Content Changes

[lajackson]

I do not mind so much that the Gospel Library content keeps changing, although I would note that one time the Book of Mormon stayed the same for 61 years before GL came along. But would you mind at all going ahead and updating the content for me?

There is nothing more irritating than clicking on an often used bookmark and receiving the popup that the item has not been downloaded (of course it has been, many times). Sure, I get the Cancel or Download options. Download always crashes GL, so I cancel and go out to the main menu to retrieve the item. And it seems I am having to do this almost every week now.

I know. Feedback. I sent it long ago and nothing happened. I am easy to train.

[sbradshaw]

Have you tried removing and re-downloading the book? It's possible in a state where the file for the book is there, but the app doesn't think it's downloaded.

[lajackson]

Have you tried removing and re-downloading the book?

When it happens, there is no remove option. It seems GL is quite convinced the item is not there.

[lajackson]

Unless the Book of Mormon is constantly changing, I am beginning to believe there may be another issue at work here. Both Sunday and Monday the Book of Mormon disappeared, and both times I had trouble reloading it. One time it was grayed out under Scriptures, but there was not an option to download it. Another time, also grayed out, the download option was there, but the eternal circle of hope just spun and spun until I terminated the app and restarted it.

I am not able to duplicate the problem. It just seems to happen regularly (not always) when I try to access the book in GL.* It is almost as if that particular book (the Book of Mormon) is not installing properly on my device.

Is there something else that might be going on? Corrupted database, groggy phone, unwanted viruses? I hate to totally remove and reinstall the app, but every time new content downloads, which seems to be a very regular occurrence, the app gets feisty and non-cooperative unless I do something to settle it down. The trouble is, I am not sure what I am doing to help, other than forcing restarts, forcing content updates, and generally playing with GL until what I wish to have happen works.

I hesitate to send general feedback without anything more specific. I have plenty of memory available. I do not believe that is the issue.

I am open to any suggestions. Thanks.

__

*Always when I need it most, of course. I was on a Zoom fireside Monday evening and went to read from Mosiah. I wound up going to the main church website to open a window where I was able to read the reference I needed. GL said it was still loading the Book of Mormon 45 minutes later.

[sbradshaw]

The Book of Mormon content in Gospel Library has been updating frequently the past few weeks – mainly the related videos and images in the sidebar, which are associated with the main content – for example, as Book of Mormon videos come out each week, they're attached to the text. This requires a re-download of the book. But it shouldn't be updating multiple times a week, and content updates don't usually go out over the weekend. So there might be two or three factors combining to form an especially bad experience... Do you have a lot of content installed (in addition to the Book of Mormon)? That could also aggravate the issue, if every content update has a large number of books to go through.

[russellhltn]

for example, as Book of Mormon videos come out each week, they're attached to the text. This requires a re-download of the book.

Ugh. I hope they re-think the structure. Maybe leave the BOM alone and download the index of new videos and let the device do the connection. I can understand how we got the current setup, but it seems to be causing problems.

[lajackson]

The Book of Mormon content in Gospel Library has been updating frequently the past few weeks ... . This requires a re-download of the book.

I had totally forgotten about the Book of Mormon Videos. That explains the frequency.

Yes, I have almost all of the GL content downloaded except for the videos. Also, I only have the Ensign, none of the other magazines.

I have 58 bookmarks, of which 15 are to places in the Book of Mormon. The way I normally find out the book is gone is when I hit one of those bookmarks. I get the popup with the download option, which option almost never works. GL usually crashes.

Perhaps that is the glitch I need to send to feedback. I quit trying to download via the popup because it was not working. If I keep trying, and it keeps crashing GL, I see a Feedback in my future.

Other than catching a potential feedback, Is there a way I can figure out when a new download arrives?

[lajackson]

But it shouldn't be updating multiple times a week, and content updates don't usually go out over the weekend.

My unscientifically anecdotal guess is that updates are arriving at least twice a week. It seems that one of those times is Sunday evening or early Monday morning. But I will start working on a more factual assessment.

My also unscientifically anecdotal guess is that the updates are not completely installing. It is not just the Book of Mormon that I have to specifically install after there is an update. Perhaps GL does not actually know which books I do have downloaded.

[lajackson]

... content updates don't usually go out over the weekend.

I do not know when the President Nelson video "Church Looks Forward Amid COVID-19 Pandemic" was sent to Gospel Library, but it was not in my GL Saturday night when I was reading my scriptures. It did, however, land squarely into my GL late this Sunday morning (just as I was trying to look up the sacrament prayers, oddly enough). Fortunately, I was not at Church, and my home WiFi does not have three other wards trying to access it at the same time.

I suspect that there is a disconnect relating to the "sending out" of content updates. Just because the updates send as the work week is coming to a close on Friday, they do not seem to arrive in any sort of real-time basis.

As another example, I give credit to the idea of sending out reminders and links about the sessions of general conference, though I would not watch conference on my phone unless there was absolutely no other way. And I would not have been able to make much use of the conference links and reminders that arrived on Monday, after the conference had ended, even though I was using GL before and after every session that weekend.

It appears to me that there was an unanticipated but very real time lag in that process. I wonder if the lag is always there, and just not understood or recognized by those who are trying so diligently to keep us contently updated.