User reported remixed projects being deleted/ disappearing

[jwzimmer-zz]

Reported via freshdesk no. 59964:

Students are reporting to me that their saved remixed projects are deleted. I checked the discussion forum for bugs and did not see it noted. Thoughts? Feedback? Thank you.

Metadata:

• User: (see freshdesk ticket)
• Operating System: Windows 7
• Browser: Chrome 54.0.2840.59
• Flash Version: Flash 23.0 (release 0)

I have asked the user for which students have seen this (I'm assuming they aren't student accounts, they're regular accounts, but will verify), if they are seeing the remixes in their Trash folders at all, if it has happened consistently, and if they are seeing any errors in the console.

[jwzimmer-zz]

Update from user in freshdesk no. 59964:

As suggested I did have a student check the trash folder in My Stuff and a copy of her original file was there. Another class stated there is sometimes an issue with "Remix" but they now save before existing.

I have been canvassing my classes today and so far there are no further issues.

So, possibly a project was moved automatically to the Trash folder, not by the student. That would be a distinct issue from https://github.com/LLK/scratch-flash/issues/1148 or https://github.com/LLK/scratch-flash/issues/1110. Or, possibly, the project was moved to the Trash folder by the student.

The Remix issue could be like https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4133#issuecomment-254518195, potentially projects are not being saved properly soon after account creation. Or, the students figured out how to use Scratch better, and there was no issue? (Although I would expect auto-save to protect them from losing much work.)

[jwzimmer-zz]

The reporting user from freshdesk no. 59964 is a New Scratcher so I don't think their students are using teacher accounts.

Trying to repro

Win 7 VM, Chrome 54.0.2840.99, Production

• Using Scratcher muclesandmucles
• Remixing projects and quickly moving away from the page to another page
  • Remixed 3 projects from "What the community is remixing" row in case having a lot of remixes or a lot of concurrent activity has some effect
  • Projects are in My Stuff
• Still using projects from "What the community is remixing"
  • Tried to remix + share 2 projects as quickly as possible
  • The 2nd project's share didn't "take" (as in, I clicked the button, then went to My Stuff, but the project didn't get shared - I clicked the Share button again and it did). Maybe something like this is happening; students clicks aren't registering for whatever reason on the remix button (it could be user error; maybe I thought I clicked it but missed or something).
  • Tried again with a 3rd project: was able to repro clicking Share but the project not being shared.
  • Tried several more times but the projects were shared successfully
  • Found a project that yields Type Error 1009 on share consistently try { __flash__toXML(console.log("12:53:30 PM | err | TypeError: Error #1009")) ; } catch (e) { "<undefined/>"; } --> created issue https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4437

Production, Chrome 55, Mac OS El Capitan

• Using projects from the Explore page
  • Clicked remix and closed tab as quickly as possible for 6 projects
  • 2 were not successfully remixed; I only saw the warning dialogue "are you sure you want to leave, changes may not be saved" for 1 of the projects (I talked to @cwillisf: this sounds like more of a "don't do that" situation than a valid repro for this bug. : ) )
  • I saw the dialogue for 1 of the 4 successfully remixed projects as well

[jwzimmer-zz]

Attempting to repro, cont'd

Production, Chromebook, ChromeOS/ Chrome 55

The initial report came in with Windows 7 OS & Chrome browser being used. 2 days ago (1/10/17) I got a response to my question as to whether the students were also using Windows 7 + Chrome:

Students typically use Chromebooks. Teachers have both desktops (Windows 7 operating system) and Chromebooks.

Based on that response, I think this case & https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4082 could be one-and-the-same issue, since they both involve projects failing to save or disappearing after being saved.

However, at least one of the students whose work disappeared in this teacher's class found the project in the Trash folder, and they reported remixes not being saved, so there are a couple things potentially going on here:

As suggested I did have a student check the trash folder in My Stuff and a copy of her original file was there. Another class stated there is sometimes an issue with "Remix" but they now save before existing.

