Develop Reference

Broadcast receiver fires late than it should be

I am trying to fire a receiver at specific time of day which is 12 Am, but sometimes it fires at 1 or 2 AM.
I added a notifcation to my service to know when exactly the receiver start accourding to the alarm, and I find out, it start at 1, or 2 even 3 Am, not as I adjusted.
calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY,0);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE,0);
calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND,0);
Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(), PrefAlarm.class);
long firstMillis = System.currentTimeMillis();
alarm = (AlarmManager) getActivity().getSystemService(getActivity().ALARM_SERVICE);
pIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(getActivity(), PrefAlarm.REQUEST_CODE2,intent ,PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);
alarm.setInexactRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP,calendar.getTimeInMillis( ),AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY,pIntent);

If you use setInexactRepeating(), the time that it triggers is inexact. This means that Android can adjust the trigger time to save battery (usually by delaying the trigger until the device is awake). Read the documentation about AlarmManager and JobScheduler and about how to get thedesired behaviour for your application.

Android AlarmManager is not triggering alarm on next day when idle

I know there are dozens of similar threads on SO about this topic but I just couldn't find one that really solves the problem / or identifies the root cause.
First of all, I'm targetting SDK 22 (Android 5.1) which means I could use the AlarmManager + WakefulBroadcastReceiver + IntentService even if this is not the latest way of doing things.
I'm not interested in the JobScheduler etc solutions, I just want to understand what is happening and why.
The phone I'm testing on has Android 8.0, but it shouldn't matter as I'm targeting Android 5.1.
So the code I'm dealing with sets the alarm for the next day, 06:00.
private fun setupAlarm() {
val calendar = Calendar.getInstance()
calendar.timeInMillis = System.currentTimeMillis()
calendar.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, 1)
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 6)
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0)
val alarmIntent = Intent(this, AlarmReceiver::class.java)
val alarmPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 1221, alarmIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT)
val alarmManager = getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE) as AlarmManager
alarmManager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, calendar.timeInMillis, AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY, alarmPendingIntent)
}
The AlarmReciever only starts a service:
class AlarmReceiver : WakefulBroadcastReceiver() {
override fun onReceive(context: Context?, intent: Intent?) {
startWakefulService(context, Intent(context, DownloadingIntentService::class.java));
}
}
This Service then tries to download a file, when finished it calls the completeWakefulIntent(intent) method letting know the system that it's done with its job.
I could not figure out when it is working and when it is not. One morning it did what it should have, on the other, it didn't.
I set up a remote LogCat feature to see whether the IntentService is started but so far I can't see any logs from it, so it means that the alarm is not triggered.
If I set up an alarm for the next minute, even repeating one whatever it works like it should. But when I set back the time for tomorrow morning then it's very unreliable.
Thanks for your help.

I've faced this exact issue myself. See what happens is that setRepeating method let's the android system adjust the time when the alarm should get fired. It will most likely try to batch different alarms in order to optimise battery usage. But in regular cases, if the phone isn't dozing... It generally fires the alarm at correct times.
However if the phone has been idle for a time, the phone goes into doze mode and due to this the alarm gets delayed. I have personally observed delays of upto 1 1:30 hours.
If you want it to fire exactly, you'll have to use the setExactAndAllowWhileIdle method or setAlarmClock method. In this case, you will have to handle the scheduling of your next alarm on your own. The methods work well with doze mode and do fire the alarms at exact times.
There are cons to these methods too. The setExactAndAllowWhileIdle method can only be used to schedule alarms Max once per nine minutes or so. The setAlarmClock method will mostly show a notification like a regular alarm to the user and will indicate the details of the alarm ( this behaviour varies with different os versions )

I used this code to trigger a backup every day. It is working for me, Give it a try.
AlarmManager alarmMgr = (AlarmManager)context.getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent intent = new Intent(context, MyReceiver.class);
intent.setAction("CUSTOM_INTENT");
alarmIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 0, intent, 0);
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 06);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 00);
// setRepeating() lets you specify a precise custom interval--in this case,
// 1 day
alarmMgr.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC, calendar.getTimeInMillis()/1000,
AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY, alarmIntent);

