Problem playing Chihuahua (SPOILER ALERT FOR 'YOUR PUZZLE' PLAYERS)

[blackrockrose]

I have recently experienced a  repeated problem when playing Chihuahua. After clicking on a letter it gets stuck on its way to the word-building rack (see attached screenshot), and I can't continue playing – the game is frozen.

This happens at both chi.lexigame.com and chihuahua-puzzle.com, not all the time but fairly regularly. I switch from one URL to the other to enable me to continue playing.

The attached screenshot shows me playing a 7-by-many from Your Puzzles. I mostly play 7-by-many, so it may not be happening in the other puzzle types – I can't remember. It may also be happening only in Your Puzzles. I'll keep a note when playing in future, but meanwhile I wanted to find out if anyone else is having the same problem.

I am playing on a MacBook Pro 2020 using macOS Catalina and Google Chrome.

[Alan W]

Thanks for reporting that, blackrockrose. I had this happen to me once, a couple of days ago. I can't remember how I got things working again - maybe just clicking on the rogue letter on the rack. This was in a daily 7-by-many. I'd also be interested to know if this is happening to other people.

It's probably an accidental by-product of the changes I recently made to try to improve play on touch screens. I imagine it only affects the 7-by-many puzzles, because in these puzzles the letter played is not meant to move up to the rack at all, since it should remain available for playing again in the same word.

You mention clicking on a letter. I presume that means you're using a touchpad or mouse. Or does your Macbook have a touch screen? You could try using the keyboard to select the letters and see if the same problem occurs.

I'll see if I can work out how this is happening, and put a stop to it.

[blackrockrose]

Thank you Alan.

I'm using a mouse. I'll try using the keyboard and see what happens.

[les303]

I have been having all sorts of trouble with the last couple of 7 by many games.
Nothing to do with functionality, just my inability to find the words in what i have found to be very tough games.

[mkenuk]

It happened to me a couple of days ago on the 7-by-many game.

A letter (the 'S', the key-letter I think) got stuck halfway between the frame and the display screen. Pressing 'Clear' had no effect.

I then played the other six letters onto the screen to form a nonsense word. Pressing 'Submit' got the response 'Must use the 'S'.
I then pressed 'Clear' again and -  'Hey Presto!' - everything was back to normal.

 

[rogue_mother]

This has happened to me several times in the past few days. I play nearly exclusively on my mobile phone using the Chihuahua app, no keyboard or touchpad. When it happens, I just drag the miscreant letter circle back to its rightful place and then press clear. That takes care of it.

[Alan W]

I've discovered what's causing this to happen. A further update will roll out over the next few days to eliminate the problem.

In the meantime you may be able to avoid trouble by aiming your pointer or finger at the middle of each letter when playing 7-by-many. Or using a keyboard if available.

[ridethetalk]

I have noticed similar problems on my iPad in ALL the puzzles. When a word is played the odd letter disappears from the game. I found multiple taps on the MIX button eventually brings all the letters back.

Normally I play on a PC so this does not impact me overly...

[pat]

I have a different problem on my Samsung tablet. The forum has stopped showing 'New'.

[Roddles]

Pat, I play on an 8" Samsung tablet.  "New" is still showing correctly on mine.

[pat]

How do you find the game generally on your tablet, Roddles? The other problems I have are that I can't use the keyboard (I can bring it up but pressing letters on it does nothing), sometimes the entire game plus the forum fit onto the screen but much more often it extends way beyond the size of the screen so that I have to swipe several times to the left to see the scoreboard or the forum, or swipe up several times to see the progress bar, and not infrequently, pressing on a letter makes the whole game shrink to about 3 inches by 2 in the  top left hand corner. Most odd.

[pat]

'New' has magically started appearing on my tablet again although it's still annoying when the game shrinks up into the corner of the screen!

There are several reasons why I prefer Samsung tablets to iPads but one drawback is that many apps aren't optimised for Samsung tablets as evidenced by 'this app may not be optimised for your device' appearing against many of them in the Play store. I did buy one such app, regardless of the warning, a field guide to the birds of Colombia, having been assured by the developers that it would work OK on my tablet. It didn't. It was usable, but barely, and it was only when I saw the same app on someone's iPad that I realized how bad my version was. So I suspect that the irritating problems with Chi I experience on my tablet are probably to do with Samsung's software.

[dino]

My problem occurs with the touchscreen. If I hover over the puzzle area, then the letters are submitted. This is not a problem except in the Challenge where my hit% looks as if I am playing with random words. The biggest dent, of course, is to my pride.

dino

[Alan W]

Pat, you may be doing Samsung an injustice. I have been able to generate a similar distorted layout on my Android tablet, which is made by Lenovo.

I didn't see this happening when I was playing letters, but it happened when I was pressing the button that removes the last letter played. In fact I seem to be able to guarantee that odd things will happen when I place several letters on the rack and then tap on that button repeatedly and rapidly.

For me, this was happening in the Google Chrome browser. From a quick test it didn't seem to occur when using the Firefox Android browser. Are you using Chrome? And have you tried a different browser? That might provide you with a temporary work-around while I investigate further.

[pat]

You're right of course, Alan, it could be the Android operating system rather than a problem with Samsung.

I can't be sure what action causes my problems as I'm a fast but inaccurate 'tapper'. I am indeed using the Google Chrome browser - I'll try using a different browser to see what happens. The ideal scenario would be to be able to use the keyboard as I can with the iPad. I can't use the iPad as a matter of course - it's so old that if I accidentally hit on the keyboard a letter that isn't in the puzzle the whole thing freezes and has to be rebooted. Perhaps I should adopt the practice of 'festina lente'!