Should "lost connection with phone" terminate a running app?

Alan.raceQs said:

The issue is that this event terminates my running app. I suspect it may be related to the Settings > Notification & Alerts > System Alerts > Phone Connection option. However, I have been unable to replicate this behaviour in the lab. I've tried running my app and then isolating my phone, but I can't pinpoint the root cause of the issue.

Do you mean that you can't replicate the "lost connection with phone" notification itself, or you can't replicate the behavior where the notification appears to terminate your app?

I can recreate the notification on my FR955 reliably.

1) Enable the setting you mentioned. On my watch it's: Settings > Notifications & Alerts > System Alerts > Phone > Connection Alerts

2) Enable bluetooth on my watch

3) Enable bluetooth on my phone and open the Connect app (so the watch is "fully" connected). At this point I will get a "Connected" notification on my watch (one of those toast notifications that slides down from the top of the screen, takes up about 1/3 of the screen, and goes away automatically after a few seconds.)

4) Disable bluetooth on my phone and wait. The "Disconnected" notification pops up after a few seconds.

I tried this while in a CIQ device app and a native activity - in neither case did the app or activity terminate.

If your app is terminating due this notification, I would consider that a bug.

Alan.raceQs said:

The actual issue I’m encountering—but can’t replicate—is distinct. Another app seems to open, forcing me into an attempt to locate my lost phone. It includes a map and navigation guidance to the phone.

I see, thanks for the clarification. I think that's related to the Find My Phone feature.

According to this video, if you lose connection with your phone for more than 3 minutes during a GPS activity and Find My Phone Alerts are enabled, you should be prompted to navigate to the last known location of your phone. I think that's what's happening here.

If you turn off Find My Phone Alerts, it should resolve your problem. But then ofc, you are still left with this behavior for users who have that feature turned on.

In your case (during a CIQ app with GPS), I'm not sure whether you're being prompted to navigate to your phone (as shown in the video), or whether the Find My Phone feature is kicking in without prompting.

If it's kicking in without prompting, I would still consider that a bug (and it would be worth reporting imo).

You can probably recreate this by opening your app, obtaining a GPS connection, connecting your watch to your phone, then turning off bluetooth on your phone and waiting for 3 minutes.

I'll try this in both a native activity and a CIQ app on my FR955.

Ha! that's on the  right track, but I still can't replicate the problem!

With the "Find My Phone Alert" enabled and my app running and then disabling BT on the phone I get the brief "Disconnected" message after 30 sec's but the "Find my phone " app doesn't kick in even after the three minutes reported in the video.

How do I find out if the Find My Phone notification enabled by default?

(And why isn't  any of this mentioned in the user guide?)

My watch auto upgraded earlier today,  (to 18.16?) , so maybe it was a bug that has now been fixed?

On my watch, the setting is at: Settings > Notifications & Alerts > System Alerts > Phone > Find My Phone Alerts. Sorry I don't make that clear. So it should be trivial to see whether it's currently enabled on your watch.

I couldn't recreate it either, but that's probably because I didn't take my phone 100 metres away from my start location, as explained here:

[https://support.garmin.com/en-CA/?faq=rQd3VdvlHj78fOJ9V4Uz19]

How It Works

While recording a GPS activity the watch will alert you if you have been disconnected from your phone for a period of time if the following requirements have been met.

• Your phone must have been connected through the Garmin Connect app at the beginning of the activity.

• The activity timer must have been running for at least 2 minutes.

• You must be at least 100 meters away from your start point. 

These requirements prevent an alert from coming up if you were to leave your phone at the start of your activity. 

NOTE: For iOS users, if the Garmin Connect app has been fully closed, the Find My Phone feature will not work, as it requires that the Garmin Connect app be open or running in the background. For details, see Some Garmin Connect App Features Are Not Working On My iOS Device.

Also, you didn't clarify whether you were prompted to find your phone (when this was happening in the field), or whether the find my phone app just opened by itself.

Alan.raceQs said:

How do I find out if the Find My Phone notification enabled by default?

According to the support article, it is enabled by default:

Find My Phone alerts are enabled by default, but you can customize whether you want to receive them through the watch settings.

https://support.garmin.com/en-CA/?faq=rQd3VdvlHj78fOJ9V4Uz19

Alan.raceQs said:

(And why isn't  any of this mentioned in the user guide?)

