CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidgpsandroid-gps
nickfox
nickfox

Reputation: 2835

Android Gps Tracker not getting timely updates

I have an open source gps tracking application that has been around for many years. Recently, I have been getting complaints that in android nougat, instead of getting updates once a minute, people are getting updates from the phone once every five minutes when the phone is unplugged.

There is something going on with the power saver mode even though we tried turning it off.

Is there a way to force a phone to get gps updates at a specified time when unplugged?

Here is the code if anyone wants to see it but I don't think it's a problem with the code. It has been very stable for years.

https://github.com/nickfox/GpsTracker/blob/master/phoneClients/android/app/src/main/java/com/websmithing/gpstracker/LocationService.java

thanks.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 445

Answers (1)

Markus Kauppinen
Markus Kauppinen

Reputation: 3235

One change in Android 7/Nougat was that the Doze is now "more aggressive". In Android 6/Marshmallow the doze mode kicked in when the screen was off, the device was running on battery and it was stationary.

(This is documented in Optimizing for Doze and App Standby)

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Now in Android 7 the conditions are just screen off and running on battery.

(This is documented in Android 7.0 Behavior Changes)

enter image description here

Apps can be white-listed to be exempt of the restrictions if they break the core functionalility of it. In your case they do as the GPS tracker needs to record coordinates in real time.

There's a list of Acceptable Use Cases for Whitelisting

This includes:

Task automation app | App's core function is scheduling automated actions, such as for instant messaging, voice calling, new photo management, or location actions.

Users can white list an app manually on their own in the device settings or whitelisting can be requested by the app and approved or rejected by the user.

This is covered in Support for Other Use Cases

Quoting:

  • An app can fire the ACTION_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATION_SETTINGS intent to take the user directly to the Battery Optimization, where they can add the app.

  • An app holding the REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS permission can trigger a system dialog to let the user add the app to the whitelist directly, without going to settings. The app fires a ACTION_REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS Intent to trigger the dialog.

  • The user can manually remove apps from the whitelist as needed.

The last point is important of course, but luckily the whitelisting status can be checked programmatically:

An app can check whether it is currently on the exemption whitelist by calling isIgnoringBatteryOptimizations().

So, dealing with the Doze mode is one thing to study at least.

Another issue is keeping the Service running in general. But the Service getting killed by the system might result in more random time intervals. There are of course the classic things like using START_STICKY or running as a foreground service.

Upvotes: 1

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