Some bugs are just really hard to figure out. Sometimes we are told there is a weird bug. This document won't solve the bug, but it gives some tools that often help.

If a problem isn't obvious, the number of causes can be legion.

If you are on a real computer, try a second browser – does the bug occur in the other browser (Note: Apple does not permit anyone but themselves to install a browser, as a result Chrome or Edge on iOS is really 'the Chrome UI on top of the Safari engine' so some bugs are Safari even when you think you are running Edge or Chrome on iOS.

Do other users with the same equipment/browser have the same problem?

• If no, the bug may be due to hardware or specific to the data being accessed
• If yes, then there is a good chance we can reproduce it with a bit of help from you – and more than 99% of the time when we can reproduce a bug we can get you a work-a-round or permanent fix within a couple hours, and 99% of the remaining time we can within a day.

Do other users with different equipment/browser have the same problem?

• If yes, then it makes the bug discovery even faster.

Is the screen doing 'weird' things (flashing, moving from screen to screen), perhaps only doing when you perform a specific action.

If it is a touch screen:

• It isn't commonly reported to us because usually users figure it out and clean their screen. But we did once have had this reported on a tablet, it took 3 days of asking questions, when the user sent a video showing the problem, then it only took 10 seconds of watching to say "you have something stick 'here' on your screen" – it turned out they had a bit of Jam or something similar stuck on the screen, and as a result, when they did a particular action, the screen went haywire (because the dirt on the screen was activating). So while this is unlikely, it is possible that it is a hardware related problem.
• To rule that out – have them turn the phone 90 degrees and see if the problem is the same. (This doesn't work if your touch screen is on a laptop, but it does if you are on a cell phone or tablet that can be rotated and have the display rotate. If you have this feature turned off you may need to temporarily turn it back on.)
• If you can't rotate the screen (and image) then just do a good cleaning and check for cracks.
• Why would that help? Because if it is a hardware problem in a particular area of the screen (such as honey or a defective screen) then it will be in a DIFFERENT area when the phone is rotated and the problem will be different or not occur at all.

So … we DO need to rule that option out, but then:

• I can't think of any particular reason it would occur due to software. But perhaps (let's say for argument sake: likely) there is something specific about the data that is exposing a bug we aren't aware of.
• To rule THIS one mostly out, have them, on a different device, load up the same wo and do the same change. If the problem follows to another device, then we need to look more closely at the data on the SQL Server.

If the problem does NOT follow to the other device, then:

Perhaps it is a data problem of corrupted data in the browser database. So then the questions:

• Does this happen on EVERY wo on that device?
• Can we see (dataviewer, then email it to me) the data for that work order so I can try to reproduce it here?

Can they, using another cell phone, take a video to show me what they are seeing? Perhaps seeing it I can gain more info.

Can they allow me temporary access to that user account so I can log in with my iPhone (and possible other devices) and see if I can reproduce it with everything as close to exactly the same? If so I prefer if they temporarily set the password or plan on changing the password after I'm done (I don't want the risk of knowing the password past the point of the problem being addressed.)

Can they, using that device, log into another server (of ours) and see if that device has the same problem on another server?

I don't have any other generic answers, but based on the results of the above we may be able to isolate the bug quicker.