Related
I have started this thread so that we can begin development of a program or a solution which will make the alarm system on our Wizards totally reliable.
As we know, a number of us have a problem whereby our devices fail to wake up when an alarm is due to go off, causing us to sleep in, and be late for work. This is an unacceptable situation. It is my intent to develop a program which will replace or augment the alarm system in WM5 so that we never again have to worry that our PPCs won't wake us up in the morning.
So far, we know there are a number of problems which might be contributing to the failed alarms:
1. Duplicate alarm/calendar notifications being entered into the notification database (same alarm shows repeatedly in the database)
- This can be resolved with CheckNotifications (http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/ppc_cn_overview.html) which will remove duplicate entries. It does not prevent the duplicates from being entered in the first place.
2. Alarm settings not saved to registry. It seems there may be a problem whereby registry changes are not being copied from RAM to Flash immediately, so if you Standby the device shortly after setting/changing the alarm, the alarm is not saved.
- This can be resolved by leaving the PPC for a minute or so before putting it in Standby after changing an alarm.
3. The big one. An alarm notification not turning the device on from standby. Why this affects some people and not others, we don't know. Some users report than when an alarm is due to go off, the device doesn't wake up. When the device is turned on manually, the alarm then sounds. This seems to happen randomly (with some alarms working OK, and others not) but doesn't affect everyone.
As yet, there is no known solution to this problem. This thread is intended to develop that solution.
My idea so far is to develop an application to replace the standard alarm on WM5. Our main objective is to create an event which will, reliably, and without fail, wake the device from standby. Once we have developed this program, a new alarm system can be tacked on to it, or the source code can be made available for developers of current alarm systems to integrate into their programs.
My PPC programming knowledge is limited, so the intention is for this project to be a joint effort, and I would urge anyone who has any useful input to contribute it on this thread.
I have noticed a few people mention that a program called Pocket WakeUp is a reliable alarm system, and doesn't suffer from the known bugs in the WM5 one.
http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1299 (French version - see below for translated English version)
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have been an update of the program for quite a while, and also, the program is in French, so there aren't many people using it to see exactly how reliable it is.
I have done a quick-n-dirty translation of the program into English (I hope the author doesn't mind - no other changes were made), and attached it to this post. The interface isn't great, and it can be quite convoluted to use, but perhaps with an English version, more people can give it a try and see if it actually is reliable.
From what I can gather, Pocket WakeUp adds a notification when an alarm is due, which loads with WakeUpStart.exe program, which then loads the main program and sounds the alarm.
If this program is actually reliable, then I expect the author has found a way to make the device wake up from standby without fail, and the WakeUpStart.exe is the important part.
Please let me know if you use Pocket WakeUp and it works reliably, or randomly fails. Also, if the author of this program reads this board (or someone knows how to get in contact with him in English) I'd be interested to hear your views.
Good effort, I'll try the cab and report back over the next week.
Excellent endeavor! I have been using PPC devices for sevearl years and this has always been my biggest problem. Its hard to believe that MS has issued 3 new versions of their WM platform, all with this issue. This should be one on the first things you need to get right in these devices.
On the WM2002 and WM2003 platform I have good success with both PhoneAlam with AlarmToday for Pocketmax and also SuperAlert. But since moving on to the KJAM, the current versions of these programs just don't work.
I am not a developer, but will certainly help with testing etc. I'll try the FR prog now and will also post results.
Regards
Chris
The alarm not waking up on standby bug was fixed in the leaked 9100 test rom.. so whats the point in fixing a problem thats already been fixed
MilanoRex said:
The alarm not waking up on standby bug was fixed in the leaked 9100 test rom.. so whats the point in fixing a problem thats already been fixed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says who? I'm using the latest i-mate ROM and the problem still persists.
I've been using Pocket WakeUp to check - *zap* - and so far it seems to work fine. Problem is, that's what I thought of the standard alarms until they failed a couple of times on me. Unfortunately, it also seems that my battery is draining faster now - but I would have to confirm that absolutely with a full copy of pocketbatteryanalyzer. I'm using my old phone in the mean time to make sure I do wake up.
