Magic Earth - no navigation if display is turned off

Hi,

while navigation with display is working as expected, it stops on my device as soon as the display is turned off (voice only to save battery).

This was possible with an older eOS release (0.11 / Android 7.1.2) and fails after updating to eOS 1.7 (Android 10).

MagicEarth is whitelisted (power saving disabled, location access “always” is granted) and advanced privacy is disabled.

Is this working for anyone? Are additional eOS settings/permissions required?

Thanks in advance.

I wonder if magic earth support has this in their FAQ or what they say when you reach out. Valid use case.

If you’re in a car you could get a car charger if it hasnt got a usb port

Does it have “access location in the background” in Settings - Apps - Magic Earth - Permissions - (three dot menu at the top right) - All permissions?

Hm, i think these are the permissions listed in the apps manifest and therefore the same on every eOS/MagicEarth installation?

Background access is listed, as well as two foreground related permissions. In the granted location access i’ve selected “allow always”.

did you contact the ME support on if your use case “voice only navigation” is covered by the app?

yes, voice only is a regular function, there is even a setting for it (ME → settings → general → battery mode → ultra power saving (app info: “screen always turns off automatically”).

I have contacted the ME support and did send them a debug logging file as instructed, but they can’t see anything wrong/suspicious.

It could be specific to the device or eOS settings. I am using a Samsung S5 Neo with eOS 1.8-q. Could any eOS user with this device or eOS version test if navigation without display is working?

can confirm - tested with demo mode in 1.8-q and -s with settings on ultra-power-saving. When the screen goes dark, no voice will be heard anymore. In -q and -s ME was in battery unrestricted mode too.

Yes this doesn’t work anymore sadly - but I’m curious about the use-case… on a bike I can understand, but in a car, there is a power source?

demo mode doesn’t depend on the gps receiver, but you are correct, it also has issues, which seems to indicate a failure related to overeager android power saving (ignoring the whitelisted apps). Is eOS using a more aggressive power saving strategie than a stock rom?

There are several use cases for me:

  • bicycle or bike with bluetooth
  • navigation in rented cars where power source is not guaranteed
  • pedestrian navigation in unfamiliar city or even while hiking

looking at adb logcat while plugged the behaviour (of course?) is: sound output continues. So yes, it is for sure a battery saving technique. Need to do adb over wifi to see it though in action. During plugged times, this is how audio output is logged:

29993 29993 D AudioTrack: stop(111): called with 21888 frames delivered
 1610  4448 I MediaFocusControl: abandonAudioFocus() from uid/pid 10105/29993 clientId=android.media.AudioManager@87cfdefcom.generalmagic.android.sound.session.SoundSession@87120fc
  349 17506 D AudioPolicyManagerCustom: setForceUse() usage 0, config 0, mPhoneState 0

you may try another navigation app like OSMand. Just to see if it works and of course as a general alternative to ME (in the case you like OSMand).
As far as I remember, OSMand works with display off (/e/OS 0.23 on Android 11).

@ tcecyk

MagicEarth has a debug mode (settings → advanced settings → debug mode) which creates a logfile that can be shared (settings → support → get in touch → send feedback) to a file browser on the device.

While the demo mode “freezes” (simulated car stays on the same position), the logfile has continous entries. Strange.

I don’t have enough experience with android programming to identify unexpected calls or suspicious device usage.

had inconclusive behaviour. At some point I had continous audio navigation output while screen was off despite not being plugged

Do you use Text-to-speach? If yes, allowing unrestricted battery usage for your TTS engine (system app Pico TTS or other self installed engine) is worth a try.