SW Upgrade nothing happened - I rebooted manually then ran SW Upgrade again and then B2 came up with Rebooting after updating - maybe a USB glitch).

So my guess is that some "improvement" to security settings to enable YouTube function has prevented access from older browsers. Maybe a TLS 1.2 thing?

Anyway, I'm happy with the old software for now. I hope you'll consider coding a workaround so the new YouTube security checks if that's what they are (and they may be important to heavy YouTubers) only apply to external sites and won't stop me accessing my B2 from my phone on my own network.

Really I don't want to have to buy a new phone to be able to keep B2 up to date.

Regards,

[PMB]

Hi Dick,

Thanks for the update. I will have to ask Martin about this.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Dick Cooper]

Do you have an answer from Martin yet, please?

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Dick,

Please note (in relation to your other thread regarding changing IP numbers on your B2), that this IP and WiFi problem WILL be impacting on your Web UI experience issues and NEEDS to be solved first.

You need a strong stable WiFi connection for your B2 for it to operate properly in a Web environment.

Fred

[Dick Cooper]

Hi Fred

I'm fairly sure the two problems are unrelated which is why I started a new thead for the Wifi problem. The non-display problem on my Windows 8.1 phone started when I installed the Dec 9 2020 software and went away permanently when I reinstalled the 24 December 2019 software. I'm fairly sure it's a security thing because I get exactly the same problem using my old Windows XP laptop - I can access the GUI using Firefox 52.9 which supports TLS1.2 but using IE8 which does not support TLS1.2 I get the random display problem, as described before. I recognise these symptoms outside my network - can't access my bank with IE8 but can with FF52.9 under XP.

So I think something was changed in the B2 software to stop devices that don't use the latest security protocols from accessing the B2 and I'd like to know (a) is that true and (b) can it be changed back so that my old devices can continue to operate OK inside the network?
Thanks

[Dick Cooper]

Does anyone at Brennan have any news on what change was made that prevents some devices accessing the B2? And can it be fixed? This is definitely not a flaky wifi problem, because using the older B2 software my phone works OK.

On Friday, 12 March 2021 at 11:33:52 UTC Dick Cooper wrote: