settings don't save on android when closing app via "Recents" screen

[sotha1]

Minetest version

Minetest 5.8.0
irrlicht device: ANDROID
openGL ES 3.2 build

Active renderer

openGL ES 3.2 build

Irrlicht device

ANDROID

Operating system and version

android 9

CPU model

MediaTek MT6739 1.5 GHz 2gb ram

GPU model

integrated

OpenGL version

3.2 build

Summary

when i open my minetest settings and change any option and close the game, and open it again it doesn't save the changes

2024_01_08_10_50_16.mp4

Steps to reproduce

first download minetest from https://www.minetest.net/downloads/
all the three sources (f-droid, play store and the directly "download the apk" ) have the bug (i tested it in them all)

(remembering that i downloaded the apk from my phone directly)
download it on your device
open the game and try to change any setting, after close the game and re-open it

[sotha1]

edit: i tried to downloaded it from f-droid and play store and the bug still hapenning

[srifqi]

What will happen if you tried to press the Back button to close Minetest instead of killing it from recent application list?

[sotha1]

What will happen if you tried to press the Back button to close Minetest instead of killing it from recent application list?

the game still working in background, so it keep saved

[tetsuo55]

What it looks like to me is that minetest saves the settings to storage on exit and not when closing the settings dialogue.

When minetest crashes or is force closed the changed settings are lost, I can confirm, it's not just settings by the way, but also things like currently selected world

Exiting by using the menu to exit the game saves the settings as expected

The fix would be to save the settings/launcher status to storage when closing the settings menu/launching a game

[Unacceptium]

i known this for so long. workaround: set your setting and join a singleplayer world. for some reason it forces to save. NOT working with contentDB flags.

[sotha1]

I saw that clicking on "exit o.s" playing a world instead of closing directly through the recent section works, so I suggest creating a button in the main menu to be able to exit the game or automatically create a dialog when you press the "back" button asking if you really want to exit, then it automatically saves the settings ( (of course, this whole suggestion is in vain if it is possible to do something that automatically saves the game when exiting without needing a dialog box or buttons)

[Unacceptium]

@sotha1 full agree!

[grorp]

creating a button in the main menu to be able to exit the game

That's possible, but it probably wouldn't stop people from closing Minetest via the "Recents" screen and losing their setting changes.

automatically create a dialog when you press the "back" button asking if you really want to exit, then it automatically saves the settings

That wouldn't help, using the back button in the mainmenu already quits Minetest and saves the settings.

[sotha1]

That's possible, but it probably wouldn't stop people from closing Minetest via the "Recents" screen and losing their setting changes.

i know that, but if mt warn players that exiting without the action of pressing a button or accepting a dialog box will not save the game (or maybe people only realize this over time) They will have to get used to doing that anyway to avoid losing their game data.

[srifqi]

Removing application from the Recents screen is the same as terminating/ending the process. It skips saving configuration/settings which is called when exiting normally (closing the window or pressing Esc or Back button in the main menu).

minetest/src/main.cpp

Lines 272 to 274 in 49ce5a2

	// Update configuration file
	if (!g_settings_path.empty())
	g_settings->updateConfigFile(g_settings_path.c_str());

minetest/src/client/clientlauncher.cpp

Lines 249 to 254 in 49ce5a2

	// Break out of menu-game loop to shut down cleanly
	if (!m_rendering_engine->run() || *kill) {
	if (!g_settings_path.empty())
	g_settings->updateConfigFile(g_settings_path.c_str());
	break;
	}

Summary for Android version

Action	Configuration is saved
Pressing Back button in the main menu	✅ Yes
Pressing Exit to OS in the (in-game) pause menu	✅ Yes
Removing Minetest from the Recents screen while Minetest is still running/playing	❌ No

[grorp]

That's a good summary 👍

Saving the settings in this place

minetest/src/client/clientlauncher.cpp

Lines 249 to 254 in 49ce5a2

	// Break out of menu-game loop to shut down cleanly
	if (!m_rendering_engine->run() || *kill) {
	if (!g_settings_path.empty())
	g_settings->updateConfigFile(g_settings_path.c_str());
	break;
	}

is useless as far as I can see, since the save code in main.cpp always runs after this save code.