[SOLVED] 'Sleepy' background apps

Using /e/OS Troubleshooting
1

Hi, I have a simple problem: many of the apps that are supposed to run in the background don’t seem to do so.

Some examples:

  • WhatsApp doesn’t always check for messages until I open the app, and WhatsApp Web often can’t connect to my phone until I open the app;
  • Spotify loses connection with external speakers when it’s not in the foreground;
  • Email apps (FairEmail and Protonmail) don’t receive new messages until I open them and actively refresh.

This might be a very simple problem, but just for clarity:

  • Battery saver is turned off, and I keep my battery charged;
  • I don’t restrict any apps from using battery in the background;
  • Most of the apps have Battery optimisation turned on – I don’t think that should cause this problem though;
  • Battery profile is ‘Balanced’ (3/5) by default, I’ve tried turning it up to ‘Quick’ (4/5) which doesn’t make a difference
  • WiFi or mobile data doesn’t make a difference;
  • Background data is turned on for the apps in question.

So I’m out of ideas for now. Has anyone had the same problem, or perhaps an idea of how to solve this?

Thanks in advance!

2

Did you try turning battery optimization off though? It can be quite agressive. In my experience it never stopped background music players so it might really be something else, but background sync of non-system apps does not work reliably for me with enabled battery optimization.

3

No, that would definitely cause issues like that. It’s why at very least FairEmail explicitly asks to be excluded from battery optimisations.

I never use external speakers so I can’t confirm the Spotify issue but WhatsApp works fine in the background for me as long as it is started once after starting the phone so it can start that WhatsApp background notification.

4

That’s the issue as @ljahn has also written

Batterie optimisation MUST be off, otherwise the app will freeze when in background

1 Like
5

Well shit, thank you all for such fast replies! And of course, it seems that you’re completely right. I’ve disabled battery optimization for the affected apps and it looks like that solved the problem! I’m surprised that it’s so aggressive, but there you go.

I’m sorry for not investigating further before bothering the community here; and thanks a lot for helping me out anyways! It’s much appreciated :slightly_smiling_face:

6

That’s OK, because that’s the reason why we are here :wink:

I will change your topic to [SOLVED]