After updating the app to a new version, it doesn't provide locations until it's restarted

[wir3z]

I've seen back on 2.5.0, but never really put my finger on it. This is what I did:

• Built off master commit for 2.5.3
• Side loaded the APK
• App opened, I trigger a manual location trigger, all was good
• Went for a bike ride, and after 25 minutes, I checked the location update history. There was no location points for those first 25 minutes (we were constantly moving -- about 5km was travelled).
• Restarted the app, and then it started to report location updates. Didn't realize that the action of doing that would delete the past log history. :(

During the rest of the ride, it seemed decent, but I did get some periods that locations stopped reporting.

Here is an example where it stopped for 18 minutes. Looks like when it's happening, isDeviceIdleMode=true is set. Do you know what triggers that? Is that the phone sleeping the app?

• 2024-09-15 14:27:32.492 D [DefaultDispatcher-worker-3] MessageProcessor/sendAvailableMessages/311: Message sent successfully: [MessageLocation id=e675c8fa ts=2024-09-15T20:27:31Z,lat=12.34,long=-56.78,created_at=2024-09-15T20:27:31.719Z,trigger=DEFAULT]
• 2024-09-15 14:28:07.265 D [main] BackgroundService$PowerStateLogger/logPowerState/723: triggeringAction=android.os.action.DEVICE_IDLE_MODE_CHANGED isPowerSaveMode=false locationPowerSaveMode=0 isDeviceIdleMode=true isDeviceLightIdleMode=false isInteractive=false isIgnoringBatteryOptimizations=true
• 2024-09-15 14:46:48.655 D [backgroundHandlerThread] BackgroundService$LocationCallbackWithReportType/onLocationResult/699: Location result received: LocationResult(lastLocation=Location[fused 23.45,-67.89 hAcc=37.485 et=+1h32m59s649ms alt=1212.9002044370736 vAcc=19.217323 vel=4.636708 sAcc=0.6535555 bear=63.0 bAcc=180.0])

• App build number: 2.5.x
• Android version: 14
• Device: Google Pixel 7
• Installation source: APK

[wir3z]

Should add the above is 2-issues. The first seems to not configure the locator service properly after an app update.

The second (after looking at the code), is the phone not detecting movement. I'll monitor this one a bit more. It had been working flawless on the 2.5.0 to 2.5.2 tags and Android 14.0.0 (AP2A.240805.005, Aug 2024). Phone had updated a couple days ago to 14.0.0 (AP2A.240905.003, Sep 2024) so I'm unsure if the second issue is an OS update, or something else.

[wir3z]

Ok, rolled back to the previous version I had been using for the last month and same issue. This seems to have manifested from the Sept 5, 2024 security patch. If I select "high accuracy" instead of "balance power/accuracy" it works perfectly fine again. That one baffles my brain a bit unless the phone is ignoring wifi for location updates and is only grabbing from cellular movements.

For this subsciption:
val request =
LocationRequest(fastestInterval, smallestDisplacement, null, null, priority, interval, null)

I tried switching it to this to check if the null's were impacting default settings for those parameters:
val request =
LocationRequest(fastestInterval, smallestDisplacement, priority, interval, false)

But no change. Any idea what to look at around this (unless Google just borked the last patch they pushed)?

[growse]

isDeviceIdleMode=true is set. Do you know what triggers that? Is that the phone sleeping the app?

Yes.

unless Google just borked the last patch they pushed

This is entirely possible :) I also wouldn't be surprised if Google treated apps differently depending on their provenance (sideload vs play store - although I have no evidence of that.

Have you got the "don't optimize battery" setting set?

[wir3z]

Yes, set to "don't optimize", "pause app" is disabled, etc. This just happened after that last security patch from Google (noted from others using my server side integration as well.)

[wir3z]

I loaded the play store version in parallel of the side load. Need to run a bit more testing to see if there is a delta. Seems to show if you are walking/cycling (lower cadence) than driving where Google seems to switch to GPS regardless.

[wir3z]

Confirmed today that the latest Play Store version or a side loaded APK from tip of master react the same when using "BalancedPowerAccuracy". Others have confirmed the same results. It seems that Google has "done something" in their Sept release of Android 14 that is breaking this operation. Using "HighAccuracy" mode stops it from deep sleeping the OwnTracks app.

It shows up clearly when walking since Android never triggers a GPS update for locations (unlike driving).

[wir3z]

Opened a ticket with Google for them to investigate: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/370069681