Try this:
Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar alarm = Calendar.getInstance();
alarm.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, hourOfDay);
alarm.set(Calendar.MINUTE, minute);
long alarmMillis = alarm.getTimeInMillis();
if (alarm.before(now)) alarmMillis+= 86400000L; //It will add 1 day if your time selected before now
//set alarm method of yours\\
settingAlarmManager(requestCode, alarmMillis);
private void settingAlarmManager(String requestCode, Calendar calendar) {
AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(AddTaskActivity.this, AlarmReceiver.class);
PendingIntent broadcast = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(AddTaskActivity.this,
Integer.valueOf(requestCode), notificationIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
alarmManager.setInexactRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, calendar.getTimeInMillis(), AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY, broadcast);
}
My Receiver class:
public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
//do your stuff here\\
}
}
Manifest:
<receiver android:name=".utils.AlarmReceiver" />
I have tried above code for setting alarm and do my custom task. Maybe this will help you.

A few things:
The further in time an Alarm is scheduled, the less precise it will be.
Although you are targeting API Level 22, deprecated elements in higher Android version may not fully work, which is the case of the WakefulBroadcastReceiver
You are trying to run a background job in Android 8.0. It's worth exploring the Foreground Service:
It can be started from the background
Correctly notify users that you are indeed doing something while the phone should be idle.
Do not fear running tasks that might take a few seconds to complete.
You might have killed your application. When a user manually kills an app, in most devices all Alarm's and PendingIntent's are killed as well.
A scheduling strategy many developer use is not to set a repeating Alarm, yet have two single Alarms that reschedule each other continuously ( #Kushan mentioned something similar in his answer).
In short:
Have a Scheduler start as soon as possible during the day (even when a user opens your app, it can be fired multiple times). Check if the desired PendingIntents already exist (your background jobs). If they do not, just schedule them. As well, schedule another Alarm around 11.55.
All this midnight scheduler has to do, is to re-schedule the main AlarmManager in 5 minutes, which is then going to schedule the jobs and the midnight alarm for the next days.
This method allows you to:
schedule exact alarms, since repeating ones do not have the exact option.
reduce the time distance of your scheduled alarms, which will then generally be treated with more precision by the OS.
avoid alarms that trigger immediately because scheduled in the past
Also, try to get the most from the API version you are using:
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
this.alarmManager.setExactAndAllowWhileIdle(
AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP,
rtcStartingTime.getTimeInMillis(),
pendingIntent
);
} else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
this.alarmManager.setExact(
AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP,
rtcStartingTime.getTimeInMillis(),
pendingIntent
);
} else {
this.alarmManager.set(
AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP,
rtcStartingTime.getTimeInMillis(),
pendingIntent
);
}

Android daily repeating notification at specific time of a day using AlarmManager

I need to the Android app to send notification to remind users at 8am, 3pm and 8pm every day. So I use the following three lines in onCreate() of the MainActivity, when the application starts. However, when I run the app, all three notification are coming at once instead of at the wanted time.
setRepeatedNotification(1,8,0,0);
setRepeatedNotification(2,15,0,0);
setRepeatedNotification(3,20,0,0);
Why is that? I also attach the setRepeatedNotification function here. Thank you!
private void setRepeatedNotification(int ID, int hh, int mm, int ss) {
AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent alarmIntent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, AlarmReceiver.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(MainActivity.this, ID, alarmIntent, 0);
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
// calendar.set();
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, hh);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, mm);
calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, ss);
// Clear previous everyday pending intent if exists.
if (null != mEverydayPendingIntent) {
alarmManager.cancel(mEverydayPendingIntent);
}
mEverydayPendingIntent = pendingIntent;
alarmManager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC, calendar.getTimeInMillis(), AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY, mEverydayPendingIntent);
}

