Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

Discussions around the Android version of the Gospel Library application.
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sbradshaw
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Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#1

Post by sbradshaw »

Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android has been released on the Google Play Store and will be available soon on the Amazon Appstore (for Kindle devices). There are a lot of improvements in this release:

Improved search experience
* Faster and more relevant results.
* Added an option to search within the current collection, book, section, or chapter.
* Integrated "Find on Page" with search (removed from overflow menu).
* Quote marks can be used to only search for exact matches.
* Added ability to press BACK to return to search results.
* Search keeps track of which results have been visited, until you perform a new search.

Audio improvements
* Added text-to-speech audio setting.
* Added "Play Audio" option to chapter overflow menu.
* Audio resumes where the user left off more reliably.
* Fixed issue where audio didn't play on certain devices.
* Added "Download Audio" option to the overflow menu to download all audio for the current book or section.
* Removed redundant "Download Media" option from the chapter overflow menu.
* Improved reliability when casting audio to Chromecast.

Look and feel
* Improved colors that weren't adjusting based on the selected theme.
* Minor improvements to highlight colors.
* New cover art for custom collections.
* New circular app icon for Android 7.1+.
* Better support for 2:1 aspect ratio phones.

Performance and reliability
* Improved downloading several items at once.
* Improved saving edited notes when switching apps or if the screen turns off.
* "Limit Mobile Network Use" setting now prevents catalog updates and streaming media over a cellular connection.
* Fixed crash when sharing a note with non-downloaded content.
* Fixed issue that caused duplicate screens to be created.
* Tips are now updated dynamically with content.
* Lots of bug fixes.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
gsjpom
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#2

Post by gsjpom »

Once again, when I updated, I then had to download everything again. Is there no t some way to design an update that will actually allow the content to remain rather than have to re-download everything every time? Nice app, but there is not just a bug - it is closer to a mammoth. - Gary Pomeroy
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#3

Post by sbradshaw »

What do you mean by "download everything"? Do you have a lot of books, manuals, magazines, conferences, etc. downloaded, and it downloaded each one of them again (this would take several minutes and you could watch the progress of each item in the download queue)? Or do you mean that it synced annotations, checked for a content catalog update, and re-downloaded one or two books that may have been updated?

It's possible for catalog updates to come once or twice a week, but you shouldn't see more than one or two books re-download unless you've gone several weeks without opening the app, or you have a large amount of content downloaded (all the magazines, all the manuals, etc.). If it's just catalog updates – they will slow down over time. The app development team doesn't have any control over catalog updates, and it affects iOS and Android equally (iOS is just a little better at hiding the updates since there's no system-wide download queue).

What do you see when content is downloading again: Is it mainly in the download queue, on the splash screen, or while using the app? What do you see in the download queue? Are you seeing progress bars on several individual books in the library as you're using the app, or do books you've downloaded perpetually appear to be grayed out? If the app is stuck on the splash screen, at what point along the progress bar does it pause the longest? Did you move the app to the SD card using Android 6+ settings; and if so, are you running low on storage space on the SD card or internal storage? Are you using a cache cleaner like Clean Master that could be clearing the app's data?

We do want to get to the bottom of this issue, and you're not the only person who's reported similar problems. But there are a lot of things at play and it's hard to narrow down what symptoms people are seeing, and what those symptoms mean. Maybe you can help!
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
lajackson
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#4

Post by lajackson »

I cannot answer for the previous poster, and I have written this post again because in thinking about it, GL didn't download anything after the update. The content just was not available any longer, and I had to download it all again myself. The almost complete list is at the end of the post, but I will help with answers to your questions first.
sbradshaw wrote:What do you mean by "download everything"?
In my case it was not everything. But it is still a lot. And again, GL did not download. It just was missing. The content was not available any longer, and I had to download it again myself.
sbradshaw wrote:Do you have a lot of books, manuals, magazines, conferences, etc. downloaded, and it downloaded each one of them again (this would take several minutes and you could watch the progress of each item in the download queue)?
Yes. A lot, but not everything. Again, GL did not download it. I had to do it.
sbradshaw wrote:Or do you mean that it synced annotations, checked for a content catalog update, and re-downloaded one or two books that may have been updated?
It did that, also, which is to be expected. I notice that it syncs annotations without regard to the WiFi only setting, which I am coming to accept. And although it synced, it did not force download any content over data. It waited for me to hit the WiFi zone.
sbradshaw wrote:It's possible for catalog updates to come once or twice a week, but you shouldn't see more than one or two books re-download unless you've gone several weeks without opening the app, or you have a large amount of content downloaded (all the magazines, all the manuals, etc.).
For me, it is mostly the magazines (Ensigns) that I have to keep downloading every time there is an update, and sometimes in between updates. Is there something in the catalog update that is causing that? Certainly the actual magazine content would not be changing (unless they got permissions to publish an old picture or something).
sbradshaw wrote:If it's just catalog updates – 
I understand that part of it, and that you have no control there.
sbradshaw wrote:What do you see when content is downloading again: Is it mainly in the download queue, on the splash screen, or while using the app?
While using the app. I tried to open the latest Ensign. It downloaded. I pulled down the screen to update and now had nearly 600 downloads in progress. I went to the download screen and saw every one requested, downloaded, and installed.
sbradshaw wrote:What do you see in the download queue? Are you seeing progress bars on several individual books in the library as you're using the app, or do books you've downloaded perpetually appear to be grayed out?
A downloaded book is not grayed out. Books not downloaded are grayed out and must download when I tap them to read.
sbradshaw wrote:If the app is stuck on the splash screen, at what point along the progress bar does it pause the longest?
The app does not stop on the splash screen. It does the blue bar, brown bar thing, and I suppose it is syncing at that point, but it has never been stuck, and the app opens after a few seconds, most often after just a second or two, usually not more than 10-15 seconds.
sbradshaw wrote:Did you move the app to the SD card using Android 6+ settings; and if so, are you running low on storage space on the SD card or internal storage?
N/A. Don't have an SD card, but would probably get one if GL supported it.
sbradshaw wrote:Are you using a cache cleaner like Clean Master that could be clearing the app's data?
Nope.
sbradshaw wrote:We do want to get to the bottom of this issue,
I hope the previous poster adds his experience.


