Problems with Pleco since new phone

Hi there,

last week I got a Sony Z5 Compact phone. It runs stock Android 5.1.1. I installed all my apps including Pleco but hadn't run it until yesterday. After restoring my settings from Google Drive I wanted to restore my flashcard database as well (also from Google Drive). Pleco told me it couldn't access that file, so I downloaded it and restored it locally. I played around a bit but soon recognized that Pleco runs quite slowly. Scrolling wasn't as smooth as it used to be on my Z1 Compact but what bothered me the most was that popup definitions took about 2 seconds to show up, no matter where I clicked.

So I decided to re-install Pleco, which posed quite a few problems. I removed everything and restarted my phone. For the first 2 or 3 times upon opening Pleco for the first time I couldn't download the files necessary to unpack and was told to download them manually at pleco.com/androidfiles. Did that, Pleco found the plecobundle.plc file but always crashed while unpacking. After a couple more tries I finally managed to get it running again. Now I again wanted to restore settings/flashcards and while the former worked without a problem the latter wouldn't because "Sorry, we were not able to access your selected backup file." although the flashcard file was still in the same folder as before.

The main problem, though, is that Pleco still is pretty sluggish. The popup definitions take a while to show up, switching between entries takes time, the menu slider doesn't come out smoothly and scrolling is pretty jerky. What's more, Pleco also takes some time to start and even crashes sometimes. Pleco is on version 3.2.23.

I hope that I'm not the only one with this problem and that there is a solution to it. ;)

Thanks a lot for your help, Michael.

-edit- Another thing I noticed is this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_mUfayxuFdKRFBRdmFGcVJHNXM/view?usp=sharing After a while it jumps back to the first entry without me doing anything.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
For the slow performance, see this thread from Sony's forums - does rebooting in Safe Mode (or any of the other suggestions) help?

With the flashcards backup, which folder was the file in on your filesystem?
 
I heard about those performance problems. The thing is I don't have them. All of the other apps run smoothly and without lags.

As for the flashcards, I had them in the Download folder in my internal storage. In the meantime I managed to restore my flashcard backup from that file, I don't know why it worked all of a sudden.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
That doesn't necessarily mean the fix wouldn't help in Pleco's case, though - have you tried a Safe Mode reboot yet?
 
Yes, I have booted into safe mode, but as one cannot use any 3rd party apps in safe mode I don't understand how that could help solve my problem with Pleco. I have also tried some of the other bugfixes and I am on the newest firmware as well, unfortunately nothing worked.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Try the new option in Settings / Miscellaneous to use software instead of hardware rendering - does that help?
 
Unfortunately not. I borrowed a Z3C from a friend, installed Pleco and put it right next to my Z5C. Pleco on the Z3C just runs a lot smoother.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
The popup reader taking forever to appear would be unlikely to be explained by SD card slowness, though. Might have to see if we can get a Z5C out here to test on, but it could be a little tricky since it's a brand new model.

Could you try downloading the old version of Pleco from http://pleco.com/getoldandroid and see if that runs more smoothly? Will help us narrow down the possible causes at least.
 
While uninstalling Pleco, removing the SD card and reinstalling Pleco entirely on the internal storage really did help a litte with switching between dictionary entries, although it's still a far cry from smooth. Popup definitions take seemingly the same amount of time, if there is supposed to be any improvement it's only marginal.

So I uninstalled the new version, installed the old one instead and after setting up all my dictionaries - lo and behold - the performance is a lot better. Popup definitions show up immediately, switching between words is also a lot faster. How can I help to find the reasons for the new version's sluggishness on my phone?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Based on past experience with Sony and their particular take on "how can we make Android worse in the name of 'differentiation'", my best guess would be that this has something to do with the font system and Pleco's use of custom fonts. The way to test that theory would be to install the newer version of Pleco again, then go into the Pleco "Settings" screen / "Fonts" and turn on "Force compatibility fonts." If that doesn't help, go into the /Android/data/com.pleco.chinesesystem/files/bmodules folder and rename "464E5453" to something else, then reboot your phone - that way Pleco won't even use its compatibility fonts but will simply use whatever fonts are built into the operating system.
 
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