Text input slowdown

1

IPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15.5, Drafts 32x, external Magic KB. Between 500–1000 word draft.

Last few weeks, I’ve encountered text input slowdowns and erratic behavior when using the arrow keys or backspacing. The behavior has gone away after quitting and restarting the app, but did not this time. I had to reboot the phone. Anyone else?

2

I have an iPhone 8+, so I’m used to sluggish responses on my phone at this point :confounded:

But, I wonder if I might offer up some questions that may help to narrow down what is going on. They may not, but deepending upon the answers it might suggest some things.

  • Could you describe “text input slowdown” and “erratic behaviour” in a bit more detail as there is nothing to measure or capture there except from those descrioptions except something of an annecdotal feeling - I’m sure there is more to it but my point is that what feels slow of a behaviour that seems erratic to you might not to someone else.
  • Have you tried reproducing this behaviour in any other app when it occurs in Drafts?
  • What happens if you switch to a new blank draft when these things occur? Does the slowness/erratic behaviour persist into the other app?
  • What syntax(es) are you using with your drafts and have you modified any of them (or are they standard)?
  • Does the slow text entry persist if you type into a search field - i.e. is text entry in that field also slow or only when typing in the draft?
  • Does the slow entry persist if you switch to using a different keyboard (e.g. a soft keyboard) with Drafts?
3

@sylumer’s like of questions are good ones, especially regarding syntaxes used. I’d add:

  • Have you recently changed any editor settings? (line heights, paragraph numbers, font used, etc.)
  • Does this occur if you edit those drafts using the “Plain Text” syntax.

Sounds like the kind of thing that could happen if the app/device was memory constrained, but I would more expect that to come up on an older device.

4

Text input slowdown: lags of several seconds. A loss of control over the display because I can’t tell what’s happening.

Attempts to reproduce this behavior in other apps: Yes, in Ulysses and iA Writer. No issues with them.

New blank draft: sorry, I’ve done that but don’t recall. I’m usually in concerned mode for data loss (never happened but neither has the slowdown until the last few weeks). I’ll try that.

Syntax: standard markdown.

Search field: when the slowdown happens, It’s persistent, so I can’t carry on with anything but quitting the app.

Switch to soft KB: stupid me for not trying that. A little bit of panic.

Editor settings changes: No. Same settings, using iA Writer Mono S font.

Plain Text: Haven’t tried that. I will.

Memory constrained: right, I’m using highest level iPhone.

I’ll report with any new information.

5

I had such slowdowns in the past and found they were probably caused either when network was very slow (then a backup in the background can slow down everything) either when gps location was lagging (then deactivating the position in the settings was helping). If slowdowns are coming back to you, check these 2 possible reasons.

6

You mean the cellular connection? My issue is on Broadband.

7

I did have one additional incident, but not as much lag as with previous. I started a new draft as advised and the lag didn’t persist in the new draft or when I returned to the draft I was on before. Still waiting for another lag incident to test the soft KB, and to change the syntax.

8

Whatever the network - cellular or broadband ; in my case a few years ago, when lag was encountered on Drafts, the possible cause was very slow cellular network, but I assume it may be the case too with broadband.

9

Lag update: I was writing using iA Writer (about 1100 words) and experienced an input lag. I copied the text to Drafts (both using MM) and the lag was similar. I switched to the soft KB (on iPhone 13 Pro Max) and the lag disappeared.

I suppose the corrective is to turn the Magic KB off and on. For now, I’ll disconnect and reconnect the KB with BT and see if that helps.

10

It reminds me another case of lag I experienced in the past : it was related to some url in the draft. Maybe it’s because of a type of pre-processing of the web page content or simply of http headers, but the lag disappeared when I deleted the url.

11

Interesting. I use only Wikipedia URLs to avoid link rot. (I write for longterm.)