StoryMap Crashing on iPhone 13 iOS 15.3.1

[JaneClifton]

Hello,

I am new to StoryMaps and I have created one for Baltimore City. It works well on a computer and my boss's Android phone. However, when I try using Safari on my iPhone 13 (iOS 15.3.1), the page will refresh once I scroll down to the Equity and Demographics section. When I scroll back down to this section a second time, this message displays on a blank screen:

"A problem repeatedly occurred on "https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/dcd8dc9a4de54bea9e272cd8a25f02e9".

I sent the link to one of my colleagues who has an iPhone 11. He has the same problem when using Safari or Chrome on the phone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jane

[JaneClifton]

Update: I tested the story out on a 3rd generation iPad Air (iOS 14.8.1) with the same issue.

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

Hi @JaneClifton! - I'm sorry you are seeing some issues with your story on mobile devices. The issue is the map that is used in that section (e4dddab72f754daeb89ebbdc861de897)has almost 20 layers, and that map is used in consecutive slides, so all those layers are being loaded twice. For lightweight devices like phones, this many layers presents a resource issue and causes the mobile device browser to crash.

From what I can tell most of the layers aren't even visible in the story, but unfortunately, even if they are not visible, just having them in the map requires them to be loaded in some way, and this takes up significant memory resources.

I'd recommend creating new maps that contain only the essential layers for each slide in your sidecar section. Also, the way that map is designed is such that there are several sets of layers that could be combined. For example, there are four different layers of "stops." Normally when designing a map you'd have one layer for stops and symbolize them differently, based on attributes, if needed. This is also the case with service destinations and routes -- there are four separate layers for each. This arrangement may be required or helpful for other uses of this data, but for storytelling it is not following best practices for map design. Sometimes a map that is optimal for one purpose is not optimal for others.

Let me know if this is helpful and if you have any additional questions.

[dez_im_opeSI]

Hi @OwenGeo ! I'm facing a similar issue, as the mobile version of my StoryMap https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cfb3e9900ada44f6b0856b6e7944f4ac crashes on the mobile version when I reach an embedded Youtube video. Is there a way to optimize it so it doesn't crash ? I don't have so many heavy maps of contents and did not think embedded videos would be an issue ? 

Thanks!

[OwenGeo]

@dez_im_opeSI - Unfortunately your story isn't publicly available, so we can't access it to take a look at what might be causing this. Can you share it with Everyone?

If you are not able to share it publicly, please contact Esri Support and they can look into this with you.

[JaneClifton]

Thank you. I understand your suggestion. I'll look into creating separate maps for each swipe section to remove hidden layers. I thought I'd be able to use one map but have different layer groups visible for each route section.

[MikeBuscher]

For what it's worth, we have the same iOS crashing problem with a storymap we're working on, which uses a 3D scene and large datasets. It works on desktops, laptops, and Android devices, but not Apple iOS devices (regardless of the browser used - Chrome, Safari or Edge). We get the same exact error. This seems to be an inherent problem with iOS devices as we've tried both tablets and newer phones.

[DannyKing]

We are experiencing this with a map built with the JavaScript API. Based on what we find here and elsewhere it looks like the browser on the iOS device is being overloaded. We are trying to figure out how to reduce the complexity of the map, but after reducing as far as we think possible, it still occurs too often. Has anyone found a solution or way to minimize the occurance of this issue?

[MikeBuscher]

Maybe this doesn't apply to your situation, but we had shadows turned on in our 3D map.  When we turned them off, iOS devices had a better time handling our model, though crashes still occur from time to time.