← Support

Troubleshooting

Look up the message the app showed you, or the symptom. Use your browser’s find to search the exact words on your screen.

Installing & opening

SymptomPlay says the app is not compatible, or the APK will not install

What it means. Your phone does not meet the app’s requirements. semper needs Android 7.0 or newer and a 64-bit ARM (arm64-v8a) processor.

What to do:

  1. Check Settings → About phone for your Android version — it must be 7.0 or newer.
  2. Most phones from the last several years are arm64. Older 32-bit or Intel/x86 devices and many low-cost tablets are not supported.
  3. There is no iPhone version — semper is Android only.
On screenA critical system error occurred during startup.

What it means. The app hit an error before it could open.

What to do:

  1. Force-stop the app and reopen it.
  2. Make sure it is fully updated (or reinstall the latest build).
  3. If it keeps happening, email support with your phone model and Android version.

Signing in & approval

Accounts need admin approval, not just sign-up. Most sign-in surprises come from that or from email verification.

SymptomSign-in is refused right after I signed up with email

What it means. Your email address is not verified yet.

What to do:

  1. Open the verification link in the email the app sent when you signed up.
  2. Return to the app and sign in again. A fresh link is sent each time you try before verifying.

Why: Google and email-link sign-ins skip this — they already prove the address.

SymptomStill on Pending approval

What it means. An admin has to approve new accounts, and the screen never updates on its own.

What to do:

  1. Tap Check status — it does not poll, so nothing changes until you press it.
  2. Support is emailed automatically when your account is created, so you do not have to ask to be noticed. Tap Request access if you want to add context.
  3. If it has been a while, email support and mention the account address.
SymptomPassword rejected when creating an account

What it means. The password does not meet the policy.

What to do:

  1. Use 8+ characters with upper and lower case, a digit, and a special character.
  2. Or tap Generate secure password to have a strong one filled in and revealed so you can save it.
SymptomI forgot my password

What it means. You can reset it without leaving the app.

What to do:

  1. Tap Forgot password on the sign-in screen. semper emails a reset link.
  2. Open the link on this device — App Links reopen the app on a set-new-password form with the same password rules.

Why: When App Links are verified, the link stays in-app instead of falling through to a browser page.

On screenCould not verify account securely.

What it means. The app could not confirm your account with the server, usually a connection issue.

What to do:

  1. Check your connection and try again.
  2. If you are offline, note that first-time sign-in needs a network — offline use only works on a device that was approved before.
On screenNetwork error. Try again.

What it means. A request did not reach the server.

What to do:

  1. Check Wi-Fi or mobile data and retry.
  2. Import and solving work offline; only sign-in, approval checks and uploads need a network.

Loading images & video

SymptomA run is blocked with a message about image size

What it means. One frame is a different pixel size from the reference.

What to do:

  1. Every frame must match the reference’s pixel dimensions exactly.
  2. Re-export the odd frame at the same resolution, or drop it.
SymptomNext stays greyed out on step 1

What it means. You are missing a reference frame, or you have no deformed frames.

What to do:

  1. Load at least one reference and one deformed frame, then Next turns on.
On screenFailed to decode RAW image.

What it means. A RAW or DNG file could not be read.

What to do:

  1. Import RAW and DNG through Files, not Photos.
  2. If it still fails, convert the frame to PNG or TIFF and load that.
On screenFailed to load reference image. Please try another file.

What it means. The reference frame could not be opened.

What to do:

  1. Pick a different reference file.
  2. Prefer PNG or TIFF; a corrupt or unusual file can fail to decode.
SymptomLow-texture warning naming a bigger subset

What it means. Your speckle pattern is weak for this region — the match may be unreliable.

What to do:

  1. Treat it as feedback on the pattern, not just a slider tip.
  2. Accept the larger subset it suggests, or re-shoot with a finer, higher-contrast speckle.
On screenCould not read this video.

What it means. The video file could not be opened for sampling.

What to do:

  1. Try a standard MP4, or export the frames as images and load those instead.
On screenCould not extract enough frames from this segment.

What it means. The time segment and frame rate you chose do not yield enough frames.

What to do:

  1. Widen the time segment, or raise the sampling frame rate.
  2. Watch the live frame-count estimate on the sampling sheet before confirming.
SymptomOnly the first N frames loaded

What it means. The Max frames cap dropped the extras.

What to do:

  1. Raise Max frames in Settings → Analysis preferences (10–150, default 50).
  2. Or split a long sequence into more than one analysis.
SymptomFrames ran in the wrong order

What it means. The badge order on step 1 was not the capture order.

What to do:

  1. On step 1, use Sort — by Name, by Date (capture time then EXIF), or drag manually.
  2. Set the order before you Compute; it cannot be undone afterward, so re-run to fix it.

Setting up a run

Symptom“ROI too small”

What it means. The region of interest is smaller than a single subset, so nothing can be matched.

