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On yesterdays trip during the rain, my REI Quarter Dome T2 fly suddenly started leaking a bit, from many separate places along the seams. I can also see some white material (sealant?) peeling everywhere along the seams of the fly and tent bottom.

Never had this problem before and I wonder what could have caused it?.. so I could avoid this in the future.

1) Improper storage after the last trip? IIRC I dried it out as usual but I can't recall. Would packing it wet do this?
2) Stuffing the tent & fly into a tight stuff sack? I've never done this before but had to on this trip due to pack volume.
3) Something else I'm not considering?

The tent is 7yo, but I've only used it on few dozen nights. Also it's strange that the sealant would fail everywhere at once if it was age.

I've found that packing the fly damp will accelerate and long term exposure to the sun will break down the tape use to seal seams. I regularly shove my tent and fly into my pack to fill space and haven't had issues with the durability of seam tape except on old tents and tents that didn't get put away absolutely dry.

I had a similar problem with an MSR tent that was 3 years old. I took care to always dry it before storing and it was stored hanging in a dry area. I called MSR and they asked me to send it back so they could check it. They sent me a brand new replacement, no charge. Maybe a factory defect?