ChatGPT App Crashes When Explaining Formulas – Issue Analysis

API Bugs
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I encountered a persistent issue while using the ChatGPT app on [platform, Android]. When I prompt ChatGPT to explain formulas in a specific shared chat (ChatGPT - DALL-E 3 Captioning Improvements), the app begins to load but crashes before completing the response. This behavior is consistent and reproducible whenever I attempt similar queries involving complex formula explanations.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Open the ChatGPT app.

  2. Access the shared conversation through the provided (ChatGPT - DALL-E 3 Captioning Improvements).

  3. Type “Explain the formulas” in the chat input.

  4. Wait as the app begins to load the response.

  5. The app crashes before completing or displaying the response.

Expected Behavior:
The app should load the response and provide a detailed explanation of the formulas without crashing.

Actual Behavior:
The app crashes consistently during or shortly after the response generation, preventing me from seeing the output.

Additional Information:

Device Model: [Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra]

OS Version: [Android Version:14, One UI Version:6.1]

App Version: [1.2024.303]

Internet Connection: Wi-Fi (speed:50MBPS)

Troubleshooting Steps Taken:

Restarted the app and device.

Cleared app cache and data (on Android).

Reinstalled the app.

Ensured both app and device OS are up-to-date.

Possible Suspected Cause:
It appears the issue may be related to the rendering or processing of mathematical formulas or LaTeX content, which the app may struggle to handle without crashing.

Impact:
This crash disrupts the user experience, especially for users seeking detailed formula explanations in fields like mathematics, physics, or data science.

Suggested Fixes/Improvements:

Improve the app’s handling of complex formula rendering or mathematical explanations.

Introduce a fall-back rendering mechanism for formulas or large outputs to prevent crashes.

Offer an option to toggle detailed explanations for complex queries, allowing users to control processing load.

Video (Screen Recording)

ChatGPT 4.o

I have put space between https because I cant include links.

I am a ChatGPT Plus Subscribed User.

2

Welcome to the forum!

First off, thanks for the specifics on the problem, you clearly know how valuable such is in problem resolution.

I would check this but noticed you are accessing using a Android phone which I do not use so can’t try to reproduce.

This sounds like similar recent (few weeks) reported problems which can easily be found by looking below this topic and to find related topics. Maybe one of those has a solution that works for you.

HTH

PS

I am trying this but expect it will work for me.

Can you note which LLM model was used, e.g. 4o 4o-mini, etc.
Also need the PDF as you used it, e.g. a link to the pdf. These seems to be the noted PDF: https://cdn.openai.com/papers/dall-e-3.pdf

As I thought, was able to successfully use Explain the formula

Are you aware that there is a menu just after the reply on the left side? If you mouse over the model, it is a drop down and one of the options is Try again

The image shows a model selection menu within a user interface, offering options like "GPT-4o" and "GPT-4o with canvas," while explaining parts of a formula. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows a model selection menu within a user interface, offering options like "GPT-4o" and "GPT-4o with canvas," while explaining parts of a formula. (Captioned by AI)658×527 9.15 KB

Have an idea that might pinpoint the problem but can not check.

Run this prompt and then take it as a direction to head to identify the root cause.

How to check if KaTeX is causing a browser instance on Android phone to stop working? Thinking of something like F12 with an internet browser.

Note: KaTeX is not a typo of LaTeX.

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In android, it is called Regenerate Response. When I click it, same issue happens (mentioned earlier).

Yes, the pdf is : https://cdn.openai.com/papers/dall-e-3.pdf

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BTW, how you all include links in your post?

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5

Can you record the memory usage? I’m using Android and have never encountered this issue before.

If you’re a little tech-savvy you can use ADB to monitor, or I’d imagine you could also find an app that could do this.

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7

As I am not an Android user had to look that up

8

How to record the memory usage? I have a Windows PC but I dont have access to it right now. And thank u all for addressing this issue correctly! :slight_smile:

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9

The reason you are getting help is

  • started off with specifics of the problem, meaning we had most of what was needed and didn’t have to have an hour of chatting to get more details
  • responsive to our inquiries
  • pleasant

all of that does matter.

10

You’d need to enable developer mode on your phone (very simple, just tap the build # a bunch of times until it says “wooo, you’re a developer now”!), then enable USB debugging.

Then you’d have to get the tools to run ADB (Android Debug Bridge) which gives you shell access to your phone via USB

That is a lot to do though. I believe an app can also monitor memory usage. So if you have some time it’d be worth downloading one, running it the background, run the ChatGPT app until it crashes and then review the logs of memory usage.

I am running the exact same version as you (Both Android & ChatGPT), and haven’t experienced any issues, so I’m wondering if it’s a hardware issue.

Looking further our phones have the same amount of RAM. But, I am very much a purist when it comes to my stuff. I have barely any apps and ESPECIALLY don’t have apps that run in the background. So getting some baseline memory usage would be helpful.

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11

Try to Reproduce the error.

I have mentioned the steps.

Please try

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I did try it and it works fine on my phone.

I also did a performance test and although there’s some jank when it’s converting the text into the formula it’s nothing wild.

I do know that sometimes people have issues with ChatGPT when it does things like rapidly formatting raw text into something else

I’m not going to do this, sorry.

I don’t intend to say I believe it’s a hardware issue. I am just trying to narrow the possibilities. You certainly have good hardware but my question is: Is all of it’s resources being used up in background tasks as well?

The good news is that OpenAI certainly records these types of crashes and may silently implement a fix.

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Can u send me the video? Please send a link after doing screen recording. And I think its not an hardware issue because my phone is flagship ( no trolls please).

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When problem solving don’t rule out something without facts. That is what @RonaldGRuckus is doing, he is collecting facts! :slightly_smiling_face:

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But I have almost 100 GB Storage left and 8 GB memory left ( 4 GB is used up) and an app wont take entire 8 GB of RAM…

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I understand why you’d feel like that - it’s fair.

When things don’t make sense, experimentation is often the quickest way to find the cause. Getting stuck on ‘that doesn’t make sense’ can just hold us back and wastes time.

This situation is strange and doesn’t make sense. So reasoning ain’t too helpful

This isn’t what I’m trying to say. What could (but unlikely) be happening is that maybe there’s something hogging all the resources on your phone and then when ChatGPT does something a little stressful like rapidly converting text into LaTeX there’s just not any resources to complete the job and it crashes.

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17

I have tried on different samsung pgone also (Samsung Galaxy S22), giving same result.

18

Further Testing : On browser, it works perfectly.

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Hopefully someone else that uses a Galaxy here can try it out and see what happens.

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Today, it works fine and there is no crash problem.