Warning: Don't update SkySafari to 4.3 on Nexus 7 2013

[julianh72]

I received an update to SkySafari 4.3 Plus on my Nexus 7 2013 tablet and Nexus 4 phone yesterday, and it has completely broken the app on my tablet. I have been in touch with Bill Schumy of Southern Skies, and he claims it is a bug in the Nexus 7, rather than a bug with the SkySafari code - something to do with obb files, whatever they are. Sounds pretty bogus to me, as the Nexus 7 2013 is a Google reference device, and it seems odd that the bug would only come to light now, and with this one particular update of one app, but he is adamant that it is the case.

Discussion on the Southern Skies Yahoo page:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/southern_stars/conversations/topics/10904

Anyway, I now no longer have a working copy of SkySafari on my tablet, although it still works fine on my Nexus 4 phone.

I don't know if the problem will reveal itself on any other devices - proceed at your own risk!

[mithrandir]

Julian, I'll quote one of Bill's replies. He is apparently not alone in saying Android has a bug on the 2013 Nexus 7. Just because a device is a "reference platform" does not mean it is perfect.


He also said in another post:

[julianh72]

I've tried to track down the issue on the Google support forums - it seems to be a pretty obscure "fault", and he is the most prolific contributor. I suspect he is using some pretty outdated developer techniques. He said this problem has been around for a while, but I have only experienced it with this latest parch of SkySafari 4.3; I never had an issue with 4.2.x running under several versions of stock Android 4.x, 5.0 and 5.0.1.

For what it's worth, I followed his advice, uninstalled and reinstalled, but it's still broken. I can't tell whether it installed 4.2.x or 4.3.

[MrB]

No problem on my device.
Yet :sadeyes:

[mithrandir]

Simon it only happens on the 2013 Nexus 7 - not on other Android devices - and not on all SkySafari 4 versions.

[julianh72]

Strange - it's working fine now. No idea whether it will stay fixed or not, it looks like an unpredictable bug.

It turns out that after uninstalling and reinstalling, it reinstalled 4.3 again, even though the developer said they changed settings to stop 4.3 installing onto a Nexus 7 2013.

[MrB]

Yes, I know, hence my reply.
If I was not using a 2013 Nexus 7 and SF4.3, I would not have replied as it would not be relevant.
But I am, so I did.