But it is

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-C001C335-A8EC-4A41-AB0E-BAC434259F92/EN-US/GUID-B3FF944D-4D65-4C95-84FE-6CD780F3D405.html

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-C001C335-A8EC-4A41-AB0E-BAC434259F92/EN-US/GUID-3FEA8636-13DF-4111-B4BF-ADEC57E594AA.html

Many thanks for all that. The FAQ article explains why I was unable to replicate - it needs the 100 metre distance as a trigger. I'll see if I can replicate with that additional info .

Sure np.

• The activity timer must have been running for at least 2 minutes.

• You must be at least 100 meters away from your start point. 

To be clear, my interpretation of the above two points is that they must true *at the time of the disconnection*, in order to fulfill "these requirements prevent an alert from coming up if you were to leave your phone at the start of your activity." (This is an addition to the other requirement that the phone must be connected through Connect at the start of the activity.)

In other words, you have to take your connected phone with you from the start of the activity, for at least 2 minutes and at least 100 metres. Only then can you disconnect your phone and get a find my phone alert. (I've never seen it before in my life, since I very rarely take my phone with me when I run, and even when I do, it's not connected via bluetooth.)

.

HMMMM. Still unable to replicate.

With both Find My Phone Alerts and Phone Connection Alerts enabled, and Bluetooth on, I started my app in my front garden. Leaving my phone there, I walked approximately 800 meters down the street over the course of 7 minutes (I was walking slowly).

I received no Find My Phone alert and only got a "Connected" alert  on my return when I was about 50 meters from the phone.

I’m still unable to replicate the issue, as I’m getting no response from Find My Phone.

P.S. In the field, I was always within 5 meters of my phone (on the yacht), separated only by a fibreglass partition with a large opening (the hatchway to the saloon). The issue only occurred after about 2 hours of continuous operation.

Alan.raceQs said:

With both Find My Phone Alerts and Phone Connection Alerts enabled, and Bluetooth on, I started my app in my front garden. Leaving my phone there, I walked approximately 800 meters down the street over the course of 7 minutes (I was walking slowly).

As I said above, although the support article isn't clearly worded, for the find my phone alert to activate, I think your phone has to be connected for at least 10 minutes and 100 metres from the start of the activity. My understanding is that only if you disconnect your phone after that point will you get a find my phone alert.

This interpretation makes sense in light of this statement: "these requirements prevent an alert from coming up if you were to leave your phone at the start of your activity." From what you described, you literally left your phone at the start of your activity, so it's unsurprising that you didn't get a Find My Phone Alert.

There was a very specific reason I mentioned all of that - I wanted to avoid the misinterpretation which happened anyway.

In other words, to trigger the find my phone alert:

1) Connect your watch to your phone via bluetooth and open the Connect application. Ensure the connection is active (you should get a "Connected" alert and the phone icon in the controls menu should say "Phone: Connected".

2) Start your activity or CIQ app. (Personally I would try with an activity first.)

3) Move for at least 10 minutes, and at least 100 metres away from your starting point, while your phone is still connected. You must take your phone with you during this period of time. (Personally, to be safe, I would wait 15 minutes and move 200m away.)

4) Turn off your phone's bluetooth. Disconnecting bluetooth at this point will make it look like you left your phone behind in the middle of the activity (not at the start).

5) Wait for 3 (?) minutes or however long it takes for the find my phone alert to come up

I don't think there's any need to physically leave your phone anywhere. It should be sufficient to just turn off bluetooth on your phone, as that will be indistinguishable to leaving your phone behind (from the POV of the watch.)

If you must leave your phone somewhere, you could always start your activity a few hundred metres away from your home, walk to your home and leave your phone there, then walk away from your phone. But I really don't think that's necessary.

Alan.raceQs said:

P.S. In the field, I was always within 5 meters of my phone (on the yacht), separated only by a fibreglass partition with a large opening (the hatchway to the saloon). The issue only occurred after about 2 hours of continuous operation.

Yeah so clearly your phone's bluetooth must have disconnected from the watch for one reason or another. The phone doesn't literally have to be left behind, the watch uses the lack of bluetooth connection as a sign that it was left behind.