Every now and then users will report bugs in Telegram. The step-by-step guide and troubleshooting tips on this page will help you deal with those reports in style and eventually help Telegram get rid of the bugs themselves. See the Bug Hunting Algorithm for tips on investigating new issues. Reporting a bug1. Search known issuesWe use Trello boards to keep track of bugs (sorry, these boards are TSF-only, here's how you join), features and user suggestions, so your first stop when encountering a bug report is Trello search. Most likely, we already know about the issue — sometimes it is not a bug at all. So make sure you study all the relevant cards. If you have found the issue on Trello, leave a comment in the card with your user's #tq tag and device info (skip this step if the card already has too many comments of that kind or is in the “Hot and Trending” list). Then go right to step 4. Trello cards are organized in lists that are pretty self-explanatory:
Fields Labels
2. Investigate the bug
If you can't find anything useful on Trello:
3. Report the bugIf the bug is not mentioned on the Issues board and the Troubleshooting manual doesn't have any special instructions for the case, we need to report it on Trello.
Bug GroupsWe're currently experimenting with TSF-wide bug groups for reporting and investigating issues in the apps. You can find a list in this card. Custom Fields and Comments
4. Notify the userOnce we're done, we need to get back to the user and tell them that we've located the issue or are investigating it. You never know how long that might take, but the user must know that he succeeded in alerting us — and helped us greatly. Parachutes and pasties
This allows us to use Telegram hashtag search to track issues for follow-up questions. The bot can use these hashtags to send automatic replies when a bug is fixed. We can also search for this issue on Trello by its ID. 5. Stick to our goals
In order to achieve this goal with a clear conscience, we need to respect our users' time and effort — a little more on this below: A note on usersOne may think that users are people with problems. Wrong. It is us, who have problems — the user is just a convenient medium for studying them. Our problem is either that something is wrong in our system. Or that we can't understand what the user is doing wrong. When you look at it this way, you quickly realize that the user is our most important asset when it comes to bugs. They can help us identify bugs and improve usability. So when somebody comes with a problem, we are not looking for a way to make them go away. Instead we must do all we can to not let the user leave before we find the problem. This means that everything you ask them to do must tell you something important. Nobody enjoys rebooting their phone or logging out and in. The general rule is minimum actions — maximum effect. Rabid bunnies alert If you do ask something that requires at least some effort, please be nice about it! People don't have any obligations to Telegram — we need to convince them to help us and to thank them when they do. It's the least we can do. Now that we're done with the basic reporting process, below are some common issues and what you should do when somebody is complaining about similar stuff. Troubleshooting common issues
Can’t Install AppiOS: Device must run iOS 8 or higher. Android: Messages not getting deliveredThe following cases cover pretty much all the complaints:
In case it's none of these five (but it must be one of these five, really), this is one of the worst things that can ever happen in Telegram. We need to know:
Notification problemsiOS:
What we need to know if nothing helps:
Android:
In case you went through all the steps to no avail, we need to know:
Contact importing problemsUser doesn’t see his contacts in Telegram. Or sees numbers instead of names in Messages list.
iOS:
Things we need to know if nothing helps:
Android:
Things we need to know if nothing helps:
Speed issuesMake sure that we're really talking about speed issues here. In Telegram, 1 check = message sent, 2 checks = message read (opened by the recipient). What we need to know:
Connection issuesWhen people are reporting connection issues, check Twitter first: are there any widespread problems. If the problem is local, we need to find out a lot of information before things can be investigated. Things to ask:
Don't forget to include with your report:
It is possible that we'll need a Traceroute to our servers, here's how you get that. Wait for instructions from the server cultists to get the right IP to trace the route to — each case potentially requires a different one. Last seen time is not displayed correctly
If none of the two, pass to the volunteer group. We need to know:
User was blocked, but still sees last seen / online statusThe changes that come with blocking sometimes do not take effect immediately. Give it a few minutes, maybe half an hour — and the blocked user will stop seeing the status. If a blocked user restarts the app or relogins, but can still see online status — pass to the volunteer group. This cannot happen under normal conditions. TSF Manuals |