For me, just not switching the device to standby is still the best bet. This also negates any issues related to point 2. Point 1 remains, and is actually a cause for old alarms going off when they shouldn't - and the cleanup thing is something I still do.
One thing that I think I should point out, though, is that the problem isn't just with a wake-up alarm. Pocket WakeUp may very well be a perfectly fine solution to that (no way to be 100% certain, I guess). The problem is that on at least one occasion, the device failed to wake up for a meeting event. Thankfully I was keeping an eye on the clock and I was leaving only 5 minutes late - and with a little speeding got there in time just fine. Point is, a wake-up alarm won't fix -those- :\
ZeBoxx, as far as I can see, Pocket WakeUp does use the notification system. Set an alarm with it, and check the notification queue. Delete the item from the notification queue and the alarm never sounds.
If we can work out how Pocket WakeUp reliably brings the device out of standby, then there's the possibility of writing a program to tack a wake up event in front of every calendar entry.
gah.. WakeUpStart? totally missed that.. I'll stfu now
ZeBoxx said:
gah.. WakeUpStart? totally missed that.. I'll stfu now
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Click to collapse
Yep! Thing is, if WakeUpStart can wake up the device without fail, then it will be simple enough to tack a similar wake up event a few secs before each alarm or appointment. Just need more people to test Pocket WakeUp to see if it's reliable - and hopefully we can get a hold of the author so he can tell us how he did it!
I upgrade to the new KJAM rom and now my alarm works.
texasez said:
I upgrade to the new KJAM rom and now my alarm works.
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Click to collapse
Yep, the whole problem with this bug is that it affects people randomly. Some people have the bug, some don't. Some people just get it one day for no apparent reason. There is no one solution to everyone's problems. Upgrading worked for you - good for you - doesn't mean it will work for everyone, and there's always the possibility that you never had the bug, and then you upgrade to the latest ROM and you start getting the bug!
thanks alot elyl !!
the translation of this program is the best news in months! I have been using this prog for 3 months without any problems. It seems very reliable to me. I dont understand French thoug, so it has been a little bit hard to use.
Before I started using the program, I had alot of problems with the alarm...
I tried Pocket wake up yesterday with mixed results. My KJaM seemed to be waking up for each event, but I was expecting it to continue to repeat the alarm beyond the few repeats that you get with the built in reminder. That did not happen though... I have set Pocket alarm wake up call take is set go in a few minutes, so will see if that works (guess that I am already awake though, so it won't be a big deal if it doesn't go off )
cbrow51 said:
I tried Pocket wake up yesterday with mixed results. My KJaM seemed to be waking up for each event, but I was expecting it to continue to repeat the alarm beyond the few repeats that you get with the built in reminder. That did not happen though... I have set Pocket alarm wake up call take is set go in a few minutes, so will see if that works (guess that I am already awake though, so it won't be a big deal if it doesn't go off )
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Click to collapse
Did you try setting a snooze time for about 5 mins? It will repeat then if you don't cancel it. Also, if you are using a short audio file for the alarm, make sure you increase the Minimum time of alarm to be X number of seconds - then it will repeat your alarm sound for however many seconds.
Hi Elyl
Yes, stumbled into that in the end. My French is very poor, so I had to guess at the options. Still, that seemed to work. I did notice that if you change the settings and then let the device go into standby, the alarm did not repeat...:-( I had to reset a new time, then it worked. I will now set a reoccuring alarm and not touch the settings and see how that goes... Will post back at end of day today..
Regards
chris
to be thorough...
In an effort to be thorough, I'll add my experience so that maybe a developer can read a solution. I use my kjam as a daily alarm. It has almost always worked when I leave the device plugged in and though the backlight is off but the actual system never goes into standby (everyday except one in six months). I have also experimented with using the alarm from a battery power source, but again, making sure that the device never goes into standby (this is a real battery drain).
I have used SPB time, Ptravel Alarm, and the built in alarm. SPB time is completely unreliable and has never worked (not even when set immediately after a more reliable alarm). Ptravel alarm has worked over the past week when I have tried it in both power/active and non-powerd/active, but I haven't tried it when the system was in standby. The Ptravel Alarm developer (Burroak Software) is a very very active developer and seems to really care about making his products work. The only flaw I have is the interface (i.e. stop button) is somewhat small to press first thing in the morning.