What to do:

  1. Enlarge the ROI, or shrink the subset size in Advanced parameters.

During a run

On screenAnalysis stopped: convergence fell below 50% on 2 consecutive frames. The images may have decorrelated due to change in spackle pattern or moved out of view.

What it means. The images decorrelated — two frames in a row could not be matched well, so semper stopped rather than grind through the rest. This is a short run, not a failed one.

What to do:

  1. The frames solved before the stop are kept as a valid shorter analysis — open them from Home.
  2. For the later frames, the deformation was too large, the pattern was damaged, or the specimen moved out of view. Re-shoot with smaller load steps or a more robust speckle.

Why: The message names the frame and image it gave up on. A 50-frame test that stopped at frame 40 still gives you frames 1–39.

SymptomEngine failure: feature detection

What it means. The reference and deformed pair could not be correlated at all.

What to do:

  1. Check you paired the right reference with the right deformed frames.
  2. A too-weak or damaged pattern also causes this — improve the speckle.
SymptomEngine failure: ROI

What it means. The region was too small or fully masked by erased holes.

What to do:

  1. Enlarge the ROI, or remove some of the erased holes.
SymptomThe run vanished — the app closed mid-analysis

What it means. Android killed the app while it was solving. A run has no resume.

What to do:

  1. Keep the app in the foreground and the screen on while a run works.
  2. Run it again; close other heavy apps first so the system does not reclaim memory.

Reading results

SymptomFrames look incomparable — a late frame looks like an early one

What it means. The colour scale is Auto, which rescales every frame separately, so colours do not mean the same thing across frames.

What to do:

  1. Watch the summary animation — it already puts every frame on one whole-sequence scale.
  2. Or tap the colour bar and set a fixed min/max; bounds are remembered per field.
SymptomSummary still says “Rendering”

What it means. A long analysis takes a while to render five fields into an animation.

What to do:

  1. The individual frames are usable meanwhile — enter them with Next and come back.
SymptomSummary shows one frame instead of looping

What it means. Animation playback needs Android 9 or newer.

What to do:

  1. On Android 8 or older you get the first frame and a note; the exported GIFs still animate.
SymptomSweep skipped nodes — some lattice dots are hollow

What it means. Those subset × window combinations do not fit — usually a big subset in a small ROI.

What to do:

  1. Tap a hollow node for its exact reason. Enlarge the ROI or narrow the ranges.

Sync, backup & quota

SymptomUpload badge stuck on Pending

What it means. The backup is waiting for the right conditions.

What to do:

  1. You may be offline, on mobile data with Wi-Fi-only uploads set, or have cloud backup off.
  2. Connect to Wi-Fi, or check Settings → Cloud backup.

Why: While a transfer runs you should see a system notification and, on Home, a progress bar on the row. Pending alone means it has not started the upload yet.

SymptomBadge shows Failed

What it means. The backup ended for good — device conflict, analysis too large, or out of memory.

What to do:

  1. Tap the badge — the dialog names why and offers Try again.
SymptomRow says Only in cloud

What it means. Local frames were freed (by you via Free up space, or by the auto-free budget). The cloud backup is still there.

What to do:

  1. Tap the row — semper offers to download the analysis back before opening it.
SymptomRestore never arrived / Restore failed

What it means. The backup could not be restored (deleted, wrong account, or a hard failure).

What to do:

  1. Check Home and Settings → Analyses data management for the failure message.
  2. On a flaky network the transfer retries; a permanent failure says so instead of spinning forever.
SymptomPhone out of space

What it means. Analyses and cache are filling storage.

What to do:

  1. Settings → Storage → Free up space (drops local frames of backed-up analyses).
  2. Consider setting an Auto-free budget (0–64 GB) so the app reclaims space at start-up.
  3. Clear cache removes regenerable previews and exports waiting to be shared.
On screenAnalysis limit reached

What it means. You have hit the maximum saved analyses on your account. This is not a paywall — it is a per-account quota.

What to do:

  1. Delete an analysis you no longer need and tap Re-check limit.
  2. Or email support to request a higher limit.
On screenData no longer on this device

What it means. This analysis was cleaned up locally.

What to do:

  1. If it was synced, the files are still in your cloud folder — restore it from Settings → Analyses data management, or tap an Only in cloud row on Home to download it back.
SymptomDeleting my account opened the sign-in screen

What it means. This is expected — that is where your identity is confirmed before erasure.

What to do:

  1. Sign in the way you normally do (password, Google, or emailed link) to confirm; your address is filled in and cannot be changed.
  2. Back out and nothing is deleted. If the cloud cannot be reached, nothing is deleted at all.

Nothing here matches

Email support. Include your app version (Settings → About), device and Android version, and — for a wrong result — the Settings used sheet or an exported PDF/CSV.
Email support FAQ