Since this annoying problem resurged, starting apparently April 2, 2024 and not resolved a week onward, here's two further links ::: 3. On iPhone and iPad ( i[Pad]OS ), newly attached pictures fail since April 2, 2024 [AShAP]
#2g. Disappearing New Picture Attachments in Airtable on iPhone & iPad (i[Pad]OS) since 2024.04.02
Here's about the very strange Lost-Visualisation-of-Any-New-Picture-Attachment malfunction in AirTable on iOS & iPadOS.. ( I even thought of an acronym :: "LosViNIA": Lost Visualisation of New Image Attachments ; or "LosViNPA" maybe : Lost Visualisation of New Picture Attachments )
For_instance :: a base created for testing purposes from the "Balloon Adventure" template, where at base creation time we keep ( or "include") the example records as originally provided. Starting from there, herebelow a 10-step test scenario is described, which – for afaik since early July 2023 – predictably will cause any newly attached picture to malfunction, at least that's the situation on the few Apple devices that I have experimented with or asked around for. It's truly a kind of catastrophe, since the exact malfunction described herebelow – as well as in similar situations, especially those not involving step 3️⃣ – the malfunction and weirdness will be happening all over the place in Airtable wherever new data is involved of the type at stake here : pictures, images.
1️⃣ E.g. let's look into the "Places" table of our Balloon Adventure, where as demo item we can take the London record.
2️⃣ From the thumbnail in the Pics field, we can open up "bigben.png". → OK thus far, if we've got a popped-open BigBen image on our device screen indeed.
3️⃣ The opened image has a 19h Share button, from which we can, and in this scenario do "Save Image", by which we copy what is represented on our device screen to the local iOS PhotoRoll. After this, we close the on-screen original picture, and we find ourselves back with the item where the thumbnail resides that we started from in the previous step.
4️⃣ Next, or immediately without even leaving our London record, we "in-place" re-add our just saved bigben image into the very same record, by hitting its "mountain view" icon, and proceeding for what supposedly will be just a duplicate of the image already attached originally. (_OK, you might say this makes no sense and it's a silly thing to do, since we already have this very picture in the given record, but read on, because this most positively will serve as a most appropriate action in our context of a clearly reproducible testing scenario. )
5️⃣ So now our newly added picture appears as a new thumbnail, probably upfront in the given field, and it is named (e.g.) "2023...39.jpg".
6️⃣ At this point, just for verification, let's take a good look into our freshly added image-copy, so we open it up to fully reveal its glory and to check out this freshly added "2023...39.jpg" (e.g.), just while we're at it in AirTable.
7️⃣ Well Lo And Behold – 🅰️ our uploaded copy looks fuzzy and blurred, it is not by far as crisp and sharp as the original image has been that we started from.
8️⃣ Not finished yet. Let's step out of the Places table ; we go take a look at the Friends table (_even without opening a Record DetailView there, but feel free ), and next we return to our Places table, back to the London record where, due to our earlier actions, we now have two identically looking picture thumbnails.
9️⃣ Again, open up those Pics attachments. Surprise ! Because what do we get ? The original .png shows up as we always have known and seen it. But 🅱️ at this point the .jpg we have added is empty, it's blank, its content seems to have totally vanished.
🔟 Here's a final step. From the darn "empty" .jpg in AirTable, we can [1:] again "Save Image", subsequently [2:] go look at the result on the iOS PhotoRoll – from outside AirTable, that is – and [3:] surprisingly perhaps, there we find another "glorious", meaning a clearly visible bigben – outside_of, but freshly downloaded_from AirTable, from our there lately uploaded, but first in Airtable blurred and then no longer visible image except as thumbnail.
1️⃣1️⃣ Essentially, all of this Very Very Strange Behaviour probably did not exist at all throughout the first half of 2023 ; and now it‘s affecting all kind of newly uploaded Picture Attachments. This whole phenomenon might be diagnosed as a "Progressive Regressive Image Visualsation Malfunction", and it affects AirTable in the Apple mobile ecosystem since late June or early July 2023.
The very strange parts are in steps 7️⃣, 9️⃣ and 🔟, but what or where is the actual culprit ? Is this malfunction related to ways in which iOS and iPadOS are dealing with .png and .jpg files ? Why did no such phenomenon happen in my earlier experimentation of mid June 2023 or before_? Can we even tell how functionality has been earlier on – or longer times ago ? Anyhow, Very Very Strange AirTable Attachments Behaviour this is in the time being.
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//Tested with AirTable v.9.5.1 on iOS and iPadOS v16.5.1 // Also reported in e.mail to support, and written about under "Ratings & Reviews" in the AppStore.
