I have some apps which fail to auto-refresh their data (over the internet) when I’m connected only to the mobile network (so no WiFi available). They update fine if I manually do a refresh, but while they are closed/minimised, they don’t refresh.
The main culprits are:
WhatsApp - when not connected to a WIFI, it only detects new messages when I open it.
and K-9 email (not the default /e/ mail client) - some of my email accounts do not refresh automatically when not on WIFI
Both apps have been allowed all network/internet/unrestricted data permissions, no other restrictive settings in the apps, and no difference in K-9 between email accounts which update and those which don’t.
I’ve had this across two different phones, on at least two different versions of /e/ (currently it’s A15 on a Google phone).
I always have data saver on (on all my phones).
Does anybody have any idea what the cause might be?
but “data saver” sure seems to avoid metered connections. There seems to be an allowlist (RESTRICT_BACKGROUND_STATUS_WHITELISTED) to exclude specific apps from data-saver.
You could add k9 and whatsapp? (and reduce the polling of k9 to hourly)
Whatsapp and K9 already have both “Background data” and “unrestricted data usage” settings enabled (was one of my initial troubleshooting steps), but it hasn’t made any difference to my issue.
It would be my guess that data saver will trump the settings at Settings > Apps > All apps > the_app > mobile data usage. Continual refresh will certainly waste data compared with manual refresh. As I understand those settings are about allowing data unrestricted and background while the app is not open.
But on my device Settings > Network and internet > Data saver does provide an unrestricted apps option where apps have a toggle.
That setting seems to be exactly the same as the setting in the individual app permissions section - all the apps that I have with the appropriate setting enabled in the app permission settings page, also show it as enabled, in the data saver settings page.
