I am working with Blackview 4900, Blackview 4900s and Blackview 4900 Pro smartphones in various projects. All phones work work very well, except 5 Blackview Pro phones from a batch of 6 Blackview Pro phones (so only 1 out 6 BV 4900 Pro phones works well). The problem that I experience with these 5 phones is that, when a patrol is running in SMART Mobile, the phones go to sleep after a few minutes, although the Battery manager is switched off and SM is allowed to work in the background. When a phone has gone to sleep, the home screen appears when the screen is switched on again. In order to return to the page that was open in SM, I first need to click on the SM icon on the home-screen, then click on the project name, and only then do I return to the page that was open in SM. Whereas on the phones that work well, all I have to do is open the screen and swipe up with a finger, in order to return to the page (e.g. the start page for recording observations) that was open in SM when I switched off the phone screen.
Can anybody suggest a solution?
Best wishes,
Michiel Hötte
SMART Coordinator, Temperate Asia Program
Wildlife Conservation Society
what version of SMART mobile are you using? Can you try running another tracking app such as GPS TRACKER or avenza map at the same time to see if the issue persist.
Thanks for providing advice. The SM version is 465. I am in Amsterdam and the phones in Kyrgyzstan, but I asked my local colleagues if they can try if the same problem occurs with GPS Tracker of Avenza map.
BlackView has been adding features to suppress background activity for some time. More recent devices have a “System Manager” app which you have to use to specifically allow SMART Mobile to run in the background.
The most recent version of SMART Mobile has a prompt for this, but it is a thing you have to do specifically.
Yes, when opening a patrol in SMART Mobile on a new smartphone for the first time, SM indeed asks for various permissions including if SM is allowed to use location in the background. However, this this very often does not do the job. I would really want to urge the SM developers to solve this problem. The problem is not only related to the model;. E,g. I have 6 BV6600 units that exit SM and stop recording track after appr. 10 minutes. And I have 1 BV6600 purchased from a different vendor that works perfectly. As a result of the problem, purchasing phones for SMART has become a kind of lottery; even if you have tested 1 unit and it works perfectly, this is no guarantee at all that other phone units of the same model will also work. I know several other people leading SMART projects that encountered the same problem. The problem causes money being wasted and jeapordises the success of SMART projects. So I hope the SM developers can give priority to solving it.
Please try the latest version. Both Google and Blackview have changed the rules for apps a number of times, but we are committed to getting it working.
Thanks for your advice, but I do not know what version you suggest using. I am presently using APK465 from the SMART website. If this is not the right version, could then please provide the one you recommend ? And I prefer to receive it as a file or download it from a link, and not getting it from Google Playstore via a Google account. Also, please advice to what extent the version you suggest has been tested and is safe to use in projects.
Thanks for your support, I tried SMART Mobile with APK 474 and of course gave all permissions SMART Mobile asked for, but the result is the same; SM is exited after about 10 minutes and stops recording track.
Thank you for your additional suggestions, but the problem persists. I tried several times a “factory reset” before installing SMART Mobile with APK 465 and 474. About the phone settings that I selected:
SMART Mobile is the only app that allowed to use “location”
SM’s access to location is set at “allow all the time”
In “battery” I switched off the “battery saver” as well as the “battery manager”
In “battery” → “Battery optimisation”, SM is listed as an app that is “not optimised”
“google location accuracy” and “wifi and bluetooth scanning” are switched off
In “system”-> “developer options”, I set “background process limit” to “allow at most 4 processes”. When I inspect the settings for SM in “apps and notifications”, and look at the “Permissions” of SM, I can see that SM is allowed access to use location, camera, files and media, and microphone. However there is no option “allow this app to run in the background” or something similar. When I installed SM with 474, a pop-up asked to “allow SM to run in the background”. I selected “yes”, but I cannot find this setting anywhere how this is effected in the phone/app settings nor via “settings” on the phone nor via the “system manager” app. Maybe this is the problem, that the phone simply does not offer a setting that allows an app to “always run in the background”?
I am out in the field right now, so I do not have access to the Blackview device I was testing. As I recall there is a specific app called “System Manager” which allows you to make SMART Mobile an exception to the auto-cleanup. I will send screen shots when I get back into town later this month.
It is possible that this device does not have a setting like that. In that case, we will need to work with Blackview to find a workaround as all apps will have this issue.
Yes, I think this device does not have a setting for “allow to run in the background”. I cannot find it via “settings” and also not via the “system manager” app.
You may also want to check out the following resource: Blackview | Don’t kill my app! (dontkillmyapp.com). This might point the way for your own device as it sounds a bit different. Perhaps on your device it is called “Duraspeed” instead of “System Manager”?
Blackview has not provided a way for us to do this automatically.
Thanks for the additional suggestions. Unfortunately, I am travelling in Central Asia to work on several projects and I did not bring malfunctioning phones with me. I will soon visit Kyrgyzstan where there is a site with malfunctioning BV phones and I will try out your suggestions.
