Bug 256711 – REGRESSION (iOS 16.4.1?): Intermittent form file upload issues where a bplist is uploaded instead of an image

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: MOVED
• Component: WebKit Misc.

We have a web app with a few simple HTML forms that allows users to do file uploads of images and in the past week, have been seeing strange issues only from IOS 16.4.1 users using Safari where intermittently, some of their selected files (which are .jpg images from their photo library) to upload would come across as a fixed 135 byte file that looks something like the below (in ascii)

bplist00
X$versionY$archiverT$topX$objects_NSKeyedArchiverTrootU$null$)27ILQSU

Different users but all producing the exact same (broken?) file instead of the expected JPG files. These same users have been uploading files just fine in the past for years so I'm assuming it is some sort of regression related to 16.4.1?

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

Thank you for the report! Is there any chance of providing a test case, even if it only rarely reproduces? 

If not, would it be possible to additionally report this via https://feedbackassistant.apple.com with a sysdiagnose after this happens for someone? Please see <https://developer.apple.com/services-account/download?path=/iOS/iOS_Logs/sysdiagnose_Logging_Instructions.pdf>, and please post the feedback ID here for reference.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/109325146>

I'll have to see what I can do about creating a test case. I have been trying to reproduce the error on my end but have just been unable to. That could also be due to me testing with the newer 16.5 RC version available though

I have added an example of the file being received from affected users as an attachment for the meantime.

Created attachment 466362 [details]
Example file being uploaded by IOS 16.4.1 users

Issue still occurring with the public release of IOS 16.5. I do think it is something that was introduced with 16.4 or 16.4.1 because I have seen users on lower versions like 16.3 and even much older ones like 15.6 that are not having any image upload issues at all.
 
I'm waiting for a system diagnostic file from one the users experiencing this problem as I have been unable to replicate the issue myself with either 16.4.1 or 16.5

(In reply to Alexey Proskuryakov from comment #1)
> Thank you for the report! Is there any chance of providing a test case, even
> if it only rarely reproduces? 
> 
> If not, would it be possible to additionally report this via
> https://feedbackassistant.apple.com with a sysdiagnose after this happens
> for someone? Please see
> <https://developer.apple.com/services-account/download?path=/iOS/iOS_Logs/
> sysdiagnose_Logging_Instructions.pdf>, and please post the feedback ID here
> for reference.

Here's the feedback id with a sysdiagnose file right after the upload issue occurred attached: 

FB12194908

From what I could tell, the user was trying to upload around 350 images. The first 80 - 90 went through just fine, but the remaining 260+ got uploaded as those 135 byte bplist files.

Any update to this? It seems like we are starting to see more people running into this and from what I can tell it, it is coinciding with them updating their phones to the latest available IOS version.

[Aditya Keerthi]

(In reply to georaldc from comment #7)
> Any update to this? It seems like we are starting to see more people running
> into this and from what I can tell it, it is coinciding with them updating
> their phones to the latest available IOS version.

Our current understanding after investigation in WebKit is that this issue is with the system photo picker. There is likely no fix for this in WebKit – I will try to follow up once a fix is available.

If you are curious, the steps for reproduction appear to be a large number of images (350+) along with using the downscaling options to change the size of the image. Sometimes it takes repeated upload attempts to hit the issue.

(In reply to Aditya Keerthi from comment #8)
> (In reply to georaldc from comment #7)
> > Any update to this? It seems like we are starting to see more people running
> > into this and from what I can tell it, it is coinciding with them updating
> > their phones to the latest available IOS version.
> 
> Our current understanding after investigation in WebKit is that this issue
> is with the system photo picker. There is likely no fix for this in WebKit –
> I will try to follow up once a fix is available.
> 
> If you are curious, the steps for reproduction appear to be a large number
> of images (350+) along with using the downscaling options to change the size
> of the image. Sometimes it takes repeated upload attempts to hit the issue.

Thanks for the reply. I was talking to one of our users just now and he was having this problem trying to upload just 1 image without touching the downscale option (I don't think any of our users ever used that and always kept everything at "Actual Size") and it was failing repeatedly for him. Only after repeating the upload nine times did it finally go through, so I don't think the downscale option or the image count (at least for a single session of multiple-selected files) mattered. He also told me that restarting his phone after encountering the problem always seemed to help to get his uploads working, but then it would eventually start failing again, so I can't tell if it's something that builds up over time.

That might explain why I have not been able to reproduce the problem with a phone that has never been used to upload images here since these users upload a lot of images to our web app in a single day.

So is this something we just have to live with until some official update rolls out with fix? I've been thinking of trying out the 16.6 beta but everyone being hit with this problem are just regular end users, so suggesting them to use beta software doesn't seem very wise. I have also received zero feedback from my Feedback Assistant entry 2 weeks ago (should I even be expecting any responses there?)

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

> I've been thinking of trying out the 16.6 beta

We can't speak for Apple here, and won't comment on the timeline. One thing I will say is that this issue isn't expected to be fixed in the current beta yet.

It is understood that the update broke an important use case.

> I have also received zero feedback from my Feedback Assistant entry 2 weeks ago (should I even be expecting any responses there?)

We just used it to collect the sysdiagnose. There might be a notification once the original tracking issue is fixed.

[Brent Fulgham]

The fix for this issue needed to be made outside the WebKit Open Source project. Changing to RESOLVED | MOVED with work being completed in rdar://109325146.

We believe that this issue is fixed in the latest iOS 17 and macOS 14 betas.

[Brent Fulgham]

Note that this was also fixed in iOS 16.6 and macOS 13.5.

[Erik Hoffmann]

We are getting users on 17.4.1 still getting 135 byte file data when selecting mulitple on the device.   Does not seem to matter what 'size' (small/medium/actual) the user selects to upload.


Example HTML file that the users select 400+ photos; some or all the photos send up with size = 135 bytes


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title></title>
	<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
	<script>
		$(function() {
			$("#files").on("change", function(e) {
				console.log(e);
				var results = '';
				Array.from(e.target.files).forEach((cur) => {
					let details = cur.name + ' size: ' + cur.size + ' type: ' + cur.type;
					
					console.log(details)
					if(cur.size < 1000)
					{
						results = results + "<span style='background-color:yellow'>" + details + "</span><br/>";
					}
					else {
						results = results + details + "<br/>";
					}
					
				});
				
				$("#output").html(results);
			});
		});
	
	</script>
</head>
<body>
	Select files:
<input id="files"
	title="Select photos to upload" multiple=""
	accept="image/jpg,image/jpeg,image/gif,image/png,image/heic,image/heif"
	type="file" name="qqfile"
>
  <div id="output"></div>
  
</body>
</html>