Here is the updated code:
private void setRepeatedNotification(int ID, int hh, int mm, int ss) {
AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent alarmIntent = new Intent(StartActivity.this, AlarmReceiver.class);
alarmIntent.putExtra("ID",ID);
Log.d("setRepeatedNotification", "ID:" + ID);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(StartActivity.this, ID, alarmIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, hh);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, mm);
calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, ss);
//check whether the time is earlier than current time. If so, set it to tomorrow. Otherwise, all alarms for earlier time will fire
if(calendar.before(now)){
calendar.add(Calendar.DATE, 1);
}
mEverydayPendingIntent = pendingIntent;
alarmManager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, calendar.getTimeInMillis(), AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY, mEverydayPendingIntent);
}

I see two potential problems with your setup with AlarmManager. The first arises when the device goes to sleep.
From AlarmManager's documentation:
If an alarm is delayed (by system sleep, for example, for non _WAKEUP alarm types), a skipped repeat will be delivered as soon as possible. After that, future alarms will be delivered according to the original schedule; they do not drift over time. For example, if you have set a recurring alarm for the top of every hour but the phone was asleep from 7:45 until 8:45, an alarm will be sent as soon as the phone awakens, then the next alarm will be sent at 9:00.
As you can see, if you've set an alarm and the device has gone to sleep, without using AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP there could be a long delay depending on how long the device has been in sleep for. If you've never touched your device and no other alarms caused a wakeup, it could cause all your alarms to stack up upon the next hour that the device is awake for.
Another potential issue I see is that you are retrieving a Calendar instance representing the time right now, but then setting the hour, minute and second by yourself. The current day and the current year have been automatically populated from the current time.
Again, from the documentation (emphasis mine):
If the stated trigger time is in the past, the alarm will be triggered immediately, with an alarm count depending on how far in the past the trigger time is relative to the repeat interval.
In this case, if your method was invoked past 8 pm on the given day, calendar.getTimeInMillis() will return a timestamp in the past for all three alarms, causing them to be triggered immediately since 8 am, 3 pm and 8 pm have already past in that day. In this case, you must first evaluate whether the current time is past the alarm interval you are trying to set and add 1 day more onto the time you are setting to make sure the alarm has been set in the future.

Stop a service at specific time

I am starting my service using below code repeatedly. My service starts at 8am everyday. And AlarmManager repeates at every 1 min. I want to stop this sevice at 6pm. how can I do this ?
AlarmManager manager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
PendingIntent loggerIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 0,new Intent(this,AlarmReceiver.class), 0);
Calendar timeOff9 = Calendar.getInstance();
timeOff9.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 08);
timeOff9.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 00);
timeOff9.set(Calendar.SECOND, 00);
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
long duration = userinterval * 60 * 1000;
manager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP,timeOff9.getTimeInMillis(), duration, loggerIntent);

In order to cancel at 6pm exactly, I would consider 2 options:
Each time the alarm triggers (i.e. every 1 minute), check the time, and cancel if time is after 6PM.
Set a once-off alarm in AlarmManager to go off at 6PM exactly. In that alarm, cancel.
I prefer option 2 for simplicity, and modularity of each code block. So for me, I would use (2) in my proof-of-concept code, while working on the solution.
But option 1 is better from a resources point of view, as the Android system only needs to remember a single alarm. I would use (1) in my final production code.
This way of working is just my personal preference, and most ppl probably will say to use (1) right away from the start.
The details about cancelling are below...
As for how to cancel an alarm, you don't often beat an answer by #commonsware....
Below answer copied from How to cancel this repeating alarm?
Call cancel() on AlarmManager with an equivalent PendingIntent to the one you used with setRepeating():
Intent intent = new Intent(this, AlarmReceive.class);
PendingIntent sender = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this,
0, intent, 0);
AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
alarmManager.cancel(sender);