And as promised, here are the specific file details for me.

I had to downloaded the following items once again. This is a very similar experience to the one I had after the last major update.

All Magazines. For me this is just the Ensigns, but there are around 600 of them, and I watched them count down once again, while the counter bounced back and forth between 1% remaining and 2% remaining during the process, neither % being accurate.

Several Teachings of Presidents of the Church. I had them all downloaded, but Gordon B. Hinckley and two or three others had to be brought down again.

Under Missionary:
Preach My Gospel. (I suppose it is possible that there was a content update?)
All of the missionary pamphlets.
Missionary Handbook and everything else under Training for Missionaries.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

Under Leadership:
All of the Guidebooks, Family, Teaching, Branch, Basic Unit Program, and Priesthood and Auxiliary Leaders'.

Several items in Seminary and Institute were probably new content, so I will pass on those for now.

And that was just while I was at lunch. (Our company cafeteria has an accessible WiFi zone.) I will go home this evening and cycle through all of the content I use to make sure it gets downloaded. I have tried to get to a few of my bookmarked items since I left the WiFi zone and they need to download again.

But sometimes I think it may be worth all of the download trouble, because I am always rewarded with the screen that says:
No downloads in progress.
Content and media currently being downloaded.
And my puzzled mind thinks, Yes, that seems to cover all the options.
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#5

Post by sbradshaw »

Here are some examples of things that could cause already-downloaded content items (books, manuals, magazines, etc.) to update:
– Missing or broken audio files.
– Missing or broken images.
– Missing chapters.
– Fixing content that can't be highlighted (missing paragraph IDs).
– Fixing content that didn't get converted correctly from the old content format.
– Updating chapter metadata (like page numbers, URLs, IDs, etc.).
– Updating current manuals with more recent quotes or better scripture references.

Thank you for your very detailed notes! If one or two others with the problem also respond, maybe we can find some common threads and narrow it down.

If items were updated by the content team, I would expect downloads to kick off automatically (right after the new catalog is downloaded, or the next time you're connected to Wi-Fi). And the old content file shouldn't get deleted until the new content file is in place. The fact that they got deleted from your device without a new version being downloaded is interesting...
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
gsjpom
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#6

Post by gsjpom »

Download everything means exactly the plain meaning of the phrase - after the update (as has happened several times in the past) i have to download everything again as the content is no longer there. All greyed out and to access need to download again. Yes, I am quite aware it takes a while as I have gone through this process at least 6 times in the past 5 months.
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#7

Post by drd.mntmr »

Yes, i have the same issue (to download everything).

I uninstalled and reinstalled my GL to check if it will solve my problem.
My problem with this new GL is that my HB1 is gone after I sync the annotation 2 weeks ago. And I can't even see the HB1 greyed out item anymore.
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#8

Post by sbradshaw »

drd.mntmr wrote:My problem with this new GL is that my HB1 is gone after I sync the annotation 2 weeks ago. And I can't even see the HB1 greyed out item anymore.
Handbook 1 is only available to members with certain callings, and you have to be signed in with your LDS Account. If you have a calling that allows access to Handbook 1, have you tried signing out and back in? That will force the app to check your calling again. Also, you could try pulling downward on the main library to force a check for content updates.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#9

Post by woxingma »

Did the app get pulled off of the Amazon store?
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Re: Gospel Library 4.1.0 for Android

#10

Post by sbradshaw »

It's still there, but for some reason a lot of people with Kindles have been having trouble this week:
https://www.amazon.com/Church-Jesus-Chr ... B006OP8494
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
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