Phantom bullet

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Van Wang
  • Edited

Sometimes one or two bullets won't go away during a transition and will remain at a spot as ghost bullets that just hover over contents underneath. They go away after restart. I'm not sure how to reproduce but it seems to come back regularly from normal use. Please see attachment.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Thanks, we've seen it too. We'll get that fixed.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Actually, this appears that you just got into a strange drag/drop state, but there's no real bug here. It should be working fine for you now, hopefully! Thanks!

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    Van Wang
    • Edited

    Weird. It actually still happens, multiple times, everyday. I constantly restart the app to get rid of it because it blocks me from accessing the buttons it's hovering over. But it just comes right back after a few drags/drops. 

    To reproduce the issue:

    - three-finger drag (on Mac)

    or 

    - drag with Wacom pen tablet

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    Van

    Is there anyway to fix this? I have to constantly reopen workflowy to get rid of the phantom buttons, otherwise they block me from accessing the buttons underneath. It's quite an issue for me since dragging buttons around is so essential. Am I the only one with this issue?

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Van,

    When you say "Phantom buttons"... are you saying that you have bullets that are frozen that you can't get rid of when you release... or the fact that there are multiple bullets showing (as you drag multiple bullets)? If it's the latter, it's expected behavior... it's an indication that multiple bullets are being moved. If you'd not like to see multiple bullets being dragged simultaneously... you could collapse whatever outline you're moving... and then you'll only see one bullet.

     

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    Van
    • Edited

    Frozen and can't get rid of on release. Thanks for clarifying.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Van,

    Could you try one or both of the following:

    1. Try changing the bullet options menu in Settings to "Faster item menu" (under "Experimental features" to see if this helps.

    2. Reinstall the desktop app (I think you're on the desktop app and it might not be updated)... although... if you have updated your system to Catalina, you may have an issue getting the updated WorkFlowy desktop app to work at all (after downloading)... so proceed at the risk of not being able to access the desktop app until we come out with a fix. If that happens, you'll have to use the browser app for now.

     

     

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    Van

    Thank you so much! changing the "faster item menu" seems to have helped! Will keep you guys posted if it occurs again. 

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Great to hear, Van!

     

     

     

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    Van

    Unfortunately it's happening again...

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    Van

    Any follow up on this issue? Bullets still freeze after I release them from dragging. Am I the only one with this issue? I'm surprised it's still happening after so long.

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    BOB ELLIOTT

    I do not think that the issue that I sometimes experience is the same, however occasionally I attempt to move a bullet point and I can drag it but cannot put it where I want it to go. It reverts back to it's original location. If I close and restart WorkFlowy, I am able to move the bullet point to a new location.

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    Van
    • Edited

    Yeah it's a separate issue. I've also experienced that before, but much more rare. This frozen bullet issue happens to me a few times every day.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Van,

    Would you mind deleting your desktop app and then reinstalling, please?

    ~ Frank

     

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    Van

    Hi, Frank. I just did, but it didn't help. The same problem still exists.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    This is quite puzzling... as it's the only active issue of this nature that we currently have :-(

    Do you rely on the desktop app? Have you considered using the browser app (now that it has offline mode which can be activated in Settings)?

     

    ~ Frank

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    Van

    It's weird that I'm the only one... I assume that means this is an isolated case that only happens on my computer?

    I do rely on using Workflowy constantly, that's why I prefer the desktop app, over the browser app.

    Anything I can do to help better diagnose the problem? Or should we wait until more people report the same issue?

     

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Van,

    Does this occur at least once a day?... and when you close the app out and open again, does the issue go away? To paraphrase Dr. Seuss... "A bug is a bug no matter how small"... so it would be great to get to the bottom of this even if it's just happening on your desktop. Then there's always the very real possibility of the next update taking care of this...

     

    ~ Frank

     

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    Van

    It's about time we channel some Dr. Seuss in here :)

    Yes, it happens at least once a day for me. Restarting the app makes the frozen bullets go away, but it'll happen again after a while. 

    I've had a breakthrough today when I tried to reproduce the issue while recording my screen - I noticed that it only happens when I first switch to another application and then switch back to Workflowy, then try to move the bullets. If you're interested I can send over the screen recording.

    This isn't so bad now that I know how to reproduce it, just a minor recurring annoyance. 

    Hope that helps...

     

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    OK... so it's the app switching that does it on Mac.How are you switching via apps? Keyboard shortcut or clicking in your dock?

     

     

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    Van

    Keyboard shortcut. I use "Alt + Tab".

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Van, this is a sticky one... not being able to reproduce on my end nor having similar cases in order to identify and get to the bottom of the actual cause. I have seen this occur some time back with an individual user... but a subsequent update to a new release did the trick. We're planning on a new release fairly soon... but would you try deleting the app and downloading from this (developer) domain instead:

    https://dev.workflowy.com/downloads

    ~ Frank

     

     

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    Van

    What will this dev version do?

     

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    Van

    Issue remains the same in the dev version.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    These phantom bullets are proving to be quite hard to pin down!

     

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    Alex J Simmons Jr

    Whether it is helpful or not, I am experiencing these same "phantom" bullets when using the iPad Pro Safari browser.  You can experience this when you use a Bluetooth mouse with the iPad Pro (12.9" 2018) or the new Magic Keyboard with Trackpad.  It happens both Safari, Chrome for iPad, and the Workflowy iPad App.  

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