AlarmManager triggers PendingIntent too soon

I've searched for 3 days now but didn't find a solution or similar problem/question anywhere else. Here is the deal:
Trigger in 1 hour -> works correct
Trigger in 2 hours -> Goes of in 1:23
Trigger in 1 day -> Goes of in ~11:00
So why is the AlarmManager so unpredictable and always too soon? Or what am I doing wrong? And is there another way so that it could work correctly?
This is the way I register my PendingIntent in the AlarmManager (stripped down):
AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager)parent.getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent myIntent = new Intent(parent, UpdateKlasRoostersService.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getService(parent, 0, myIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
//Set startdate of PendingIntent so it triggers in 10 minutes
Calendar start = Calendar.getInstance();
start.setTimeInMillis(SystemClock.elapsedRealtime());
start.add(Calendar.MINUTE, 10);
//Set interval of PendingIntent so it triggers every day
Integer interval = 1*24*60*60*1000;
//Cancel any similar instances of this PendingIntent if already scheduled
alarmManager.cancel(pendingIntent);
//Schedule PendingIntent
alarmManager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP, start.getTimeInMillis(), interval, pendingIntent);
//Old way I used to schedule a PendingIntent, didn't seem to work either
//alarmManager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, start.getTimeInMillis(), pendingIntent);
It would be awesome if anyone has a solution. Thanks for any help!
Update:
2 hours ago it worked to trigger it with an interval of 2 hours, but after that it triggered after 1:20 hours. It's getting really weird. I'll track the triggers down with a logfile and post it here tomorrow.
Update:
The PendingIntent is scheduled to run every 3 hours. From the log's second line it seems like an old scheduled PendingIntent is still running:
[2012-5-3 2:15:42 519] Updating Klasroosters
[2012-5-3 4:15:15 562] Updating Klasroosters
[2012-5-3 5:15:42 749] Updating Klasroosters
[2012-5-3 8:15:42 754] Updating Klasroosters
[2012-5-3 11:15:42 522] Updating Klasroosters
But, I'm sure I cancelled the scheduled PendingIntent's before I schedule a new one. And every PendingIntent isn't recreated in the same way, so it should be exactly the same. If not , this threads question isn't relevant anymore.

When using a calendar are you taking into account that the calendar uses the time right down to Milli seconds. Maybe you should set the Milli second field and the seconds field to zero so it's going of on the dot.
Also for a day it would be easier to use this
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTimeInMillis(0);
cal.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
Also when you use getInstance doesn't that set the calendars time to the time it was created so there shouldn't be any need to set the time again right?

Rewrite: I eventually saw your error, but unpredictably.
I did changed this:
PendingIntent.getService(parent, 0, myIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
to this:
PendingIntent.getService(parent, 0, myIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);
under the same assumption as you that somehow an old intent is broadcasting. I haven't seen the fluke since...
Also the only times I saw it were during my initial call. Another approach could be to track a current and a previous Calendar object, if the interval isn't what you expected then ignore this "early" broadcast. (While this method seems redundant considering how the alarm should work, it helps prevent those extraneous calls considering how the alarm is working...)
Hope that helps, I'll let you know if I find anything else.

I know this question is a bit old, but I had this same problem myself. I found out that if I tried to declare the Calendar variable outside of the method, it wouldn't play nicely and the alarms would fire early. Because your class is stripped down it is hard to tell exactly where you're calling the calendar instance.
If I set it up as such, then it would fire right on time:
protected void nextAlarm(Context context, int seconds){
Calendar nextAlarm = Calendar.getInstance();
Intent intent = new Intent(context, MyClass.class);
PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, MainActivity.REPEATING_ALARM, intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);
AlarmManager amanager = (AlarmManager)context.getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
nextAlarm.add(Calendar.SECOND, seconds);
amanager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, nextAlarm.getTimeInMillis(), pending);
}

Make sure your service's onStartCommand returns START_NOT_STICKY, otherwise it will be automatically re-attempted:
public class UpdateKlasRoostersService extends Service {
#Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
buildUpdate();
return START_NOT_STICKY;
}
}