Issues with reading replies of comments on Facebook iOS app

By Brad, 27 August, 2016

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

OK, this started a couple days ago… On posts that have many comments and replies, when I found a comment that had something like 100 replies to it, I two finger double tapped, to bring up the list that you can select like, look at profile, reply, report, and cancel… I tapped on reply, and it would bring up all the replies to that comment, so I could read them all… Now when I do that same process, it just brings up a reply edit line, and I cannot read the previous replies… Not sure what is wrong… Pretty sure there hasn't been an update in the last couple days… It must be a voiceover thing instead of a Facebook thing, because my cited wife, canned bring up the replies no problem with voiceover off… Anyone else having this problem?

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Haven't but

I haven't but I'll keep a look out for this issue.

More info

Just wanted to mention that I tried this on my wife's phone as well… We have the same phone, iPhone 6 Plus… it's doing the same thing on hers… It's doing it on post that are from like news stations or things that get a lot of comments and replies… Sometimes someone makes a comment on A post, and many people reply to that comment, and sometimes I like to read all the replies before I make my reply if I want to… I was able to do that before a few days ago, by the way I mentioned above… Now it just gives me a way to reply to the comment, without being able to read all the previous replies... I've tried completely closing the app and reopening it, I've tried completely turning off my phone and back on again, and I've tried turning off voice over and back on again, and nothing helps… Kind of frustrating…lol

Yes. Same problem here

Funny, I just made a similar thread before seeing that you had created one just below mine, LOL. Oh well. We can leave them both there. Maybe that will help get the message across. :) I find it interesting that not all users are experiencing this issue. I will try uninstalling and reinstalling the Facebook app and will let you know if I have any luck with that. I also subscribed to your thread so if you post any updates I will see them. Wish us luck!

Well, that did nothing :(

Uninstalling and reinstalling the Facebook app did not help. This is a real bummer! Interacting with others in the comments section as one of the things I enjoy most about using Facebook. I wonder what is going on

Hopefully it will get resolved soon

Hey Joe, thanks for trying… Hopefully the right people will see these threats, and will get it fixed soon… That's what I enjoy about Facebook as well, replying to comments, and putting my two cents in… But I always like to read previous comments before I say what I want to say…lol

Still not fixed

Just got a new Facebook update, and was excited, because I thought it was going to have a fix for the reading the replies issue, and sadly it hasn't been fixed yet…

Is there anywhere else we can submit bugs? I really want this fixed, because I cannot interact with reading replies of people's comments… Very frustrating

Submit to FB

If you haven't already, search in the Facebook app for the page called "Facebook Accessibility" and then Like their page. It's handy to be following it because they publish updates. Now, from their page, click Contact and fill out the form to report an accessibility issue. I submitted one and linked back to this thread

One-FingerTap

Just one-finger double-tap the coment and scroll up and down with three fingers as usual.

When I one finger double tap

When I one finger double tap the comment, it brings up a list of likers of that comment…

Thanks

I looked that page up, and liked it, and submitted a form to them…

Temporary workaround

Place your finger on the comment you would like to see the replies of. Slowly drag your finger down word until you are at the bottom of the comment. You will know when you get there because you will run into the top part of the following comment. Keeping your finger at that position on the screen, lift your finger up slightly so that you're not touching the screen. Triple click the home button to turn off voiceover. While voiceover is off, tap the screen where your finger is currently hovering. Turn voiceover back on and you should be in the list of replies. I will say this works most of the time, but sometimes it's a little bit of trial and error.

Thanks again

Hey Joe, thanks for the work around… I tried it, and got it to work a couple times, still frustrating though… Half the time I can't get it to work… I just wish they would fix it…

Another FB update and still not fixed -- flabbergasted

It's been two app updates since myself and hopefully many of you submitted this bug to Facebook Accessibility and it is still not fixed. Very disappointed! The main engineer for their accessibility team is blind -- come on, Matt! Don't do your people like this. I often wonder how he himself feels as a Facebook user when he encounters these unfixed bugs, bugs that he and his team should be addressing

Hmmm

I still cannot replicate the issue yuo're havig. I can enter and exit posts just fine, along th look at comments and replies.

It's only doing it on

It's only doing it on comments that have many replies to it… Such as news post or whatever…. We can enter and exit post just fine, we can read comments just fine, it's just the comments that have 50 or 60 replies to it, and reading all the previous replies…. I've noticed here recently and occasional comment might have a, see previous replies button, but all comments don't have that selection… Before, we could just tap on the reply button, and it would open up a screen that had all the replies and an edit line at the bottom to type your own reply…. It no longer does that, it just opens up an edit line to type your reply…

Hmmm

Still not able to replicate the issue.

Specific example

Because some users were able to re-create the issue we are describing and others were not, here is a link to a Facebook article where I experience the problem. Scroll to the comments section and try to access the replies to any given comment. I think you'll find that you are not able to do so. If somebody figures out how, please let us know:

https://www.facebook.com/RollingStone/posts/10153794619305779

Update: I just realized that following this link opens the Facebook page in Safari, not the Facebook app, making it not as helpful as I had hoped. For anyone who follows any major news or entertainment sites, just pull up One of their posts at random in your newsfeed, scroll down to the comments section, and find one of the top comments, which usually have numerous replies. See if you can actually view all the replies to a given comment.

Hmmm

Still was able to access all of the replies in another page on the app.

Can you share your steps with us?

Hi Apple Khmer,

First, just to be sure we are talking apples to apples… Are you using the Facebook iOS app or are you accessing it from the Safari web browser? If you are in the app, can you explain how you were able to get to the replies section of a comment? Thanks for your help

Both

I accessed it rhough both the app ans browser.

Can you explain?