The built-in alarm is the one I have used most and seems to work well from a power source. Again, it does not work from standby reliably.
I know this is re-hashing the obvious for all of you, but thought it might give some more background. There simply must be something that is develop-able, which wakes up the device from standby (a turned off state) in time for the system to register and activate an alarm program or a few seconds before.
Could there be a way to extrapolate the program which activates the device or part of it to remotely activesync on a time schedule?
I will use the WakeUp program and report back.
wakealarm
just to stress the point, i will also use wakealarm and report at the first failures. If 100 users would do the same, we can improve our evaluation time by 100X. If even to a single user it will not work, i cannot fully trust the program for professional reasons or travelling.
Today, I have the test rom, SPB pocketplus, and yes ONCE the standard wm5 alarm didn't work on this configuration (over about 20 alarms and 200 calendar reminders that worked successfully). i use once in a while checknotifications and sktools to keep the notify queue clean - should i do it or not? sometimes, i am afraid that the alarm i loose are those that these two programs remove by believing they are unnecessary duplications....
i noticed that - in the infamous occasion of a missed alarm in the morning - i forgot the wifi connection on while the system was recharging beside my bed, and in the morning i had a pop-up message it complaining about the absence of network (instead of waking me up...).
Did i understand it correctly that - at midnight - the wizard does some internal procedures and wakes up? do i guess that - after waking up - it had to deal with the wifi network search instead of some alarm critical procedure? if it would be so, i would be happy - for example - to do the alarm critical procedures every few hours, so to be sure not to miss any.
Few hours later, finally at work, i saw the wizard rebooting by itself (second time ever, the first one was with the 1.6 ROM!) and, at reboot, started sending a list of alarms that i could not easily dismiss (since the system was in an early phase of reboot, no today screen available yet). i had to softreset a couple of times, after dismissal of the pending alarms it started to work correctly again.
I am reporting this in order to increase empirical understanding of the reasons why the standard alarm fails.
cbrow51 said:
Hi Elyl
Yes, stumbled into that in the end. My French is very poor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I translated it! See the attachment.
Maybe its just me but I cannot see any link to a translation?
I can see the link to the cab file and I can see the link to the web site but no document?
Robin
The whole point of setting the alarm is that you can just leave it and know that it will go off at the assigned day and time. Unfortunately, it is just not reliable at the moment. I have already been late for work once, and have gone back to using my WinMo phone for the alarm, as at least that works every time.
It does seem to be an Android issue, I have seen it mentioned on other forums for other handsets, but I want to track down exactly what might be causing it on the Hero, and if there is a work around until HTC/Android releases fix it.
First off, the screen is switched off, but the phone is stil powered on, just like any other phone when you have the alarm set.
When I got the phone on Thursday, I set the alarm for Monday through to Friday, 10.30am.
Friday morning, the phone wakes and the alarm goes off at 10.30. Fine.
Monday morning, nothing happens. Go into the settings, check alarm set for the correct time and day, all is fine, it just didnt go off.
Tuesday morning, it works fine, phone wakes and alarm goes off at 10.30.
Wednesday morning, nothing. WinMo phone alarm wakes me at 10.34. I switch on the Hero's screen, and immediately the alarm goes off, 4 minutes late!
Last night I didnt charge it, thinking it may be an issue when being charged. But this morning it didnt work, so it is not an charging issue.
The Alarm icon was showing the top corner, so the alarm was obviously set, and the Clock App was still running (I checked in Advanced Task Killer). I will try to set it again tonight from scratch, and see if that works.
Having to set it every night would be a pain, but at least it would actually work like it is supposed to.
I've got the same issue and was about to get late for work this very morning just because of it. Luckily me I've got some sleeping disorders so I woke up before the clock should have went of either way...
HTC Needs to fix the clock in their TouchFLO..
Got somewhat the same problem...
Could a hard reset help?
A hard reset didn't do the trick for me. I really need the alarm clock to work so I think I'll buy an alarm clock app on the market, but I shouldn't have to ...
