Android: Loading workspace forever

[cerenkov]

Steps to reproduce

I had a vault on my win10 PC. Then I subscribed my account to the Obsidian Sync. On my Android mobile, I successfully had my vault synched. It worked for some days, then suddenly it won’t start up. It stuck at the Loading Workspace phase.

Might be related to me trying to open a pdf in my vault (but obsidian android seemed to be unable to display its content). Then I just kill the process (as usual). Might also be related to other actions that I didn’t notice.

Tried clicking the “Reload app” button. No help.

Tried clearing the cache and user data from the android system. No help. When I open the local vault (or open the obsidian sync and choose the local vault’s path), it starts loading workspace forever and again.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Y

Expected result

Actual result

screen recording:

2.45 MB file on MEGA

Environment

Android 10, MIUI12.0.3, from 2020
Android System WebView 83.0.4103.101, in case you wonder

---

Additional information

The only community plugin installed on the android obsidian is Kanban.

Might be related to:

Stuck on loading workspace on Android

What I’m trying to do When I open Obsidian on my Android, I’m stuck on loading workspace. I can’t open the vault. Things I have tried I tried uninstalling the program and open a folder as a vault without the .obsidian folder there, prompting the program to make a new folder with the workspace file. The program still gets stuck.

iOS and iCloud: Stuck on loading workspace / Unresponsive after start

Steps to reproduce Open Obsidian, app gets stuck on “loading workspace” Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? Y Cannot open app at all to use restricted mode Expected result App opens vault as normal Actual result On iOS, upon app launch, “loading workspace” screen persists indefinitely. Environment Obsidian will not launch at all so cannot post debug. Using iCloud sync vault on iOS 17.2.1 Additional information Attempts to resolve: Force close app, reopen → same result Delete app, r…

[cerenkov]

UPDATE:

My issue is resolved when I noticed that the workspace-mobile.json file under .obsidian directory is like:

{
  "main": {
    ...
    "children": [
      {
        ...
        "type": "tabs",
        "children": [
          {
            ...
          },
          {
            ...
          },
          {
            ...
          },
          {
            ...
          },
          {
            "id": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
            "type": "leaf",
            "state": {
              "type": "pdf",
              "state": {
                "file": "xxxxxx.pdf"
              },
              "icon": "lucide-file-text",
              "title": "xxxxxxxx"
            }
          }
        ],
        "currentTab": 4
      }
    ]
  }
}

and I manually deleted the whole { pdf } part.

The only remaining question is that how is it possible that this simple error (or what so ever) is not caught and handled properly, causing the whole app stuck at this point ?

[WhiteNoise]

That’s not an error.

You are running an Obsolete version of android webview.

[cerenkov]

I would say that my phone, manufactured in 2020, having this version of webview, is outdated but definitely not obsolete.

My core concern is that my branded (Xiaomi) phone has its own APP store (instead of google play store) which keeps those APPs tested for best compatibility on this branded phone (for this brand-customized/modified android system), and that it does not provide newer versions of android webview.

It means that, for nearly all buyers, updating webview is not encouraged and might introduce incompabilities.

That is why you should not blame it for so-called “obsolete” webview.

and btw, since I pinpointed the issue in the workspace-mobile.json file, I guess the problem could be in JSON parsing, so I’ll test the problematic JSON file with an updated android webview, and let you know later whether the bug persist with the newest webview.

[WhiteNoise]

Webview 89 is really too old and it’s out of our support. If you were on desktop with such an old version of Electron/Chorme, you would get a permanent popup asking you to update.

We are wondering if we should introduce the same thing on mobile.

I don’t think the problem is the JSON. Maybe the problem is the PDF viewer being unable work with an old version of webview.

[cerenkov]

You’re right, the “problematic” JSON file works with an up-to-date webview.

That being said, I still strongly suggest that you add some codes for version-testing or exception-handling in case your PDF viewer (or other components) could not work as expected.

From the user side, an infinite Loading Workspace animation during the startup phase really means nothing and gives us absolutely no clue about what happened exactly.