Hi again, Apple Khmer,

I don't mean to be a pain, but if it wouldn't be too much trouble, do you think you could share with us how you are able to get to the replies area using the iOS Facebook app? Maybe talk about how you go from newsfeed to reading specific replies, all the steps in between? Again, I don't mean to be a broken record here, but maybe we are just missing something obvious that you might be able to help us with. Thanks again!

Update

FaceBook has pused a new update. Try tht, and if that still doesn't work, let me know.

Didn't work

Just installed the update, and no change… Still doing the same thing…. I've recently updated to iOS 10 as well

Same issue

Just updated to the latest version and no difference. Still having the same problem. It is really strange that some of us are having a problem while others are not. I wonder what other variables there might be between our systems?

Certain devices?

I am using an iPhone 6 plus… What are you using Joe? not sure if Facebook could act differently on different types of devices though… Not sure…

iPhone 6 here

Not sure either, but I will try it on my iPad 4 and let you know how it turns out

No go

I just downloaded the Facebook app to my iPad which is running iOS 10 and I have the same exact problem. This is crazy

Are we the only 2?

It can't be possible that we are the only 2… I don't understand why no one else is commenting on this thread, and Apple Khmer can't seem to replicate the issue... i'm limited of what I used to be able to do, and it sucks…

I was thinking the same thing!

It seems very unlikely that we are the only two to encounter this problem, but I would think others would be chiming in by now. If somebody else is reading this who is able to access replies on Facebook comments, will you please give us a play-by-play walk-through of how you go from seeing a post on The newsfeed to viewing replies for a popular comment. Thanks so much. Maybe there's just some subtle thing we are missing

Unbelievable

Just got another Facebook update… 64.0… And still not fixed… Apparently we are the only 2 having this problem….

Equally baffled

Refresh my memory Brad - which iPhone do you have? iPhone 6 here. I still wish someone would give us a play-by-play of how they access replies to comments. Either they're doing it some other way than us or they aren't looking at comments with significant enough amounts of replies. There has to be some logical explanation for this

IPhone 6 Plus

I have the iPhone 6 Plus… I wonder if they think it's trying to Read replies from comments from friends? I don't have a problem doing that… For some reason, The comments in friends posts have a, see previous replies button, under each comment…. It's not like that under other types of posts from like, NFL, CNN, or whatever… Here and there, I do see that replies button under one or two comments, but 95% of them does not show it… And when I 2 finger double tap on the comment to reply to it, I used to be able to tap the reply button, and it would show all the replies from that comment, now it just has an edit Line that you can submit your reply, but no way to read previous replies… I have been doing that work around that you mentioned a while back, but it is frustrating sometimes…

Same Problem!

Hello Brad and Joe, I've been having the exact same problem recently. I have iphone 6s plus and have not yet updated to ios 10. In fact, that is why I came to this site today to see if it is safe to update ios yet. But I know how frustrating this issue is. First, it took me awhile to figure out that using the reply option would allow me to view all previous replies without having to make a reply myself. And now that is suddenly not the case! What version FB app are you using? I just checked now and there is a version 65 ready to update so I will try that and see...

Hi Donna

I just got an update today, but I thought it said version 64.0… I'll go back and check and see if there is a 65… But this has been going on for the last few versions… And I have upgraded to I OS 10, and really haven't had any problems… Just a few minor changes

Still the same

I had to restart my phone because it was hanging on the loading screen. Then installed FB 65. Problem is still there. I went ahead and liked the FB Accessibility page mentioned above so I will report the problem also to hopefully move it along. Thanks for letting me know about ios 10. I am so hesitant to upgrade these days because I hate when things go backwards like this FB problem and we lose functionality that we like to use! I will post on here again if something magically changes.

Another version and still no fix

This is outrageous! I've never seen a widely-reported Facebook bug go this many versions without being addressed. Just updated to version 72 and this same bug persists. Will it ever be resolved at this point?

I pretty much gave up

I just stopped trying to explain what the problem is… It doesn't seem like they can replicate the problem themselves, so I guess they think there's no problem

Just throwing this out there too

I know this has nothing to do with this thread, but have you or anyone else been experiencing the Facebook app just crashing? I can just be scrolling down through my newsfeed, and before I know it I'm on my homepage… Or it starts to lag real bad, then crash… I don't know, maybe it's just me as well…

About the crashes

Hi Brad,

I experience an occasional Facebook crash but nothing that has struck me as unusual or more than any other app. As for our issue not getting resolved because it cannot be easily re-created, I can understand where they may get confused. It doesn't happen in all comments sections, including comments sections of other friends' posts. It seems to me like Facebook page owners, especially the big guys like the news outlets and such, use different comment platforms of some sort. I have noticed some comments sections behave a little differently than others, with some arranging comments in chronological order and others arranging comments in reverse chronological order, for example. Along the same lines, in some comments sections a link appears that says "view previous comments," but in most comments sections no such link appears. It is that last case that we are interested in, and I typically experience that on the largest social media sites like NPR, Rolling Stone, etc.

Yes exactly

Yes, I think you described it better than I did… I tried to explain the differences further back and this thread, but not sure if I came across As good as you did… It is just the big news networks like CNN or ABC, or even NFL… Just the high profile post that get several hundred comments on them

Still a problem.

Sorry to be a broken record… But here we are, a few Facebook versions later and this is still a problem. I am going to keep piping up until it is fixed.

Yes, still a problem...

I don't know how many reports of this problem it will take to fix. Maybe facebook cannot replicate the issue? I even reported it on a recent facebook accessibility post where "Kevin" was responding to comments that he would pass the issues on to the team. I've also done the "shake to report" which I discovered accidentallly when I dropped my phone on my lap. By doing that they are getting the direct info on the ios and facebook versions that are currently in place as well as screen shot. Sigh....