Effect of charging on Background and Bluetooth

Hi,

One of my watch faces comnects once each day around midnight to collect tide data. If it fails, it tries again every ten minutes or so until it can collect data so it typically recovers easily if the network is missing for some reason.
Unless…

A customer who only enables Internet at specific times during the day is seeing it not recover even though the Internet is available for a number of hours when it is on.
I’ve managed to replicate this only when I leave my watch charging. In fact, after leaving my watch charging much longer than normal, I see there were no calls made by my watchface for the entire period that the watch was charging (should’ve been at least one).
So…

Does charging affect Background or Bluetooth availability/connection on either watch or phone?
Is there anything else that might interfere with Background communications availability?

Thanks,

0 jim_m_58 5 months ago

Are you charging with a pc/mac or a wall adapter? With a pc/mac, the background doesn't run while connected, and from your phone, you'll see your garmin isn't connected.

Also, a background will only run if resources (memory, etc) are available. This can vary based on device, but if you are running a ciq-device app, the background won't run while the device app is running

Are you set to switch watch face during your sleep times? With a watch face, the background only runs for the active WF. If you have 2 watch faces installed with background services, only the backround service for the watch face you see runs.

0 9635560 5 months ago in reply to jim_m_58

Didn’t even know you could set it to switch face automatically!

Just plugged into the wall, and nothing else running. (Only app I’ve run recently was Spotify but that should’ve been off, certainly inactive.)

I might test in case it’s turning off Bluetooth from being plugged in - not sure whether at counts as a bug or expected behaviour.

0 jim_m_58 5 months ago in reply to 9635560

Plugging into a wall charger doesn't turn off BT to the phone. When you're charging with a wall charger, your watch face should be visible. and you can display something there like the last time the background ran, or maybe the status from last time the background ran.

As far as switching watch faces, that depends on the specific device and a setting on it. On a 965.you'll find it under settings, system, sleep mode, watch face.

0 FlowState 5 months ago

What do you see when you charge your phone?

1. Do you see a small battery percentage overlay with a charging icon, but you're able to otherwise use the watch? (i.e. You can press the buttons and the UI reacts normally, you can record activities, etc.)

2. Do you see a full-screen battery charging UI and you can't use the watch?

The first situation typically happens when you plug your watch into a wall charger or battery bank. The second situation typically happens when you connect your watch to a computer (and you'll be able to access files on the file system, via MTP for music devices or USB mass storage for non-music devices.)

It's also possible that the second situation may happen in some cases when you don't expect it to (like plugging into a wall charger or battery bank). I've never seen it myself, but people on the forums have implied this has happened to them. Or maybe they're trying to charge their Garmin with their Android phone?

Regardless, it's actually possible to control what happens when you plug the watch in: open Settings > System and change USB Mode to Garmin.

In this case, when you plug your watch into a computer (or the second situation would otherwise happen, for whatever reason), the watch will ask you if you want to enter MTP/USB Mode. If you answer yes, then the watch will go into the second mode where you can't use it. If you answer no, the watch will go into the first mode where you can use it.

0 9635560 5 months ago in reply to FlowState

What I am seeing and potential explanations don't seem to tally. ;)

The watch is visible beneath a charging sign, implying that it is still running in a way that it wouldn't be if I plugged it into my laptop.

However, it is also true that the _only_ times I see the data lookup fail is when the watch is charging (not sure if this is what is happening with my customer, but having gone down the road of investigating...).

There is implicit logging - I write success or failure result into settings along with a timestamp so I can see both the most recent call and the outcome. I plugged the watch into charge and (uncharacteristically) didn't remember it until today. The last call was on November 9, before I'd started charging, there was nothing from thereon in.

And, once unplugged, the watch quickly recovered. So nothing wrong with the background code (which has been running more or less unchanged for years).

0 FlowState 5 months ago in reply to 9635560

Thanks, just wanted to be absolutely clear about what you were seeing (not trying to explain away your observations).

Maybe you should post a bug report. Even if Garmin doesn't necessarily see it as a bug, maybe they will confirm whether it's intended behavior or not.

Although it's probably not relevant in your case, while the watch is plugged in, it can also sync with Spotify if it's able to connect to wi-fi. In this case it will also be unavailable for normal usage.

I don't think that's what's happening in this case, since the UI would change in a way that makes it obvious.