Swype Paralysis?

[jsh1120]

Are you rooted? I had this problem once in a while when I was rooted with DroidMod.

[I had a panic a few days ago when my phone bricked. (It was a fried battery.) So I went back to stock to relieve my stress.]

I have not had the issue with a stock kernel.

+1 on the question. I'm taking the issue more seriously as a swype problem as I've seen others' responses and a couple of reports of similar behavior on the swype forum (though they may be from the same folks.)

I can't reproduce the problem at all. But...

() my phone isn't rooted.

() I'm not that fast a typist on my phone so I may not be able to overwhelm the app with keystrokes.

() I never use messaging apps and despite the reference to APK Notepad, there appears to be a common thread associated with use of handcent (an app, I believe that has a number of reported oddities if not bugs) or messaging in general.

So perhaps it would help to identify the bug more clearly if the folks having problems would be more specific in reference to the points above.

At least if we can identify some common configurations or user behavior it might help Swype zero in on the problem. Keep in mind that the Swype app is a beta and by using it you're supposed to be assuming some responsibility for reporting problems. Not just griping and switching to another app. And this forum is a better environment for trying to compare and contrast specifics than the Swype forum.

 

[billyk]

Are you rooted? I had this problem once in a while when I was rooted with DroidMod.

[I had a panic a few days ago when my phone bricked. (It was a fried battery.) So I went back to stock to relieve my stress.]

I have not had the issue with a stock kernel.

+1 on the question. I'm taking the issue more seriously as a swype problem as I've seen others' responses and a couple of reports of similar behavior on the swype forum (though they may be from the same folks.)

I can't reproduce the problem at all. But...

() my phone isn't rooted.

() I'm not that fast a typist on my phone so I may not be able to overwhelm the app with keystrokes.

() I never use messaging apps and despite the reference to APK Notepad, there appears to be a common thread associated with use of handcent (an app, I believe that has a number of reported oddities if not bugs) or messaging in general.

So perhaps it would help to identify the bug more clearly if the folks having problems would be more specific in reference to the points above.

At least if we can identify some common configurations or user behavior it might help Swype zero in on the problem. Keep in mind that the Swype app is a beta and by using it you're supposed to be assuming some responsibility for reporting problems. Not just griping and switching to another app. And this forum is a better environment for trying to compare and contrast specifics than the Swype forum.

Hey jsh1120:
No griping here! I reported this issue to Swype this AM. I am up for looking into this further for sure:

- My Droid is not rooted - never has been.
- Typing speed has nothing to do with this problem. The behavior is this: Open Handcent or AK Notepad; tap data entry field; Swype comes up without labels on the lower keys and without the initial caps function set; and absolutely nothing can be entered. Speed is not a variable here.
- Handcent is one app where the issue appeared, AK Notepad is another, and I seem to recall a third while I was entering a password on a website. In the case of the AK Notepad hang, Handcent was not running as a service.

Lastly, I've never noticed this issue with the stock keyboard (virtual or physical) and I've never seen it with SlideIT, which I used full-time for a few weeks last month.

Let's see if others report back on the same issue.

 

[jsh1120]

Thanks, Billy. Didn't mean to cast aspersions. Recognized your issue on the Swype Forum.

I'm wondering if the problem might be related to swapping Swype into memory when other apps (e.g. synchs) are running or messaging apps are downloading incoming messages. I don't know much about how this works (other than speculation) but the symptoms certainly look like a failure on initialization of the Swype app.

Have you noticed it happening in the middle of a Swype session or only when you start entering text?

P.S. I've also used SlideIt extensively. I strongly suspect this all has to do somehow with the fact that Swype doesn't want to act like a "typical" application but rather as an integral part of the O/S or an app with special "privileges."

 

[billyk]

Thanks, Billy. Didn't mean to cast aspersions.

Have you noticed it happening in the middle of a Swype session or only when you start entering text?

No problem!

The issue that I've seen with Swype only occurs when I call the app by tapping in the text field. I suspect this is the case with others as well.

 

[billyk]

Damn it's happening now! Yet again!

I am in AK Notepad (don't think this matters) I was using Swype (so it's not just on initialization) and it became unresponsive. I was mid-swype in a word and the trace stopped. I closed the app and came back into it, tapped on the text entry, and Swype comes up without the labels on the keys.

It's still hung up now - I am investigating. Interesting, the only running services are GTalk and Swype - pretty lightweight - shouldn't cause an issue. I am not going to fix this right away. I am going to explore it a bit further....

 

[billyk]

Couldn't hang in there - I needed my Droid back!

What I learned is that once Swype hangs as noted in this thread, it does not recover by itself. It's toast.

I've read on the Swype forum that we are not alone! I took the advice of another Droid user and chucked Swype and reinstalled. Seems to be OK, but time will tell.

 

[jsh1120]

Damn it's happening now! Yet again!

I am in AK Notepad (don't think this matters) I was using Swype (so it's not just on initialization) and it became unresponsive. I was mid-swype in a word and the trace stopped. I closed the app and came back into it, tapped on the text entry, and Swype comes up without the labels on the keys.

It's still hung up now - I am investigating. Interesting, the only running services are GTalk and Swype - pretty lightweight - shouldn't cause an issue. I am not going to fix this right away. I am going to explore it a bit further....

Billy,

My apologies if you've already said, but are you using the official beta version (5652) or the version that can be loaded from the apk without going through Swype (5612)? You can check the version number under Settings>Applications>Manage Applications> Filter(all)>Swype

 

[billyk]

I switched from the "pirate" version to the official beta version the day it was released. I just reinstalled it - version 5652.

 

[Grey Hawk]

Where do you even get swype at anymore? I don't back up my apps and lost it about 20 flashes ago lol. I can't remember where I got it at.

 

[jsh1120]

I switched from the "pirate" version to the official beta version the day it was released. I just reinstalled it - version 5652.

Thanks. Just to clarify, some of the first official beta versions were 5612 and that build was made available as a separate apk that can be installed. It's discussed under a separate thread here. 5652 is the "official" (current) version is 5652 and it suffers from the annoying "re-enable after power cycle" bug.

Would be interesting to know if those running 5612 have the problem you're experiencing.

As an aside, have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling the notepad app or would that cause you to lose the notes you've already created?

 

[smiller136]

I am running version 5652. I switched to slideit this morning to see if the problem is in fact swype. I will also report this to swype as well.

 

[billyk]

I switched from the "pirate" version to the official beta version the day it was released. I just reinstalled it - version 5652.

As an aside, have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling the notepad app or would that cause you to lose the notes you've already created?

Yup - I reinstalled 5652 a few hours ago. So far, so good. But frankly, this issue is so intermittent, that good behavior for a few hours is not significant IMO.

If Swype continues to demonstrate this behavior, I will certainly can it until the next release. I prefer the interaction with Swype, but SlideIt works.

 

[stangdroid]

Im using 5612 and it had done that to me 4 times today! Very annoying to have to keep rebooting my phone when I need to text.

 

[billyk]

Im using 5612 and it had done that to me 4 times today! Very annoying to have to keep rebooting my phone when I need to text.

Try chucking Swype and reinstalling. I did and it seems to be working better for me now.

Certainly seems like a significant "bug" that the Swype folks would have to resolve for their product to be ready for prime time.

 

[smiller136]

it's still a problem

I thought I would try swype one more time today and it worked for about 1 1/2 words and then it froze. I think it's strange that it would work fine for all of this time and then - wham - many people are having problems. Hopefully a new version will be available soon. Back to the old keyboard.....