I am devoloping an app which uses background scanning also. See Using AltBeacon: start and stop scanning from app settings
I have observed a strange behavior. When I am stopping the Bluetooth from the device settings, the app keeps scanning and calling didEnterRegion and didExitRegion. The Bluetooth symbol in the notification bar is gone.
I can also see in logcat the D/BluetoothLeScanner: onScanResult() ... entrys.
How can this be?
We have received a few other reports of this behavior on some devices. The exact cause is unknown, but I suspect that some devices are not accurately reflecting the Bluetooth status in the Android settings UI. It is possible that even when the user disables Bluetooth, if certain apps are already using it, then it remains on despite what the settings UI says.
EDIT: Based on the feedback in comments, it sounds like some Samsung S3 models preserve app-specific access to Bluetooth if it was enabled before or during the time the app was active. Even if you turn Bluetooth off in the system UI, it remains on for all running apps using it, despite what the UI says. Other apps launched after Bluetooth was turned off behave as though it is indeed off.
One way to confirm this would be to put your device into this state, then newly launch the Locate app for Android. This app will present the user with a dialog telling them to turn on Bluetooth if it is off on app launch. This test would give an independent confirmation of whether Bluetooth is really off regardless of what the settings UI is reporting.
In addition to commenting on the results of the above test, it would be very useful to know the device's Modelnumber, Android version, and Build number, all of which are available under Settings -> About Phone.
Full disclosure: I am lead developer on the Android Beacon Library project.
Related
Right now I'm developing client application for Android that works with physical locks with our controllers. User can open lock via Bluetooth using this application (connection -> secure session creation -> sending some user key).
All works fine except one feature: opening lock when Android device screen is off.
I am using following approach:
Foreground service that periodically scans for nearby BLE devices and when scan is successful (nearby lock device found using BLE filters), application tries to connect and send lock key to lock device.
So, there are two problems:
Android kills foreground service in few minutes after screen off. After setting ignore battery optimization it works ok, however I can't find universal way to navigate user to those settings (because those settings are vendor specific, see https://dontkillmyapp.com/ and android open battery settings programically).
Background limits for BLE scanning are tricky.
I know one application that achieved same thing without foreground service: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.hoermann.ast.bluesecur, this application seems to work good in background without user interaction with battery usage optimization menu.
So, question is:
what is the best way to trigger background process (device screen is turned off) when nearby suitable BLE device available?
Your requirements perfectly describe the scenario of a companion app. Disadvantage: it is only available from Android 12 (API level 31) onwards.
I think you shoul add a wake lock with the service:
https://developer.android.com/training/scheduling/wakelock
https://developer.android.com/training/scheduling/wakelock#cpu
I 'm developping a continue scan android app, because I have to collect some important info from another device , I have to scan ble device,and never stop, otherwise, I may miss some important info. Is there any way for a android app to continue Bluetooth Low Energy scan,never stop ,scan for a year if the important device don't appear. During the year, my android phone always keep sufficient electricity，but sometimes I will press home button ， sometimes I will make Screen Off (not power off ,just make screen off).
Modern Android has implemented various battery saving measures which will prevent you from continuous data collection.
Doze mode is implemented by the Android framework. See: Scanning for Bluetooth LE devices when the phone is in doze mode, don't work. CallBack method doesn't called when doze mode
Additionally various device manufacturers have implemented their own battery savings systems which will kill your app even when you are following Android framework rules. See: https://dontkillmyapp.com/ for details.
I have a security system where moving a Bluetooth LE device causes my android application to do some work. After some of the newer Android updates, I believe API 26, I could no longer get these updates if the Android device's screen was off. I was trying to think of a way around this and came up with an idea:
What if I paired the Android device and the Bluetooth device - would this allow for the message to be received when the Android screen is off?
Previously, all my BLE devices were part of a mesh, so I would regularly have the Android app check for changes in the mesh and turn the screen on to notify the user if needed. Now, because of the background execution limits introduced, I must require the Android device to have the screen on at all times, which leads to the death of display over time.
I'm not that great at programming in C, which is the language the BLE chips are programmed in, so I wanted to ask this first before spending hours just to see this NOT work. So, just to repeat the question: Will having a BLE device paired with the Android device allow a message through these restrictions when the Android screen is off?
If not - is there a way I can make this work?
Thank you for any info!
Use notifications instead of advertisements. This will deliver data instantly and works even if the screen is off. Newer versions of Android have introduced more restrictions for BLE scanning when the screen is off.
Use connectGatt with autoConnect set to true to automatically connect and reconnect in case the connection drops.
Use a Foreground Service in your app process to prevent the app process from being killed. If your app process exits, all Bluetooth connections are dropped as well.
You could use CompanionDeviceManager to gain some extra permissions.
You don't really need to be paired but it has some benefits such as faster connection setup and correctly remembering the address type (flaw in the API that this is missing).
I'd like to use android's bluetooth for some kind of sensing devices. But I don't want to connect to these devices. As far as I know Devices won't react to scanning when their own bluetooth is disabled. But is there any way to get my app noticed when such a scan has been performed by a remote device, even when my app is running with bluetooth turned off?
I don't want to force toggling bluetooth on, but I need to get some kind of Action started in other devices running the same app. So I'm wondering if some there is any description/data field that can be sent with a bluetooth scan, so if scan is rejected the app has the opportunity to read that data just to know there was this specific call?
I need to leverage context-awareness within my system as to users, not knowing each other, still can interchange content (if they agree). But I need to find some ways of sensing while I also don't want to have all sensors activated all the time.
Hope you can give me a hint, or tell me that this is simply not possible, which would also help me not spending any more time on that.
Thanks.
I have an android app i am developing. It's a BTLE app, i have some BTLE tags i need to talk to.
I do all by the book, discover device, GATT connect (subsequent bonding), write/read characteristics... it works.
Now the weird is that it will stop working if i close and open the application two times.
Let's say i have already one tag correctly connected, bonded and working properly.
phone reboot.
Open app the first time -> everything works.
close app, open again -> everything works.
close app again, open -> unable to receive any readCharacteristic from the GATT callbacks.
In the logs, there is NOTHING DIFFERENT from each attempt. I log each call and print return statuses: no difference. Just the readChar callback is never called.
Android is 4.3, same issue on different phones (S3, S4, Note3)
(note: on app shutdown i properly disconnect all the GATT stuff)
Do you have any ideas on what to check? Or is this a known android bug? I have searched, but could not find anything....
The bluetooth stack on Android 4.3(at least) specially for BTLE definitely has quite some issues. I don't know if it's a specific vendor implementation, driver issues, or what else, but it's honestly a nightmare for developers.
This is what i found out does help to improve things:
- disable Wifi
- forcefully enable/disable bluetooth by code (BluetoothAdapter methods enable() and disable())
In fact, cyclying bluetooth on and off when things start getting "unstable" do fix it. This requires the BLUETOOTH_ADMIN capability and might clearly not be desired, since it will briefly shut down ALL you bluetooth conencted gadgets AND will popup some dialogs to the user where he/she can disable the ongoing restart.
Now i am getting more stable results.
Still, shame on Google (or whoever i don't know) for letting such poor software out in the wild.