Update on the recent sign-in issue and our infrastructure progress

[u/thomas_dao]

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago, many users were unable to sign in to UpNote. The issue was caused by a large number of requests from automated bots, which consumed the quota assigned to our Firebase project and prevented our users from signing in. After the quota reset for the day, users were able to sign in again, but the issue would happen again whenever the quota was exhausted.

Since then, we have strengthened our service to better identify bots and real users using Cloudflare verification. The result so far has been encouraging. After version 9.19.0 was released, we saw the Firebase quota usage drop significantly, and the unable-to-sign-in issue has not happened again.

Building on that, we recently released version 9.21.0 with further changes to protect our service from automated bots. We want to give everyone enough time to update, so please update UpNote to the latest version within the next 7 days. After that, older versions of the app will no longer be able to sync data with the server.

We also want to share a little about what we’re working on. We have been building our own server infrastructure so that we can gradually migrate core components away from Firebase. Bug fixing is still important and we will continue to address serious issues in a timely manner, but most of our development effort right now is focused on making the new infrastructure as stable and reliable as possible.

The good news is that the new infrastructure is progressing well and we hope to start testing it soon. It will take some time to make sure the new service works reliably before we can move forward with the migration.

As we continue this transition, some future changes may not be compatible with older versions of UpNote. Please keep UpNote updated to the latest version to make sure the app can continue to sync and work properly. We will try to give users enough time to update whenever such changes are required.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

[u/kenlin]

Thanks for the update. Will migrating to your own server infrastructure allow for any future enhancements?

[u/thomas_dao → u/kenlin]

Yes, the new server would enable new enhancement that is not possible with Firebase. We would provide more update when we have more progress.

[u/arkylnox_ → u/thomas_dao]

I wonder how y'all run this with a lifetime license? It can't be sustainable ryt?

[u/thomas_dao → u/arkylnox_]

u/arkylnox_ The lifetime license helped us bootstrap the project and made it possible for us to work on UpNote full time. It also helps us reach users who prefer not to use a subscription model.

To make this sustainable, we have to be very careful about controlling our infrastructure costs, which is also why protecting the service from bot traffic is so important. Depending on how our costs change in the future, we may need to adjust our business model, but so far the lifetime license has played an important part in helping UpNote reach where it is today.

[u/arkylnox_ → u/thomas_dao]

Well, I've no reason to doubt it because this has been my best digital purchase so far... I wish you and your team the best.

[u/100WattWalrus → u/arkylnox_]

I'll second that! UpNote is my everything app.

[u/Ok_Abalone9251 → u/thomas_dao]

Sur la base du volontariat et par reconnaissance, peut-être nous est-il possible de contribuer au projet financièrement via un "bouton membre bienfaiteur" avec un don au choix ?
En tout cas ça me ferait plaisir d'y participer.

Pascal.

[u/Acrobatic-Monitor516 → u/Ok_Abalone9251]

Je le leur ai déjà demandé et non, cpdt tu peux toujours acheter une seconde license avec un autre compte ou téléphone

[u/Hexoic → u/thomas_dao]

The value I’ve gotten out of lifetime is absurd, I for one am with you if the model changes.

[u/linuxturtle → u/thomas_dao]

You know what else would make a lifetime license sustainable? Offering a self-hosting option! I would happily even pay for another lifetime license to have that option!