If you are using taskiller or advanced task manager, make sure you exclude the clock app from killed processes. I had this problem, when the clock came back after being killed the alarm wouldn't work even though the icon was there. Excluding it fixed it.
Cheers Ewans, i was killing the clock process and it was this that stopped my alarm this morning. Made me late! Still, i forwarded my boss this link so he could read himself. (Not that he was mad. He's a great boss!)
We should maybe think about making a list of processes, what they do and what you can/can't kill.
For instance, i don't use the Twitter widget as i find the notification bar and having Peep on my home screen just as quick and less resourceful hungry. But if you kill Peep sitting in the background, it will stop any notifications, so this needs to be left alone.
Even if I don't kill it (noticed that too), it still fails to go off sometimes.
Yes, it is not totally obvious what is going on yet.
The fix (based on one days trial!) seems to just before I sleep to go into the clock app, disable the alarm, then immediately enable it again.
This results in the "Your alarm will sound in 7 hours 10 minutes" type message.
That worked this morning, the question is if I leave it alone now, and dont kill the clock app, will it still work tomorrow? And if I restart the phone, will the Clock app and then the alarm still be running or do I have have to go into the Clock App manually?
If my clock is showing on the home page, and the alarm icon is in the top bar, I expect the alarm to go off.
It should not be possible to kill the alarm process, it shouldnt be part of the clock app at all, but a separate background process with settings controlled by the clock app, but not reliant on the clock app running.
This is what I've found out.
When you program your alarm for multiple days, it only sounds the first day.
If you uncheck and check your alarm, it will go of the next day.
This is without using TasKiller or something similar and without resetting. (just did nothing)
It looks like the multiple day option is a fake and you will have to set it every day. Allthough I haven't tried out multiple alarms, thinking about seven alarms, but you'll have to reset at least once a week.
Good luck waking up
Alarm works fine for me now, I use one for weekdays that goes off everyday, and another just on Sundays at a different time. I'm using a standard G2.
Check out the alarm volume settings.
The alarm has its own volume setting which can be change when you are inside the clock app and select the ringtone for an alarm (by pressing the standard volume up/down keys).
By accident mine was set to lowest value so it didn't go off but just vibrated.
Ok, after a week of testing, it seems that if you dont bugger around with killing the clock app via Task Killer or something else, it is fine.
I havent yet seen whether it will still be set if I completely switch off and switch on again. I will try that tonight. Even though alarm icon is shown, will the alarm be set without me going into the Clock app explicitly?
Works for for me, 2 alarms set for 6:15 & 6:30am mon - fri, never had an issue.
Right, my alarm seems to be playing up on the HD2. I have the alarm set in the week only Monday - Friday.
As I don't work weekends, I turn the alarm off, and DID double check this last night. But this morning @ 3,40am the Alarm went off?
How is this possible, when I physically turn the alarm off? Getting really on my nerves now if im honest.
happens to me too, seems to come and go.....
hard reset wont resolve it either....
edit;
hard reset probably did resolve it but it occured again after reinstalling all the stuff that I deem "essential"
so its probably caused by something in there....
I really cant think of any link between what I have installed and the alarm function......
That's why I use the old free version of gAlarm still. Windows alarm is unreliable. gAlarm wakes me up every time I want it to, and never when I don't.
Since the old version that I have is freeware, but the app has since become payware, I'm not sure if I can post the cab.
If I can get confirmation from a mod, I'd be happy to attach it for you
I've no answer to this other than to use SPB Time,G-alarm or Klaxon
All 3 work just fine...
I solved the problem with a £3.99 clock radio
I have NO issues at all with the alarm, BUT I set it up using the control panel not via the Manila home page, It's not failed me in months, the snooze (every 5 minutes) works, and if I leave it on it repeats every 45 seconds until I get fed up with it (normaly between 3 and 7 times)
All three alarms work, and I can set a different alarm for each of the 3
I also suffer this problem, the alarm is unreliable.
I heard you can fix it by turning off sense and setting it in windows because these values would become out of sync, but have not tried.
