VexIQ Blocks

So what is the deal with coding and using the VEX IQ blocks app? Our team is not able to save their code. Every time they close the app, even though they save it multiple times the program is not there when they open it. What has everyone found that works best for coding that used the Bluetooth option? Or is coding via an app just not going to work?

Hmm, I was able to recreate a similar bug using the following procedure:

  1. Open IQ Blocks on an iPad (v1.0.8 on iPadOS 13.3.1), and write some code.
  2. Save the program in my iCloud Drive documents folder.
  3. Force-quit IQ blocks on the iPad.

At this point I was able to navigate to my iCloud Drive documents folder on my Mac (macOS 10.15.1) and open the project file in IQ blocks (also 1.0.8) and the contents of the file are preserved.

However, re-opening the project on the iPad resulted in the file name being displayed, but the contents of the project are blank - only a single “When Started” block is present, just like a brand new project.

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Yes, that is exactly what is happening. It shows on the iCloud Drive and the file size shows the data is there. However when you open it back up on the iPad it only has the “when started” block.

Our kids are so frustrated as they keep losing their code but I am not sure what other program to have them use (as far as using the iPads)

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Have you tried not quitting IQ blocks?

Sure, returning to the home screen and then going back to IQ blocks will show you the project intact, but that’s not the point. All apps will get quit eventually whether you force-quit them or not, and when they do you should be able to access your saved data the next time you open the app. iOS in particular can be very aggressive about quitting background apps that haven’t been used recently to save memory.

The reason “saving files” is a useful thing to do is because it preserves document contents across instances of the app.

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Just leaving the app open is what we are doing now. But things happen and apps get closed. So it is not a good long term solution.

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After posting last night I continued really digging into this issues and I think I realized what our problem was. Our kids were saving their coding programming and then shutting out of the app. When they went to go reload their program, they were hitting the rectangle in the middle (that says Vexcode blocks). It looks like it would be an open button and from what some of my kids said, on other programming apps it is an open button. However, in Vex IQ blocks it is essentially a SAVE AS button. So the kids were opening the app (so it just has the when starting block) and hitting that rectangle. It would open to their files and they would select their coding file. However, what happened next is they were essentially writing over the code in the saved file (their coding they saved) with the coding that was on the screen when the app opened (which is only the when started block). So it appears that the program did not save their file when it “opens”, but what is really happening is the are overwriting their saved file with a blank coding. To open a file, they need to go to the file button on the left hand side and open it from there. I think the kids (and some of us adults) were assuming the rectangle in the center (that says vexcode blocks)was an open file link when it actually is essentially a save as link. We trialed this several times last night and it seemed to solve our issue, so I hoping it is our solution.

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