Updated CC (3.5.6) crashes upon opening

[SuzDavid]

Hi. Calibre Companion has beem working perfectly on my Samsung (GT-P3113) tablet running Android 4.1.1 since the app was purchased in early 2013.
I updated to 3.5.6 today.
When I attempted to start the new version, I got an error message stating 'Calibre Companion is not installed.' I removed and replaced the app icon on the home screen. Now, every time I try to run it, it begins to start, then a black screen with error message, "Unfortunately Calibre Companion has stopped," appears. I restarted the tablet but the app continues to crash upon opening.
I cannot live without this app, so if by chance there's no solution to get this update to work on my device, I need to roll back to an earlier version that works.
Thanks in advance for your help.
~ Suz David

[chaley]

That sounds like an install that went bad for some reason, corrupting CC's program file. It almost certainly isn't a problem with V3.5.6, because it is running on thousands of devices.

What does Google Play say? Does it think CC is installed? If not, try installing it again.

The "nuclear option" is to uninstall and reinstall the app. Depending on how many books you have on the device, this path could be somewhat painful, but it is the easiest and most certain path forward. It would be less painful if you happened to have made a backup of CC's settings.

Google provides no option to rollback an app, so that option is out. Depending on how corrupt the current install is, you can't even sideload a previous version because Android refuses to backtrack.

One possible option: if you can "sideload" an app using its APK file, I could send you the V3.5.6 APK by email. You could then try to reinstall it over the top of the corrupted version. To do this I need an email address that will be delivered to your device. You can send me that via private message on this forum. It isn't certain that this will work. Some corruptions are cleared only with an uninstall.

To recap: the quickest and most sure way of recovering is to uninstall and reinstall CC.

[chaley]

Also check that you really have V3.5.6 installed. We received some crash reports yesterday for someone running a Samsung device and Android 4.1 where CC was V3.5.5, which does crash on startup. It was available only for around 3 hours, but that was long enough for a lot of people to get it.

[SuzDavid]

Hi, Charles. Thanks for the quick response. Sorry I took so long; I had a family emergency. I just have a few questions about the questions you posed:

chaley: 'Also check that you really have V3.5.6 installed' ... 'What does Google Play say? Does it think CC is installed? If not, try installing it again.'

Upon trying to start the 'updated' CC on my Samsung tablet, the error message was '[CC] is not installed.' Google Play did Not think Calibre Companion was installed on this tablet.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the update I originally downloaded to the tablet was, in fact, V3.5.5. I must have tried to re-download the update, which by that time was V3.5.6, because Google Play now shows CC V3.5.6 is installed on the tablet but there is no change in the crashing behavior.

chaley: ' "The "nuclear option" is to uninstall and reinstall the app. Depending on how many books you have on the device, this path could be somewhat painful, but it is the easiest and most certain path forward.'

I have more than 800 books in the Calibre Companion library on the tablet. I don't use any special settings (no subsets or different libraries) other than to sort by author or sometimes by title.
By 'painful,' did you mean that I would have to re-import all the books? Or just that I would lose any special settings I had?

If I would still have my basic library of books viewable in Calibre Companion after I uninstall and reinstall V3.5.6, then I have no problem with doing it that way.

If uninstall/reinstall of CC would mean having to re-import all the books, I would want to at least try the other options.
Before asking about pursuing that, I'll wait to hear from you about the 'losing my library' question.

Thanks again for your help.
~ Suz D.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by SuzDavid

chaley: ' "The "nuclear option" is to uninstall and reinstall the app. Depending on how many books you have on the device, this path could be somewhat painful, but it is the easiest and most certain path forward.'

I have more than 800 books in the Calibre Companion library on the tablet. I don't use any special settings (no subsets or different libraries) other than to sort by author or sometimes by title.
By 'painful,' did you mean that I would have to re-import all the books? Or just that I would lose any special settings I had?

If I would still have my basic library of books viewable in Calibre Companion after I uninstall and reinstall V3.5.6, then I have no problem with doing it that way.

An uninstall/reinstall will erase CC's database, which means that CC will think it has no books. However, if all the books are still in your calibre library and the books are epubs, then simply connecting as a wireless device will recover the books. The sync will take a bit longer than normal.

If the books are not epubs then things get more complicated. CC will send the books to calibre for analysis and matching, which takes time. This works reasonably well for .mobi but it frequently fails for PDFs. If it fails then you must manually match the unmatched books on the device to the books in the calibre library. You do this on calibre's device view.

Resending 800 books would take about 20 minutes, which isn't too bad. The problem is whether or not you remember what books are on the device and need to be resent.