Klaxon resulted in crashes for me, resulting in the alarm (an mp3 file) not going off.
Just be warned in advance.
reijkelhof said:
I also suffer this problem, the alarm is unreliable.
I heard you can fix it by turning off sense and setting it in windows because these values would become out of sync, but have not tried.
Klaxon resulted in crashes for me, resulting in the alarm (an mp3 file) not going off.
Just be warned in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's another alarm bug thread here where it has been tested and confirmed that it's not a sense related issue. It's Windows.
It has been said that changing volume settings after setting your alarms has a big effect on whether the alarms will behave as expected, or go off at all.
Seems changing your volume after setting the alarms messes things up, and so does having pending appointments, as Windows will play your reminder right before the alarm goes off, messing things up too.
I'm gonna go ahead and post gAlarm v1.51 in a while,after my kids go to bed. If any mods/admin have a problem with it, I'll take it down. I think it should be ok, since that version is freeware
EDIT: Here ya go guys. Hope I'm not breaking any rules here.
You might need .netFW3.5 to install/run it.
So I have been using Timely for quite a while on my HTC One m7 and Nexus 5, but ever since I started using my Nexus 6P as my daily phone, I have noticed that the alarm is hit or miss. I tried the suggestions from here, but that does not seem to have made much of a difference. I have also tried going to the stock Clock app, it seems to be a bit better, but not by much.
What I have been noticing is that the alarm I have set for 5:30AM it will either go off or it will just not go off at all and I will get a notification that the alarm was missed at 5:30AM. If the alarm does go off, I usually hit snooze and just lay in bed until it goes off again checking email or something on my tablet (so the phone should still be locked). When I realize that I have been awake longer than 10 minutes, I look at my phone and there is a notification that the alarm for 5:30AM was missed... So it realized the alarm should have went off, but didn't.
I also have 2 later alarms (9:35AM and 10:20AM) and both of them are still in Timely and they work just fine, so maybe there is something with the deep sleep in Marshmallow?
I am running the stock image, updated to 6.0.1 via OTA, no root, no custom kernel, nothing that IMO should be affecting the operation of this type of stuff.
Just wondering if anybody else is having similar issues or if somebody can recommend an alarm app that is not suffering from this issue.
It seems that any alarm other than stock has issues. I see the post you referenced mentioned adding exceptions for those apps to prevent battery optimization. Did you try that with no luck? I don't know if there has been much luck other than just using the stock alarm if you really need to depend on it to wake up for work or other important events. I have never had stock alarm not go off, but I don't use any other apps.
fury683 said:
It seems that any alarm other than stock has issues. I see the post you referenced mentioned adding exceptions for those apps to prevent battery optimization. Did you try that with no luck? I don't know if there has been much luck other than just using the stock alarm if you really need to depend on it to wake up for work or other important events. I have never had stock alarm not go off, but I don't use any other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did try turning off optimizations for Timely, that did not seem to help much. The funny thing is that the stock alarm is also having similar issues, so either I am that heavy of a sleeper or maybe I just need to try flashing the factory image back to it, which, like I mentioned, I do not think I did anything to cause this type of issue, but it is an OS after all, so who knows what could anger it.
I did just tonight try setting the auto dismissal time to Never as well as maxing out the volume (it was down by about 10%), so maybe that will wake me up.
I'll see what happens tomorrow morning and will report my findings a little later. In the mean time, if anybody can think of something that I could try, it would be greatly appreciated, although a restore is not the end of the world, I would like it if I didn't have to spend the time restoring the apps and accounts and what not.
Does this apply to you?
gotzaDroid said:
Like Red said, you need to have an alarm set first. AND... Any automatic "do no disturb" settings like, "every day from xx : xx to xx : xx" will override the "do not disturb until next alarm". So if you have the phone automatically do not disturb until 8am every day, but you need to wake up at 6am and set the do not disturb to until next alarm before your usual rules kick in... at 6am, do not disturb will not automatically turn off with the alarm. It'll stay on until 8am. Just FYI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
I'm on 6.0.1 stock and I use Timely, have no issues at all...
