Apollo-android: Slow response times

Created on 12 Nov 2020 · 6Comments · Source: apollographql/apollo-android

Summary
GraphQL queries are taking a huge amount of time (~2 minutes) on some Android devices.

Version
Using apollo 2.4.1 but was also happening on 1.4.5 (did the migration in an attempt to fix it)

Description

The query takes around ~2 minutes to resolve on some devices but works correctly on others (around ~2 seconds).
Re-installing the app doesn't affect it, seems to be related to the specific phones which all have good internet connectivity.
The iOS app works correctly (so doesn't seem server or query related).
Some of the devices with long response times:
- Samsung A5 (Android 8).
- Google Pixel 1 (Android 10).

I know this is a rather generic issue, what tools could I use to debug/test this so I can find exactly where the issue is?

I've tried to remove every possible dependency in the project to the minimum code:

val client = ApolloClient.builder()
    .serverUrl("https://myserver/graphql")
    .build()
val apolloCall = client.query(PeriodQuery.builder().build())
val response = apolloCall.await()
// At this point it stays suspended for 2 minutes on some devices
// ...
val featuredItems = response.data?.period()?.Period()?.features()

Sharing the query in case it helps (though it also happens with other queries)

query

query Period {
    period {
        Period {
            _id
            year
            week
            numberOfFeatures
            features {
                _id
                type
                name
                editorialTitle
                editorialContent
                suppressName
                suppressHeader
                teaser {
                  x
                  xx
                  xxx
                  xxxx
                  svg
                }
                teaserCopyright
                issueId
                articleSeriesId
                articleIds
                issue {
                    _id
                    accessible
                    purchased
                    downloadable
                    designation
                    coverStory
                    brandId
                    cover {
                        x
                        xx
                        xxx
                        xxxx
                        svg
                    }
                }
                articleSeries {
                    _id
                    name
                    description
                    teaser {
                        x
                        xx
                        xxx
                        xxxx
                    }
                    teaserCopyright
                    brandIds
                    authorIds
                    articles {
                        _id
                    }
                }
                articles {
                    _id
                    accessible
                    read
                    type
                    name
                    subtitle
                    brandId
                    issueId
                    articleSeriesId
                    articleSeriesOrder
                    teaserImage {
                        x
                        xx
                        xxx
                        xxxx
                    }
                    teaserCopyright
                    issue {
                        id: _id
                        accessible
                        purchased
                        downloadable
                        designation
                        brandId
                        thumbnailSmall {
                            x
                            xx
                            xxx
                            xxxx
                            svg
                        }
                        cover {
                            x
                            xx
                            xxx
                            xxxx
                            svg
                        }
                        year
                        month
                    }

                }
            }
        }
    }
}

waiting for info Bug

Source

Alqueraf

All 6 comments

Hi! Thanks for sending this.
The first thing would be to determine whether the slowdown happens on the server or on the client. Can you hook a proxy or a HttpInterceptor to measure the network time? Maybe it's something in the query that takes longer on the server side.

If it's happening client side, (which is more likely given that it happens only on specific devices), the best way to investigate is to do some profiling. If you can generate a .trace file using Debug.startMethodTracing("apollo") and Debug.stopMethodTracing() and share it, that will give us some clues. See https://developer.android.com/studio/profile/generate-trace-logs for a guide on how to do profiling on Android.

Also feel free to use the email address associated with my commits if you don't want to share that publicly.