Weird issues with chromebook & saving/ persistence of projects

(From this ticket in https://github.com/LLK/scratch-flash/issues/1218#issue-183527295)

• Projects moving from My Stuff to Trash mysteriously
• Remixes not saving, or disappearing mysteriously

(From https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4082)

• My Stuff being empty on Chromebook but not Mac

(From https://github.com/LLK/scratch-flash/issues/1249)

• Projects disappearing with no Trashed or Deleted projects showing up

Attempting to repro

• Using my chromebook
• As user muclesandmucles (Scratcher status), remixed a bunch of projects
• They all appear in My Stuff, unless I closed the tab super quickly, in which case they might not
• I created a new user mucles2 (New Scratcher status)
• While my email was unconfirmed, I tried to remix a bunch of projects
  • All were successful
• Confirmed my email, then remixed more projects
  • All were successful
• Signed out & in as muclesandmucles
• Set Internet to Throttling > DSL in Network tab
  • Tried to remix projects, success
• Started switching between remixing a project or viewing My Stuff in chromebook vs. MacBook
  • Required re-authentication (can't have two active sessions with same user)
  • Banner/ pop-up that tells you you need to sign in again doesn't show up on Chromebook, but it does on Mac.
  • However, you do need to re-sign-in on both.
  • The remix action usually seems not to get cancelled if you have been signed out
  • It asks you to sign in again; if you do, the remix then completes
  • However, sometimes the remix action does not complete:
    • I was switching computers, then ended up with the "remixing…" orange bar on mac while in a signed out state.
    • I clicked “want to save? click remix” and was told I need to sign in as muclesandmucles to save.
    • I signed in.
    • Then my name showed up in the upper right as usual but the "remixing…" just stayed, and nothing was going on in the console.
    • I clicked “want to save? click remix” and signed in again, then the save (of the remix) completed.
    • @cwillisf said: "that sounds like the save sometimes cancels itself and sometimes not, and whether or not it cancels isn't well correlated with whether or not the "remixing..." banner is shown"
• I opened up enough tabs on my Chromebook & a large project (138018232) that my computer crashed
  • In my experience, it is pretty easy to make my Chromebook crash, and it happens fairly often; if this is the case with other users as well, I could imagine this not being an implausible situation for students to be in
  • When I tried to view My Stuff after coming back from the crash (my computer froze; I forced it to shut down; I turned it back on; I restored the tabs that had been there; I X'ed out of several of them including the large scratch project before they had all finished loading), My Stuff was blank
  • It stayed blank for quite a while (minutes)
  • Nothing happened in the console for a long time
  • Eventually the ERR_TIMED_OUT error appeared
• On my chromebook, as muclesandmucles, trying other actions to see if they will cause any repercussions with My Stuff or remixes
• I tried emptying the empty Trash folder
• Emptying a non-empty Trash folder
• Trashing and restoring projects
• Sharing and unsharing projects
• Editing remixes
  • If I edit a remix, then view the project page, I get a "are you sure you want to leave? you might lose your changes" warning when I leave the project page, even if I haven't changed or edited anything on the project page
  • I saw this on both Mac & Chromebook however (e.g. pick a project; See Inside; re-color something; use undo button in editor to undo that action; click See Project Page; go to My Stuff; note dialogue box about saving your work)

Error in console when My Stuff was blank --> https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4082#issuecomment-272450750

[jwzimmer-zz]

Closing this for lack of repro or until we get a more substantial report (e.g. something with error messages).

Potentially users were encountering the scenario where they moved away from the remixed project too quickly for the remix to be saved. I was able to repro that that is possible. (However, I don't know for sure that there is not something else going on.)

I did find some suspicious behaviour when trying to repro this, but wasn't able to repro this issue.

• If you move away from the editor quickly enough, clicking "Share" may not successfully share your project --> "don't do this" (not really a bug so much as user behaviour)
• If you move away from the editor quickly enough, clicking "Remix" may not successfully remix your project --> "don't do this" (not really a bug so much as user behaviour)
• There is a dialogue box that appears on Mac but not Chromebook when you need to reauthenticate in order to remix a project --> https://github.com/LLK/scratch-flash-online/issues/297
• My Stuff was blank on Chromebook after a crash --> https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4445
• You can get prompted on the Project Page to save changes even though no changes took place there (they took place in the editor) --> occurs on both Chromebook and Mac
• On remixing and authentication: "that sounds like the save sometimes cancels itself and sometimes not, and whether or not it cancels isn't well correlated with whether or not the "remixing..." banner is shown" (from @cwillisf)
• Encountered a project that when remixed couldn't be shared --> https://github.com/LLK/scratchr2/issues/4437