For what it is worth, after I set it that the Stock Clock Alarm Never gets dismissed and made sure the alarm volume was set to 100%, it has been going off like... umm, clock work. I tried doing Timely last night and made sure I had another alarm setup just in case, I noticed the Stock Clock alarm went off on the other device, but my 6P with Timely, did not go off.
I'm just going to give up on Timely for now, maybe they will release an update and I will give that a shot, but for now, Stock it is.
The new doze mode will impact any alarms apps that are not updated for android M to use GCS etc. that's why your alarms are not firing.
For now you have to use the stock google alarm which correctly works with doze mode.
Has anyone else noticed that notifications seem to be super slow in coming after the Pie update? Line and Email can take up to two hours to exhibit a notification. I've looked at the notifications area of the apps, and nothing appears to have changed that I can see, and I can't find anywhere in Pie to tell it to allow more background time for these apps. I've tried force stopping and restarting with no change.
If anyone has any idea on what is going on, and how to fix it, your help would be most appreciated. Being told your wife left you a Line message 2 hours after she did so, or that your kid sent an email 2 hours earlier, is NOT conducive to a happy home life.
Nobody else has this issue? It appears to be connected to the fact that the phone is sitting undisturbed for a long period of time. If I am carrying the phone around with me, the notifications seem to come as expected, but if the phone is just sitting on my desk for a while, they seem to come from minutes to hours later.
You could try to whitelist those apps on Battery Optimization
I'm no expert, but from what you describe sounds like the phone is entering into Doze and notifications cannot come until the next maintenance window
If a user leaves a device unplugged and stationary for a period of time, with the screen off, the device enters Doze mode. In Doze mode, the system attempts to conserve battery by restricting apps' access to network and CPU-intensive services. It also prevents apps from accessing the network and defers their jobs, syncs, and standard alarms.
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Click to collapse
https://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/doze-standby
I think white listing the app prevents this behaviour
It does sound like you are correct and the phone is entering Doze mode, delaying the notifications. Thanks for that!
I will check into how to add the email and Line app to a whitelist for Doze. Hopefully it's a simple task, but I don't see anything under Battery doing a quick scan.
Just a follow up. After much searching and reading, I finally found where to turn off battery optimization for the two apps I needed notifications from. FYI:
Most things on the web say to go to Settings->Battery, then hit the three dot menu and select Battery Optimization. This does not appear on my phone. (see screenshot) To get to the list of optimized apps, you need to Search->Battery Optimization, select Battery Optimization from the results (it will take a few seconds to load), then tap Not Optimized and select All Apps. Find the app you want, tap it, then select Don't Optimize. You can also go to Apps and Notifications->Advanced->Special app access->battery optimization.
Whether this will actually fix the problem is another question entirely as most posts say that Doze continues to work. I guess we shall see.
I hope this saves someone the aggravation of trying to find something directly relating to Pie. Most things out there are for older builds.
Also, I turned off Adaptive Battery to see what the actual difference is in my light usage use case. If you are interested in the results of this test, let me know and I will post here.
Glad you were able to whitelist those apps.
I think it's weird anyway, as far as I know deep doze takes hours to trigger and the device has to be completely still. Any movement would take the device off deep sleep and enter a less aggressive doze (where notifications would be checked more often)
You did mention this is your case (you were leaving your device on your desk) but just for curiosity, how long approx would you leave your phone unattended?
Thanks and I hope this solves your issue.
Tepig said:
Glad you were able to whitelist those apps.
I think it's weird anyway, as far as I know deep doze takes hours to trigger and the device has to be completely still. Any movement would take the device off deep sleep and enter a less aggressive doze (where notifications would be checked more often)
You did mention this is your case (you were leaving your device on your desk) but just for curiosity, how long approx would you leave your phone unattended?
Thanks and I hope this solves your issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlike some folks, I am not tied to my phone. It often sits on the desk undisturbed for 3 or 4 hours during the day unless a notification comes in and I pick it up to look at it. Most of my screen time is on my computer, so the phone is the external brain when out and about, but not used much otherwise. At night, I turn on airplane mode until I get up the next day, then turn it off. I'm a retired software engineer, so have no real need for constant communication anymore, and I like it that way.