If uninstall/reinstall of CC would mean having to re-import all the books, I would want to at least try the other options.
Before asking about pursuing that, I'll wait to hear from you about the 'losing my library' question.

Thanks again for your help.
~ Suz D.

The only other option is to manually reinstall CC. To do this, I must send you the APK by email. You would open the email on your device and tap the attachment. If all goes well, your device will ask you if you want to install the APK. This process overwrites the existing install but leaves the DB. If you want to try this then send me an appropriate email address by private message.

Note that if the db itself is damaged then a manual reinstall won't fix anything.

[cybmole]

you could presumably back up the database on the device with es explorer or a similar app, then try a complete remove & re-install of CC. if that solves the opening crash, then you close CC & restore the database from it's back up folder.
Chaley should confirm if that is viable before you do anything irreversible

the other usuals are apps - > settings -> clear cache / force close to gure general misbehaviour - and of course , for any device , always try a complete power off. power on again ,

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

you could presumably back up the database on the device with es explorer or a similar app, then try a complete remove & re-install of CC. if that solves the opening crash, then you close CC & restore the database from it's back up folder.
Chaley should confirm if that is viable before you do anything irreversible

Unless you have rooted your device, there are very few ways to backup the database (user data). The ones I know of require using a cable, installing special device drivers, and then running a program on the desktop machine.

the other usuals are apps - > settings -> clear cache / force close to gure general misbehaviour - and of course , for any device , always try a complete power off. power on again ,

These are all certainly worth trying. Be sure that you "clear cache", not "clear data". The latter operation will erase the database.

[chaley]

APK sent to the email addresses you gave me.

[SuzDavid]

Thanks to Charles and everyone for your assistance. Problem solved!
I received the apk but unfortunately, for some reason, "download failed." After a few tries, I went ahead and uninstalled/reinstalled CC. Acquiring and syncing the library went smoothly and, In spite of my earlier trepidation, was fairly quick and painless.
So, I thank you again; without your explanations and advice , I would have been loath to try this on my own. So I learned some things and am happily reading again.
Calibre Companion 'rocks!'
~ Suz

[chaley]

Very glad things worked out. I have no idea why the APK files gave those errors, but happily in the end it didn't matter very much.

[laurla]

I have Kindle Fire and just did the 3.5.6 update this evening. When I went open CC, it is just a blank screen. I rebooted (powered down) but this didn't help. Do I need uninstall and reinstall CC?

ETA: so I went ahead and uninstall/reinstalled...seems to be working now.

[cybmole]

i just checked my kindke fire & it must have upgraded itself on 3.5.6. with no issue, so it is not a universlal CC+KF problem
that's KF hDX and the new fire OS has rolled out to it already

[chaley]

Originally Posted by laurla

I have Kindle Fire and just did the 3.5.6 update this evening. When I went open CC, it is just a blank screen. I rebooted (powered down) but this didn't help. Do I need uninstall and reinstall CC?

ETA: so I went ahead and uninstall/reinstalled...seems to be working now.

Excellent.

We have now had two cases where an update failed, one from Amazon and one from Google Play. I wish I understood why it happened. Blaming it on the bit fairy seems inadequate somehow.

Originally Posted by cybmole

i just checked my kindke fire & it must have upgraded itself on 3.5.6. with no issue, so it is not a universlal CC+KF problem
that's KF hDX and the new fire OS has rolled out to it already

Good to know. I can't test the OTA upgrade process because I must run a test version of the app.

[cybmole]

technically - does CC actually "close" in android or is is an open in background process

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

technically - does CC actually "close" in android or is is an open in background process

Rather hard to answer this question because of the way Android manages processes.

An Android app does not ever "close" in the sense that it says "I am done. Kill my process." Instead it says "I have nothing more to do. You can kill me if you want." Android reserves the right to kill any process at any time. Depending on memory, the process an app is running within can be killed when the app is put into the background. Or not killed. The app is not told if it is going to be killed.

An app consists of a set of things called "activities". An activity can be (loosely) thought of as a unit of functionality. When an activity is put into the background, perhaps because it started some other activity (think CC book list to CC book details), then the calling activity is asked to save its state. At this point the process for that activity may or may not be killed. If the activity is brought back to the foreground then if the process had been killed the activity is re-created and the state is restored. If the process had not been killed then the re-create step is not done before the state is restored. This can lead to all sorts of subtle bugs because sometimes on restart the local variables (class attributes) still exist and sometimes they do not.

To get directly to your question: if the only activity for an app says "I am done" and gives control back to the OS then my experience is that Android will kill that app's process. No state will be saved by Android (the app might save state itself). If the activity comes back then the app will be reinitialized as if it is starting after a boot. It isn't strictly required in this case that the process be killed, but I have never seen a case where it is not.